A Beautiful [Bummer of a] Run

Today was the perfect day to run.  It was cool and beautiful.  I met up with Tricia and Tehra, whom I'd never run with before, but know through other friends.  We met at Bonneville Shoreline Trail at This is Place Heritage Park.  It was quite cool at first, but not too cold.  As the sun rose, it was just beautiful out!  I really enjoyed the company of these ladies.  Soon we soon spread out and each ran our own run, meeting up at intersections.  

Around mile nine, as we headed down into Memory Grove, my right knee started bugging me again.  This was not a happy thing.  It hurt the worst on the downhills, and we were heading straight down the mountain.  At the half way point, Tricia left us, continuing on through Memory Grove and on to her house and Tehra and I hoofed it back up onto the Shoreline Trail. 

I was a bit worried about my knee, but kept a comfortable pace.  I knew I was going to have to cut the run short.  I love the downhill on this run, and was forced to slow my pace considerably.  Other than my knee, I was feeling really great.  This was actually quite discouraging and I managed to get in a pretty good funk around mile 16.  I talked myself out of pouting and just did my best.  By the end of the run my knee was pretty darn sore.  

I've since iced it twice, taken my vitamins, fish oil, ibuprofen and am sitting with my leg up.  It already feels better than it did at the end of the run, but I know that the next 19 days need to consist of babying the hell out of it.  The taper is on!

Blurry Tricia and I hiking uphill.

Snow capped mountains.  

Heading down into Memory Grove.

I knew that Tricia, Tehra and I would get along when they told me they named this hill FTH (fuck that hill.)  Yes.  A very fitting name.

Tehra spotted this guy crawling across the trail.  He was the biggest spider I'e ever seen! 

I was feeling pretty crappy at this point, so I decided to take a couple pictures and regroup.

The final stretch to the trailhead.  

It wasn't the 24 miles I had planned, but I do not need an injury this close to race day!  I thoroughly enjoyed the company of these two ladies and hope we can get out on the trails together again soon!  Now on to rest!  Rest!  Rest!  Taper!  Taper!  Taper!

18.85 miles

4:31

14:22 pace

Toads, Tarantulas and Owls

Today was one of those, "are you out of your mind" moments I have occasionally.  It started when I had planned a 7-10am trail run with Katherine, but forgot that Jeff and Kurtis were leaving town for the day at around 7:30am.  So, Katherine, being as sound of mind about running as I am agreed to go from 4-7am instead.  I picked her up at 3:45am and we headed to Corner Canyon.  

It was sprinkling when we arrived, but just the rain didn't hang around.  Before I go any further, let me remind you that Katherine and I played Miss Olympia together on Wednesday and were both still sore.  We were slow.  Very slow.  The darkness didn't help.  I've run before sunset loads of times, but this was two solid hours in the pitch black of early morning.  I can only imagine how night time could take a toll on the runner who had already been on her feet all day.

Along our slow trudge uphill in the dark we spotted a toad, two tarantulas and the same baby owl, three times.  The owl kept landing on the trail ahead of us and then flying away as we approached.  SO cool! 

Plus, we found  an awesome shed deer antler, that I put in my pack to bring to my lovely runner friend, Lindsay.  

Despite the excitement of darkness and wild life, we kept dwelling on our horrific pace until finally we arrived at the top of Maple Hollow trail in a neighborhood!  We were shocked that we had made it to the top of the mountain and we didn't even know it!  We had climbed over 1,000' in about four miles.  In the dark.  With sore legs.  No wonder we were slow!

The run got better from there, but we were still both dragging the whole way.  We didn't make it quite 12 miles, but were happy with the distance we covered.  And as always, despite being sore and tired we had a little fun.

Heading to Katherine's at an hour that used to be bed time...

Toad in the road.

Tarantula #1.  He is in the dead center of the photo, just out of the circle of light.  This fella was kind enough to scurry out of the path for us.  Tarantula #2 just sat there in the middle of the trail, daring us to go past him.  There was a bit of squealing involved when we passed both of them.

Have fun.  Always.

  Giant bear sculpture at the top the Maple Hollow trail.

 And a parking lot!  There is a trailhead on the top of this mountain, along with some very large houses.

 Ahhh!  Finally!  Sunlight!

 The sunrise was spectacular.

 The deer antler.

11.3 miles
2:55
15:29 average pace