The sun is up, the air is fresh, the stone is old

Monuments run in DC. Ran south along the Mt Vernon trail to the Masonic Temple, then headed back North through Lady Bird Johnson Park though Arlington Cemetery and across the bridge to the Lincoln Memorial. Ran across the Mall on the grass to the Washington Memorial and then looped over to the White House. Continued on East to the Capital and then south to the Jefferson Memorial back. Awesome day!

Ran part of the elk migration trail above Star Valley along Stuart Pass. Just an easy run enjoying the Fall colors.

Bucket list 18 mile trail run/clim/rapell up th Grand and Middle Tetons, Jackson Hole WY.  9,300 feet climbed, three rapells, one stupid galcier travers, over 7 hours as hard as I could go.  

Short report:  Left Lupine Meadows 6,300 feet elevation at 8am.  Carried a light climbing rack, rope, and no water.  Plenty on the mountains.  Ran past Surprise Lake up Garnet Canyon.  Got to the 11,300 foot Saddle/Base Camp between the Tetons in just over two hours after making the mistake of taking a shortcut across the upper glacier.  Just over 8 miles to this point.  Talked for a few minutes with a climbing guide with Exum Guide Services at the Base Hut with four clients who said that they were not summited Grand because of snow and ice.  I put on warmer gear and headed up the Grand through the South/West climb.  At Upper Saddle, 13,000 met a group of three climbers coming down who had called it off before the technical climb.  I roped in and started up.  Over 2,000 feet of drop on the North side, the most I have ever experienced.  I took the Owens/Spaulding route passing through the Belly Crawl, up the Chimney and through the Chute.  Very slow going with non stop ice.  It began to snow lightly and I was starting to shake from the cold.  I finally got stuck on the last climb, just 120 feet below the summit, on an ice field.  Couldn't find any handholds and after cussing and changing my mind numerous times, called it off.  I was the only climber on Grand today above 13,000 feet.  I climbed back down to the Upper Saddle and decided to rapell off down the South Face rather than the way I came up.  So much freakin fun!  It took three rapell sets to descend the South Face and I dropped right onto the Lower Saddle above Base Camp.  By now I had finally acclimatized to the elevation and felt great.  I took off to the sister mountain, Middle and free climbed via the North Route.  Much easier than Grand and minimal ice.  Sun was shining by now and I headed down through Garnet canyon.  I was drinking from the glacier water all the way down and by now I was really hurting.  None of the Fourteeners in Colorado that I have done had this kind of verticle or the climb.  7,000 feet of climb just up the Grand.  Mostly boulder hopping all day.  I failed the summit on the Grand, barely, so that's one to save for next year.  Summited the Middle though.

My entire body hurts after this.  Probably the most intense full body workout I've ever tried.

Kayaked 3rd dam with the kids for the evening and watched the first two Back to the Future movies with them. Last week we watched Blazing Saddles together. Now they are convinced that Dad utterly lacks any social grace.

Reverse hill repeats. 30 minutes easy run then 800 meter hill repeats reversed. Resting on the uphills, fast down. Trying to shake out my stiff legs.

Bloomington Lake trail. Fit this one in perfectly while the kids were in school. Very humid in Utah today. I'm betting TOU will be one of it's slower years. I'm on call again this weekend so if I don't get an assignment by midnight to night I'll consider running the marathon.

Kick in the pants today. Sasha stayed with us last night for the race and I didn't know if I would have the morning off to run. I ran the race with my phone snd just hoped it didn't ring. :-) I ran kind of a heavy week especially the Teton run, but couldn't set a whole week aside for a taper for a race I probably couldn't do. I had to be happy with whatever my legs had left. Turns out it wasn't much.

Lots of fun through mile 7 running with Sasha and Nate. I wasn't feeling the pace at all but seeing the first seven go by at average of 5:35 wasn't good. I dropped back and let the group go. Came through the half exactly 1:18 and it felt like a 2:38 could be in the cards. Then my legs just got worse and worse. Mark passed me looking great and probably three others in the next 10 miles. I just had to hold on. Thought quite a few times about dnfing but I'm not going to experience that again. I could hold on to 7:30 and that's what I did. Hiked the afternoon with the kids in Peter Sinks looking for a long lost cave. We found it which was the highlight of the day.

I'm becoming a great mediocre marathoner.