Go, you chicken fat, go away!

We left Mesa for my sister's house in Enoch, UT around 6pm Tuesday.  I am the lucky one that gets to drive the RV the entire way.  We arrived around 4am Wednesday.  I slept for about 5 hours, but didn't feel like running.  I had mapped out a course earlier that I wanted to do, and I decided Thanksgiving morning would be ideal.  I left at 8:49am.  It was cold for me, but I still wore just shorts and a T.  I had no trouble finding my way.  The map was in my brain.  However, I didn't realize that part of it was on a dirt road.  My feet haven't completely healed from all the bruising they took at the Ragnar trail relay.  So, when I step on a rock, it hurts.  And there were plenty to step on.  I saw some sheep and some cows so I stopped to take pictures.  I kept going down the dirt road until finally I came to the end and there was a gate with a lock on it.  So I had to climb over it.  Then I made my way out to the main road.  I assume it was a highway.  The speed limit was 55mph.  I had to run on the shoulder and there wasn't much room, but most people would move over to the middle lane when they were coming by me.  Then I saw a racoon.  It was dead.  You don't see a lot of those in AZ.  I made it to the frontage road of the I-15 freeway.  I knew I was about 3 miles from my sister's.  By this time my hands were completely frozen.  But I was no longer running in to a head wind, and that was nice.  I knew that my sister's road was right next to a couple of huge water tanks.  I could see them from 2 miles away, but they didn't seem to be getting any closer.  I was headed back uphill again, but I just kept plodding along.  The elevation is around 6600, and I'm used to running at about 1300.  But running slow seemed to work.  As I approached the crest of the hill, I started feeling good.  I knew once I turned on my sister's street it would be only about a half mile to her house, and it's all downhill.  But my legs were shot.  So I just kept running at the same effort I was for the entire run.  It's  now around 2pm.  My legs are still sore, but I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner with my family.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

After stumbling around all day Thursday with heavy legs, they seemed to have healed up yesterday.  But I wanted one more recovery day.  So I went out this morning.  I brought three running outfits with me, but I only ran twice.  And that's ok. 

On Thursday's run I saw this tunnel that went under the freeway.  I didn't want to run as much as I did Thursday, and I knew that the tunnel was about 3 miles away from my sister's.  So I thought I'd run under the freeway, and maybe a little more to explore.  Immediately my legs felt super heavy.  I thought, "This is going to be another slog fest."  But the important thing is that I'm getting miles in, so I slogged away. 

The first half mile is uphill.  I was running the opposite direction as Thursday's run.  After a half mile I reach the frontage road.  Then it's downhill for a mile.  I was running on the shoulder again.  For the first mile there were no cars coming my way.  But then a few started to come, so I decided to count them.  I lost count after 3 or 4.  It was all uphill to the tunnel, but not as much elevation gain as the loss in that first mile of the frontage road.  So I had that to look forward to on the way back.  But I did it Thursday and survived.

As I approached the tunnel, I could see a hill on the other side of the freeway.  I decided that it would be nice to run up to the top of it and maybe take some pictures.  I ran through the tunnel and got to the other side.  But I saw a sign that said - Private property - no hunting, no fishing, no trespassing, etc., etc., etc.  I could've crawled under the fence, but after thinking about if for a minute, I decided to just turn around and run back.  This time I ran on the other side of the road where there is a dirt track next to the road for quite some way.  I ran on it because it's safer, but I had to avoid the rocks. 

There is one part of the road that is real steep.  I charged up it and my breathing was really labored.  But the rest wasn't bad because of all the hill training I've been doing.  My pace was about 30 seconds faster than Thanksgiving's run.  So I'll be heading back to Mesa tomorrow.  So long, Utah.