Dog Lake

Last Saturday I went with a couple of friends, Scott and Jeff, on a run up to Dog Lake. The trailhead is at the end of the road up Millcreek Cyn. Beautiful, tree-covered run. The trail was so well used that it looked like we were running on a path in a city park. We started just after dawn and got to the lake just over an hour later. On the way up we saw this moose about twenty yards off the trail. She was still there on the way down, but this time we saw the calf with her. Cool!! You don't see this stuff in our neighborhood. Also on the way down we must have passed about 75 hikers and almost all of them had a dog or dogs with them. We started to feel left out. Noticing the many, many dogs, made us more careful of our foot placement:)

Deseret News Marathon

July 24th was the Deseret News Marathon in Salt Lake City, UT. Had to get up at 2:00 am to get ready and Abbe drove me downtown at 2:30 to catch the bus shortly after 3:15 am. Already it was a long day. I've got to learn to not catch the first bus....I was waiting at the start for 1.5 hours in the dark. Fortunately it was not cold out, but it was dark. Have you ever tried to use a porta potty in the dark? You really don't want to use braille to find your way around regardless of how clean you think the unit might be:) We started just before dawn and headed down the canyon. Beautiful course down into the Salt Lake Valley from Big Mountain. Over the pass to Emigration Canyon and finished the first half in 2:25 (expected split). I thought the run back up Foothill Blvd would never end. By mile 19 or 20 the sun was out in full force and I started to feel it. Fortunately just after I passed the university a gal had a hose pouring out heavenly cool water. I drank and doused my hat and revelled in the drips from my bill the next few miles. Another kind citizen had their garden hose draped over the hood of their car running cool water for whoever wanted it. What a nice gesture. Once I hit South Temple I hit an aid station that had many gallons of cool water lined up. I grabbed one from a volunteer and proceeded to pour it down my back. It was an amazing feeling of relief. I kept on pouring water down my back at each aid station and when they finally handed out the wet sponges I grabbed one and put it in my hat so it would cool my scalp. By now the temperature was at least 90. Running along part of the parade route was fun with all the people cheering us on. I struggled a bit during the last half mile and walked a couple hundred yards before jogging in to the finish line. My two youngest, Cullen and Ellis accompanied me across the finish line. Just after they draped my medal around my neck another volunteer handed me a cool bottle of water which I emptied over my head....ahhh, so refreshing. I did that once more a few seconds later. My family arrived a few minutes before I got to the finish and once I was ready we walked to the car and headed home. I had to throw up in a plastic bag on the drive home, but felt much better afterward. I got the shakes pretty badly when my body started to finally cool down, but I took a nap and felt fine within a few hours. I dropped seven pounds during this race and finished in 5:12. Not bad considering the heat. Overall I enjoyed the race very much. Well organized and supplied.

July 4th would normally be a 5k run, but I was helping with a ward breakfast, cooking bacon and pancakes with Scott. So, we did a run yesterday morning instead. We started at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon and ran back down to the mouth of the canyon. The portion we ran was exactly a half marathon. We ran together most of the way, but the last five miles, Scott got in a groove and moved on ahead and finished in 2:01 and I came in at 2:09, which is actually my second fastest 1/2 marathon time. The whole route was downhill which is nice training. It was beautiful weather and we saw a lot of cyclists on their way up the canyon....ugh, that looked tough!!

Utah Valley Marathon

06/13/09-Utah Valley Marathon. What a great race. Truly a hidden gem of a marathon. I thought we were going to get rained on, but only ended up with a few sprinkles. The race began at 6:00 am and so I had to hop on the bus at 4:30, but still had to wait around about 50 minutes. We ran down Provo Canyon and then through Orem a bit until we picked up the Provo River Trail that ran almost to Utah Lake and then back over to the finish line at the Provo Towne Center. I ran the first half in 2:28 and felt really good. I thought the downhill would beat me up, but I felt pretty good. I was able to keep the pace on the flat the last half and finished the last half in 2:29 for a finish time of 4:57. Even though my family wasn't waiting for me at the finish, there was a Creamie and some cold chocolate milk, which were fantastic. I must say that this race was very well organized and I would highly recommend it to anybody.

Scott and I just got back from a 1-1/2 hour run on the Jordan River Parkway. Beautiful weather, lots of people. My trusty sports watch died on me yesterday and so I went to Wal-Mart and got a new one. Turned out to be on clearance for $10.00. What a deal!! However, when I used it this morning I noticed that it doesn't go past 60 minutes on the stopwatch, which is great if you only run 10k or less. But at my age and memory skills I need to know how many hours I've been running. Soooooo, I'll just have to get a different watch today. Gotta have the right tools for the trade. Next week is the Utah Valley Marathon.

Adoption Exchange 5k

My buddy Wes Hutchins and I ran the 5k at Murray Park last Saturday. There were about 400 people running, but most of them under 4 feet tall. This truly was a fun run. No clocks, no numbers and not much of a starting to line. The mayor said "Go!" and off we went. Two laps around the park. The first lap I finished in 10:10 and thought I was really cruising. It was nice to be near the front for once. I finished in the top 20, I'm pretty sure, in 20:40. My thought at that point was that it couldn't have been a full 5k if I finished more than three minutes faster than my best 5k. Sho'nuf it wasn't certified 5k. That's ok, because the Adoption Exchange netted $6k from the event, which was the real reason for the run. Besides, we run races to expand our wardrobe anyway:)

I ran four times around my neighborhood today---16 miles. I stopped at home after each lap for a bathroom break and some food. When I reached the kitchen after my second lap, Abbe had her special chocolate energy waffles waiting for me. It started to get warm on the third lap, but I was drinking enough. In spite of all the liquid and waffles I still managed to drop two pounds. Hate to think how far down I would have gone had I not drunk as much.