Bosho Marathon Report

For me the Bosho marathon represents the true end of winter. It’s also chance to catch up with friends and meet some new ones in a low-key setting. And finally, to me at least, it represents what trail running is all about, enjoying the trails with some of the friendliest people around, fellow trail runners. Thank you to those who cannot be named for everything you do to keep the Bosho alive.

Two years ago I had some pretty good race fitness heading into the Bosho and I came out of it with a PR of 4:12 and a distant 2nd place to Karl Meltzer (note that a number of strong runners went off course early that year). Ever since then I’ve really wanted to break the 4 hour mark at the Bosho and with even better fitness this time around I thought it might be possible.

After a few words of advice from our faithful RD’s we were sent on our way. The pace was really nice and easy to start, just rolling along the double track and talking with friends. Then we hit the first climb and Karl made a quick pass in front of me. I tucked in behind him as my breathing rate increased and we immediately had a gap to the rest of the field. Up and over the first significant climb I was feeling good and didn’t really feel stressed at all. Descending down into Georges Hollow I noticed how quickly Karl was moving and I had to push to keep up. About that same time my toe hooked a rock and I went flying into dirt. Mid-flight I was already angry with myself and by the time I touched down I was over it as I watched Karl run down the drainage (his headphones were on and he didn’t hear me fall). By the time we reached the road crossing I had caught back up and realized my sunglasses were missing from head. My heart rate monitor strap also came loose so I tore it off and dropped it at the start/finish area as we passed through in 37 minutes.

The next obstacle was Dry Creek and Dry Fork with the long climb up Unkle (or Black Mtn Ridge if you prefer) and the drainages were anything but dry this year. We made no effort to try and tiptoe around the stream crossings in the beginning as we knew that we would soon be trudging through an icy stream in Dry Fork. I certainly don’t mind running with wet feet, but frozen feet are a different story and I was happy when we hit dry land for the final ascent up to the ridge. Karl made a quick pit stop and I assumed the lead as I crested the ridge and started the long descent. Slowly the blood flow returned to my feet and I looked back down the climb to see a large pack of runners on the last pitch of the climb only a few minutes back. Karl easily caught back up before we hit the aid station at mile 9 and by the time we hit Morris Meadow at 9.5 we were at 1:29. My pre-race pacing plan had the meadow at 1:20, so I became a little concerned about breaking 4 hours at this point and picked up the pace as we crossed the meadow.

Back in 2009 I had done this northern loop in 1:40, but that’s when it was the beginning, not 10 miles in. This year the plan was to cover it in 1:50 since I figured fatigue would have an effect on pace by this point. I continued to press the pace all the way to the radio towers where I had opened a small gap to Karl. Up and over the crest I spotted Le Car with it’s fabulous new paint job and picked up a rock. My aim was perfect for once but the rock fell short by a few feet and I was actually happy about not hitting it this time around. By the time we hit the North Salt Lake bench Karl had easily closed the gap as we started the long descent up to Meridian Peak. I could tell the extra climbing I’ve been doing this year was paying off as I assumed the lead and felt strong. Karl would have none of it though and took the lead shortly before the long descent back into the canyon.

Toward the bottom we had a quick exchange and I let him know my intentions about breaking 4 hours. His reaction was awesome, because from that point on it seemed like Karl’s mission was to help me get my goal. The pace he set was steady and fast as we hit the climb back up to the meadow. At the top I glanced at my watch and was astonished to see we had covered the loop in 1:38. My confidence was restored as I had my bottle re-filled by Olaf at the aid station and started the climb up to 5 points with Karl right behind me.

By the time we hit 5 points I was ready to just roll a nice and steady pace along the BST back to the finish. I knew I had a bit of a buffer on the 4 hour goal at this point, with 35 mins left to cover the remainder of the course, but that wasn’t good enough as Karl encouraged me to run harder. I pressed harder than I had all day, hitting my absolute limit and feeling everything start to hurt. It was awesome. Back in Dry (wet) creek I could feel my hamstring on the verge of cramping but I wouldn’t give up as Karl was right behind me, pushing me to go faster. We started the last little climb to the upper BST and I was in survival mode as Karl assumed the lead. I gamely held on as the last descent started but I couldn’t go any faster as Karl opened up his stride and put about 10 seconds on me. I was slightly bummed at first, but as I looked up I noticed Karl had stopped short of the finish line and was looking back for me. He waited until I approached and we crossed the line together, stopping the clock just a few seconds before 3:56. Between the weather, the trail conditions and the company on the trail I couldn’t have asked for more.

Erik was next to cross the line a few minutes back, followed by a few other guys heading to Hardrock in July, including David Hayes and Ben Corrales. Jason Berry, Bryon Powell and Jeff Gerke were in the top 10 along with Peter and Greg but I don’t know the order off the top of my head. Roger snuck in ahead of Jill to even the score for this year, followed a short time later by Cheryl. That’s when I started to grow a little anxious as I knew Betsy wouldn’t be too much later, unless of course the wheels had completely come off. She was hoping to go under 7 hours but I thought 6:30 was more feasible. Next thing I knew I saw her flying down the hill and stopping the clock just under 6 hours. I’m so proud of her.

Thanks again to those that make this possible, it’s one of the true gems on the calendar.

BoSho Opening Day

In the Wasatch we get a few trails that are situated at a low enough elevation and right aspect to allow running nearly all year long. One of those trails is the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.

The BST, or BoSho contours along the Wasatch from Logan to Springville and while it's not continuous from beginning to end it has to be the most used trail in the Great Basin and Saturday was opening day. Two days of dry weather in the middle of the week followed by a 70 degree Saturday brought runners, hikers and bikers out in droves. I joined Greg, Peter and Jay for a stroll along one of our favorite routes on the BoSho (We plan on doing this again on April 23rd at 7am) except we decided to skip the opening southern loop around Red Butte. I finally brought the camera along to document our run, something I need to get better at this year. For those interested in stats we did about 22 miles and 5,000' vert.

Jay in "dry" fork before the sun came up

On our way up "Unkle" or Black Mountain Ridge as the sun is coming up

On top of Black Mountain Ridge looking east. Grandview Peak is just left of center, between Black Mountain and the City Creek Ridge

Peter is using his neon arm to show us where we'll be running in another ~10 miles

A bit of snow can still be found along the Black Mountain Ridge

Peter and Greg running up the trail from City Creek on the west side of the canyon

Greg, running over to the radio towers amidst the dormant scrub oak

Peter demonstrating perfect form for throwing rocks at our favorite target. Hit the target and 3 mins are deducted from your time, or if you're like me you'll end up with a sore arm and 3 mins behind...

Peter leading Greg up to the North Salt Lake bench

Up above the gravel pits in North Salt Lake (L-R) Peter, Jay and Greg look out at Antelope Island on the horizon

Topping out on Meridian Peak

At the top of City Creek just before the "Drop"

Peter pointing out our location ~10 miles ago

Just before we hit the bottom of City Creek Canyon

Wasatch 100 2010 - Course Preview Pt. 2 and a New Loop on Sunday

Last Saturday (8/7/2010) I ran with Greg and Peter from Big Mountain (mi. 39) to Lamb's Canyon (mi. 53).  We actually start this route down at the first switchback in East Canyon since it adds a couple of miles and little more vertical.  Plus it's a shorter car shuttle when we're done.  What I thought was even better was the run we did on Sunday (described a little lower).
I'm happy to report there's very little to be worried about on this section when it comes to the trail.  The ridge is still rocky and exposed, Ball Bearing Hill is still slippery and the remaining ridge to Alexander (mi. 47.5) is a little overgrown in sections as usual.

Heading along the pipeline into the "oven" felt especially hot and I can only hope that it's much cooler for everyone on race day.  Finally after topping out on Roger's Saddle, Peter turned up the pace all the way Lamb's and had us running a lot faster than I had planned, but it was all good.  I also took notice that crossing the last little stretch was much easier this time around since somebody cleaned up the downed trees, thanks Jay!


The real gem of the weekend was the run we did on Sunday (8/8/2010). None of us had ever run Silver Fork Canyon so we came up with a route that would take us from Brighton up to Twin Lake Pass, down Silver Fork, back up Days Fork, over to Twin Lakes Pass then back down to Brighton. Sounds easy enough right? Greg and Peter thought so as well so we made a plan to meet up with Matt Hart to put it all together. I’ve decided to go with a heavy picture post (more here) this time with captions.

Sunday's route

Peter was gracious enough to let me try his Hoka’s for the day and I’m not sure it warrants a separate post, but I can confidently say I’ve never run downhill faster when I really turned it on.

Me with Clown err, Hoka's on

I tore down the descent off Twin Lakes with Peter hot on my heels and when we reached the turn to Silver Fork we were both breathing so hard we couldn’t talk. I have two complaints about them though, 1) I nearly rolled my ankle a number of times when landing on my fore to mid foot and 2) the upper isn’t quite right yet, at least for my foot. The top two eyelets had to be pulled so closely together to secure my foot that by the time we were at the end of the run the top of my foot was slightly bruised from the plastic digging in. Enough Hoka talk and back to the run.

Matt at Twin Lake Pass

Peter and Greg on our way over to Silver Fork Canyon

Once we reached the Pass over to Silver Fork we decided to go check out the Prince of Wales Mine constructed in 1872. Definitely worth checking out and it’s only a ½ mile or so off the trail. This little diversion got us off trail a bit and we ended up just running straight down to find the main trail again in Silver Fork.

Prince of Wales Mine in the middle of the picture

Greg inspecting the boiler at Prince of Wales Mine

L-R, Peter, Matt, Greg at Prince of Wales Mine, I'm looking west taking the picture

The Silver Fork trail is very much like Days Fork, steep in parts and very runnable for the most part. We reached the bottom near some cabins and after asking directions to avoid the pavement we ran down a dirt road then a trail for a couple miles. It’s worth noting that there is a connector in Day’s Fork that looks like it comes from Silver Fork, however we were unable to locate it and ran the last stretch of pavement down to the Spruces Campground where we filled up with water.

Matt running in Silver Fork

Greg on the steep stuff in Silver Fork

The long climb up Days Fork got pretty hot, but we still kept a good pace all the way back up to the ridge and the divider between Silver and Days. Up on Emmas Ridge I re-discovered some of the steep climbs leading back toward Twin Lake Pass. I don’t know why, but I always seemed surprised when I literally run into them.

Bottom of Days Fork heating up

Matt near the top of Silver Fork

Looking down into Little Cottonwood from Emma's ridge

One of the steep climbs on our way back to Twin Lake Pass

The distance ended up at around 18 miles with 4,900’ vertical and we finished in about 4 hours even, including the extra time at the mine. Good times indeed.

Trail Derm

Coming to the end of the first loop of the BSTM, this morning Christian and I stopped to give some runners directions. Shortly after stopping Christian noticed his legs and started to laugh. We ran through beautiful swatches of grass over growing the trail. The drop into City Creek had grasses waist high that brushed us all the way down.

Christian's legs and arms had most impressive urticaria (hives). By the end of our run, his legs tingled, and by the time we got out of the car the itch was in full bloom. One of the fringe benefits of running with someone in healthcare is ready access to medications. Hopefully the 5 mg of levo-cetirizine (Xyzal) and the hosing off with cold water will help. I couldn't resist taking pictures below. So, if you have a sensitivity to grass, you might consider pretreating with a long acting antihistamine before your run or consider different routes the next few weeks.

Deseret Peak

Greg said it best when we were a few hundred feet from the summit, "Beat's working doesn't it?". "You know it I replied".

Located a mere 1 hour drive from SLC is a mountain oasis in the middle of the desert. Looking over the oasis is Deseret Peak standing at 11,031'. I'm sure many of you already know about the Deseret Peak Wilderness, for those of you that don't you're missing out, really. I was looking for some sustained altitude and this fit the bill perfectly, plus it can be done in a lollipop style loop.

The road is closed just below the Narrows so we had to park at the Medina Flats trailhead and run up the dirt road a couple of miles or so. Overall this added a little over 4 miles to the 13 mile roundtrip. Greg and I hit the dirt road a little before 7am and made our way to the normal trailhead and took the left hand Mill Fork trail. The trail reminded me of the section of Wasatch between Lamb's and Bear Ass pass, at least while we were below treeline. Greg pointed out the size of some the aspens, easily the largest I've ever seen. The trail is really pretty straight forward, steadily climbing out of the drainage to a saddle on the south side of the peak. The views kept getting better the higher we climbed and I found myself standin in awe more than once (hopefully this won't be to problematic at Hardrock).

Once we hit the saddle we had about another 1,000' feet to the summit, which didn't really seem possible when we were standing there but the peak was hidden behind the ridge right in front of us. I pushed the pace just a little bit to the summit just to see if I had any ill effects and I was happy that all systems were in order, no light headedness or headaches to speak of.

We finally topped out after 1hr 50mins and lingered on the summit for a good 10 minutes taking in the view to the west. Looking east all we could see was a cloud. The early morning heat created a good size cloud from the moisture in the forest below. Oh well, it was still pretty cool.

We left the peak heading north along the ridge, staying well above 10,000' feet for another 45 mins or so. After negotiating a little bit of snow and some slippery mud we found our descent and finally some incredible views to the east. Just after reaching the fork from earlier in the day we ran through a stream while some day hikers negotiated some skinny logs, looking a little perturbed at us. We held a steady pace all the way back to the car grinning from ear to ear, finishing in 3hrs 17mins with 4,630' of vert.

Uinta run

In an effort to get a little bit of altitude and a change of scenery I convinced Greg to join me on the Shingle Creek trail. The trailhead is located just 10 miles east of Kamas on the Mirror Lake Highway only 50 mins from my house. I picked this trail because the drainage has a southern aspect and fairly easy access to the trails above 10,000'. I had no idea what to expect since neither Greg or myself had ever been on this trail, we decided to call it an exploratory mission. All to often I get caught in a trap of running on the same trails because I know exactly what to expect and how long it will take to complete a run. Some of that is driven by time restrictions, but I believe that it's mostly a comfort zone thing. After completing this run I'm convinced that mixing it up is good for the mind.



We hit the trail at 7am with a goal of getting to Big Elk Lake, but first we agreed to turn around at 1hr and 50mins since that's when our supplies would run dry. I was feeling a bit tired from yesterday's run so we just kept a moderate pace heading up the drainage, crossing the river three times on small bridges. Eventually the bridges ran out and we had to cross the cold, knee deep river to continue on up the trail. We made it to our first landmark, East Shingle Creek Lake, but our time was running short. The snow was deep enough through here that we lost the trail but made our way up to the pass, picking the path of least resistance. I knew we didn't have time to make it down into Erickson Basin and over to Big Elk Lake so we started up the north ridge of Wall Peak to gain a little extra vertical. We finally stopped at a shoulder on the ridge with our time up, my watch reading 9,970'. I snapped a few photos, and we ate some food before starting back down.

We got back to the car in 3hrs 30mins, getting in 13 miles and 2,800' vertical. Not exactly setting any speed records but time on the (wet) feet is still a good time.

And It Begins...

After spending all winter and spring running in the foothills between City Creek and Millcreek we were finally able to put in the first miles of year on the Wasatch 100 course. Around 5:30am I met up with Greg and Peter to drop a car at the Lamb’s canyon exit before heading up to the top of Emigration (Little Mountain). The plan was to link up the Emigration ridgeline to the Killyon’s trail junction, drop down into Affleck park campground, then take the Pioneer trail to the Big Mountain parking lot. This extended route would add ~6 miles and a little extra vertical on to the Big Mountain – Lambs Canyon section of Wasatch and hopefully allow me to exorcise some demons…

We were more than happy to leave the headlamps behind as dawn was quickly approaching. A couple miles in we spotted a few elk running over the ridge in front of us, and then as we rounded a bend we saw the whole herd they were joining up with. We stopped in our tracks as we watched the herd of 20 or 30 run off over the next ridge. I really wanted to get the camera out but it was still a little too dark to get a decent picture. The trail was in great shape all the way over to the Killyon junction and even down in to the campground. We finally hit some snow on one of the switchbacks heading up the Pioneer trail.

Upon leaving the Big Mountain parking lot we encountered some serious snow. Lucky for us it frozen solid, unlucky for us we were slowed down a bit by “navigation issues”.

The snow line along the ridge appears to be around ~7300’. In some spots it looked as though it was at least 10’ deep. It was still a bit early for the mule ears to be out, but they’re only a few weeks away from blooming.

Even though the temperature was reasonable, the pipeline section still felt like an oven. We managed to get cooled off on the last stream crossing near the end since there were no logs for the crossing.

~20 miles, 4840’ ascent, 5000’ descent. As far as exorcising demons goes, I would have to say they have been banished, thanks for the indoctrination Leo.

Short n Steep 2.0

Saturday morning Peter, Sam, Brian H. and myself headed out for one of my favorite BST routes I call the short n steep. This route is about 13 miles and takes in about 3500' to 4000', a good quad buster for the early season when the higher trails are still packed with snow.

Heading up toward the shoreline from the zoo Peter suddenly stopped to point out the most amazing moonset I've ever seen. As the moon was descending toward the western horizon it appeared to be further north than usual, setting just next to the state capitol. But that wasn't the amazing part, the fact that it was huge and on fire was. I can't recall ever seeing a moon quite that large or that color, really quite cool.

Making our way up the south ridge of Mt. Wire we were greeted with a stiff cold wind blowing from the southeast before making our way down to George's Hollow. This proved to be the most painful part of the day for me as we post-holed through shin deep crusted snow. Down around the living room to the mouth of Red Butte where Brian and I said goodbye to Peter and Sam, as they had to get back early.

Up and down Van Cott was pretty uneventful and as we started up the mouth of Dry Creek I presented my new route extension idea to Brian. I wanted to head up our favorite climb, the Unkle or aka Black Mtn Ridge then head down the ridgeline following the route of the BSTM. We both felt great, the weather looked as though it was going to hold so we decided to do it. About halfway up the climb the wind started to pick up and I noticed a few snowflakes swirling around us. The scene was giving me flashbacks to our mid-December whiteout in the same place. Sure enough once we hit the ridgeline the wind intensified forcing me to hold on to my hat and lean sideways into the wind. It wasn't quite as bad as the last time we got caught up there but still pretty cold.

Back on the BST it felt like summer compared to where we had come from. The temperature was still in the 40's but the wind had pretty much died down. The new route extended the run by about 4 miles and added an additional 600' to 1000' of climbing. I was worked and it felt great. As Brian and I made our way back to the car we started scheming a way to make it a real epic. Instead of heading down Black Mtn Ridge, go up, following the steeplechase route. I haven't mapped it out yet, but I imagine it would be 20+ miles with 6000'+ vert. Maybe in another month or two...

In other news, I went up to the Wasatch Lottery. I'm happy to report all of us that put our name in, got in. Should make for a fun summer of racing and training.

Still waiting to hear how Greg did up at the Orcas Island 50k, hopefully he'll post a report when he gets some time.

Dirt!

I found some and it wasn't muddy or covered in ice and snow. This last weekend the family packed the car and headed down south for Zion. Leading up to the weekend I didn't have a lot of time to plan a run so I looked on Utah Mountain Biking for some ideas. The other factor I had to consider was that it was a family trip and I didn't want my run plan to dominate our time. That pretty much eliminated running in Zion National Park and Gooseberry Mesa, my 1st and 2nd choices, since we were staying in Hurricane. That left a couple of options that were close to town, the JEM, Hurricane Rim, and Gould trails.

Since I would be starting in the dark I decided to start at the Hurricane Rim trailhead and run up the road 4 miles to the JEM trailhead. From that point on I could complete a loop, with a short out and back on the far end on DIRT utilizing the JEM and Hurricane Rim trails for 21 miles of sweet singletrack. In hindsight I should have included the Gould trail but I had no idea how well the trails would be marked. Turns out the mountain bikers down there have done an impeccable job of building and marking an excellent set of trails.

At any rate, I ended up getting in 21 miles in a little over 3 hours. The road section pretty much sucked but it only lasted 35 minutes or so before I was on true singletrack.

The family made sure to give me the full workout by hiking Angel's Landing and the Upper Emerald Pool, which was completely frozen, good times.

Lookout Peak

Greg and I decided to check out part of the potential TUERL (The Ultimate Emigration Ridge Loop) that we're planning on doing sometime in the future. The Plan was to get up to Lookout Peak to get a peak of the quagmire we'll be up against for the whole loop. Starting from the top of Emigration Canyon we took the trail heading north along the ridge to the junction of Killyons and kept heading north. It was pretty cool to start at around 20 degs. but it quickly warmed as the sun came up.

The high point on that ridge is Lookout Peak

Only 2 days before a small storm rolled through that left about 4 to 6 inches of snow covering the lower ridge. Normally not a big deal, but my ankles seem to be a little out of practice and I rolled my right one pretty good on one of the descents.

Greg grabbing a snack just as the sun is coming up

Looking up the long ridge to Lookout Peak

Looking back down the ridge, the Wasatch front in the background

The picture above shows the view looking back from the Emigration drainage, Freeze creek is to the right. Once we were on this ridge we could see the Wasatch 100 route over by Swallow Rocks and Big Mtn pass, but not Lookout peak. As we would soon find out the peak was hidden behind no fewer than four false summits. My ankle found some relief in the deeper snow as we made our way to the top but our lungs did not as we both notice the altitude.
Once on top I checked my GPS for the elevation and it read 8990'(Lookout is officially 8954'), which I knew was wrong, but we used that as a reference for the knob just to the west. We thought it might be higher, so we descended and climbed up to find that it read 8950'. This also allowed us a peek down at the route we will be attempting in the future and the real prize of the day. Just below us on the ridge heading west Greg spotted a bull moose, then two more appeared. The big one watched us for a minute or so before getting back to business whipping up on the other two. This was the first time I had witnessed this kind of behavior and it was truly awesome. The sound of antlers crashing together and snorts could be heard as the big bull let the other try and take him down. Below is a picture just after one of the battles.

The battle is over, the 3rd moose is in the middle right in the trees

All in all a great run, ~13 miles or so in a little over 3 hours.

Fall Running, 3 Weeks - 3 new trails

I love running in the fall. There's no pressure of an upcoming race, nobody on the trails and the mountainsides have a naked beauty about them. This late in the year the leaves have left the aspens, maples, and even the scrub oak are left with bare branches. The evergreen's stand in stark contrast to the dead golden grass covering the mountainside. This morning may have been the last run that we get in up high, as I now sit here and watch the heavy clouds envelope the mountains sure to leave snow in their wake.

Three weeks ago Greg and I set off up Bowman, a trail I'm very familiar with, but hung a left two-thirds the way up on the Alexander basin trail. I had never been on this little gem of a trail and I was pleasantly surprised at what I saw. It is fairly steep and since it's north facing we had a couple of sliding incidents on the hard packed snow left behind from the week before. My favorite part was the natural tunnel provided by the half-dozen fallen trees over the gully (see pic). My least favorite part was the ice we encountered on the pavement in Millcreek canyon.


The week after that Peter and I decided to do a leisurely run up toward Lake Mary, turn off to Twin Lakes, take the trail up to Twin Lakes Pass then drop down into Albion Basin and come back by way of Catherine's Pass. The new part of the trail for Peter and I was the section from Twin Lakes down into Albion. What we found was a very rocky and technical drainage with a bit of ice and snow. Best part: watching the early morning sun light up the frosted peaks, Least favorite part: none.


Yesterday Greg, Peter and myself did a loop up Porter Fork and came down Bowman. Earlier in the week, while the weather perfect I was scheming a plan to take out Broads Fork Twin Peaks, but a wet weather system came in and by the time we reached the ridge line between Millcreek and Big Cottonwood I was happy i wasn't on the other mountain. Of all the times I have been up Millcreek I have never been on the Porter Fork trail, and while the road isn't that thrilling the trail that follows is well worth the road portion. The funniest part of the run is when Greg told me I had been on the upper portion since it is the only trail that connects the ridge line and I kept insisting I hadn't. Of course Greg was right, I just hadn't been on this trail heading east, I couldn't believe how much different it looked. Since it was rainy and wet I left the camera back at the car, so no pictures for this one.

Wasatch 100 Preview video

Here's a compilation of the video we took over the past weekend. Peter and I took turns with the camera, Gomez, Get Miles is the soundtrack. Greg, Brian, Sam, Peter, Mike and myself all played the action heroes.

Without further ado, the second MRC production...

Wasatch 100 Preview

I'll keep it short and let the pictures do the talking.

On Saturday (8/10) Greg, Peter and myself ran from the base of Big Mtn. to Lambs Canyon then down to Mountain Dell golf course. The I-80 bridge project forced us to park down at the golf course and bushwhack our way around the fairways (note to self, just run on the fairway next time).

This section of trail is normally dry and dusty, but all of the afternoon thunderstorms left the vegetation holding a lot of water. As a consequence my shoes were wet for the entire run and the trails were really nice, I wasn't complaining a bit...


On Sunday we decided to run the last section of Wasatch from Brighton to the Homestead. The bummer part of this run is that is requires a rather long car shuttle, but thanks to Peter, Brian and Sam's father-in-law, we had rides waiting for us when we were finished.

The run itself was great. We actually had a pretty good size group that included Peter, Brian, Greg, Sam, Mike, and myself. Mike came down from Ketchum to preview the last section the Wasatch 100 and he was a welcome addition to the crew.

The morning was a little chilly, producing goose bumps on my arms from time to time. I didn't mind because I knew the last 2.5 hours would be pretty exposed to the afternoon sun. Sure enough it started to warm up as soon as we got to Rock Springs and discovered that the pipes had no water flowing from them. We all went in to conservation mode, waiting for the next spring just before Pot Bottom. On the way we were able to show the Brian, Mike and Sam the delightful Dive and Plunge, which are just as pleasurable as ever. Luckily the spring before Pot Bottom was producing a trickle and we were able to fill our bottles for the final 8.5 miles.

After Pot Bottom the climb up was the same as ever, but I'm happy to report that the road down to the gate seemed to be in better shape than usual. Then again maybe I'm just getting used to it. For Wasatch virgins remember this mantra: pass the water tank, start down, quick left on singletrack. Seems as though a few runners missed this junction last year and it's real easy to just keep running downhill right past it if you don't see the markers.

Stay tuned for a video...

Wahsatch Steeplechase 2008

Another Summer Solstice has come and gone, and with it, the Wahsatch Steeplechase. The MRC had a good showing with everyone finishing under 3 hours.

3 Kevin 2:20:41
8 Erik 2:31:27
21 Rich 2:42:57
40 Peter 2:53:07
44 Sam 2:54:34

In the 4 years I've run the Steeplechase, I've devoloped a love/hate relationship with it. I'ts a beautiful course, well put together, a variety of all the terrain I love to run and as always, interesting and new people to meet on the trail. These are the things I love. Then..... there's the fact that it's 16.4 miles. Short enough to feel like I need to run the whole thing, and not just at a casual jog, but long enough with brutal terrain to make that long uphill absolute misery. Not to mention the sprint down City Creek trying to catch a glimpse of Shilling the longest 40 minutes of my life. That's what I hate. Go ahead, call me a whiner.

This year was no exception, the uphill was long, brutal and absolutely beautiful. Nothing prettier than watching the sun rise over the Wasatch whilst running through those yellow and purple wildflowers. (If anyone knows their names, please feel free to share your knowledge.) The Crags were as craggy as ever- I'm just glad that I wasn't the lady that forgot she was afraid of heights untli she was on top of the crags and had to be helped off after 3 hours of coaxing- and the descent from Smuggler's notch was as overgrown as ever, (my favorite part of the race) and I never did catch sight of Shilling as I slogged down City Creek. Although... I did pass Karl Meltzer (sorry to hear that Western States was cancelled, I hope the Appalachain Trail isn't burning in August) with 2 miles to go. Never mind that it was just a training run for him, I'll just leave that part out when I tell people since it's the only time that particular event will ever happen.

All in all, what a fabulous race and I'm glad I ran it. One of these years, we'll have to get the MRC together, skip the Steeplechase, and take a stab at the Wasatch Back Relay. Anyone interested?