Fianlly ran the Goat's monster. I have done the triple sister a bunch (Malan's to Indian over and back), but never the full quad sister. What a beast!
I started on Malan's and felt great, cruising easily to the top in 39 minutes passing a huge hiking group on the way up and seeing what looked like a family reunion on the peak. Cruised the BST over to Indian and passed the local trail club coming back from their Indian trail adventure. Indian felt easy going over. I passed the same family I have seen hiking up there every Saturday. The dad laughed as I ran by and we both said something about every Saturday.
Even climbing back out the canyon things felt really good and I was to maintian an almost effortless run through all of it. I rolled over the top of Indian and started down, knowing a triple sister was in the bank, but also knwoing there was alot left with a hard climb to hidden valley still to come.
It's been years since I have been past the first part of the hidden valley trail. I remebered it as really steep, but hoped I was embelishing it a bit in memory. Nope! This climb needs a name...a real name with curse words in it. I thought Malan's had some steep sections. I am certain I saw deity on a few of the steepest sections. I wanted to run the whole thing....I kept telling myself to get through a section, to the next corner, next tree, if it doesn't mellow out, walk. It never did mellow out, or if it did it was just enough to convince me I could keep running. It was a full blue collar slug-fest to run it, but I managaed a trot all the way up. Passing a nice German guy named Alex about a 1/4 mile from the top . We sat and talked. Turns out he is in town for a few months working as an engineer on a new super high temperature furnace at Westinghouse. He mentioned over and over again how much he loves Ogden. I told him to keep that quiet.
Getting to the top part of that trail is worth the climb. A sweet trail through a little valley full of pines and the view into Taylor canyon, across to Malan's Peak and Mt Ogden made it worth every ounce of effort. Coming back down may have been the most stuning part. The vertical relief was something I have only seen in an airplane. I was crazy looking almost straight down at St. Joeseph's highshool as the hillside pitches off vertically onto schoolroom wall.
Perfect day! Perfect weather. My body and energy held up great all the way through the run. I did the whole thing on less than 400 calories and never felt bonky. My metabolism is adjusting to the longer distances, which I think is a crucial part of training for ultra distance races.
Got home, out the door 10 minutes later to go see the Avengers with my 12 year old, we went to dinner after and walked out of the restaurant just in time to see the first lap of the USA Cycling national championship criterum going on downtown! Incrediable to watch and hear a pack of 150-200 riders go by inches apart at 30 plus miles an hour.
Amazing! a killer 19 mile run on perfect trails, movie, dinner, national championchip competition and I was never more than 4 miles from my front door! I love Ogden!
Run stats 19 miles or so, 7300 vert
Week: 55 miles, 14,000 vert | 