A Balance, Redefined

Today was one of those days that reminded me why I run. Now don't get me wrong my knee was still achy and I didn't go fast but I really enjoyed the time out. We had an Easter Egg Hunt early so I got up at my normal weekday time and had to go into lab to set something up. The good news was I then drove to Popperton and ran to and up City Creek from there. I actually saw a lot of people on the road to the canyon but once in it I only saw one runner coming out and one hiker all the way up. The creek was extra loud with all the snow runoff. I made it all the way up to the snow. It was great seeing the mountains covered and making my way up over 6500ft. Exactly at the 6 mile mark the plowing stopped and I "ran" the last 1/2 mile to my turnaround point in ankle to knee high snow. It was slow going but I made it far enough up the trail that the only other prints in the snow were some hooved animal. That mile up/down was >12 min. The rest of the run I tried to take it easy. My goal was to not let myself go faster than 7min pace on the way down. It was tougher than I thought especially because the way down I started seeing tons of people. However, I kept it there and my fastest mile (the one with the most people) was 7:15. Overall, my knee doens't hurt worse than before I started so I'm counting it as a success. I even got my data from my experiment (it worked!) and made it home in time to get my daughter ready for the hunt. She managed to snag 6 eggs and pet a real bunny. Avg. 8:16 HR 145