The Renegade

So Strand texted me a couple days before asking if I wanted to "run up over the windcaves" with him if I didn't get a ride to the race. I thought that meant driving TO the windcaves and doing like a 6 mile run. Well when it seemed I wouldn't be able to make it to the CBC I told him I could go, and soon found out he meant the huge loop we had been talking about doing. So I was like sure whatever. It starts at First Dam, goes 6 miles up Logan Canyon, crosses the highway and onto the Windcaves trail, but then turns off of that and switchbacks up on a very thin but well established trail that goes above the windcaves and eventually to the other side of the mountain, probs 2500 foot elevation gain. Then you head down a trail called Preston Valley Trail (really nice trail, reminds me of JJ) for two miles until it joins with Green Canyon about two miles up that, then you run down it and take the shoreline trail back to First Dam. Sorry that was long. :)

We started at like 6:50 am. Paul ran with us for the first 4 miles, that was cool. We actually saw Jack fishing with his sister and talked to him a bit. He actual leaves on his mission to Malaysia in two weeks we'll probably do a sick run with him soon. Avg pace at that point was like 8:10, which is pretty slow for that trail actually. Then we hit the windcaves (it was just me and Strand now) and went up three miles in 11:31, 15:22, and 19:30 with respective elevation gains of 516, 721, and 955. The second two miles was mostly walking, and I was leading and could tell I was going to slow, but it was tough, plus it got pretty overgrown towards the top. Felt like forever but we finally got to the top and it was a pretty cool view. Then we headed down pretty slow but it was relaxing, pace was out the window anyways. A little bit after we hit the dirt road in Green, I started to feel lethargic, weak, and tired, which was not fun. Stopped to poop and I could have fallen asleep right on the toilet. The loop was supposed to be 14 but we could tell it would be more at this point, so we (or I) just grinded it out till the end and it felt really great to be done. That was probably the closest I've felt to running a marathon thus far. I only got 5-6 hours of sleep before so that probably didn't help. Average pace was 9:51, moving time 2:33, total time 2:51, with total elevation gain of 3,083ft, so more than a mile straight up, and the worlds tallest building is about 2,700 feet (fun fact) Great day to be out! We will probably do this again in a month when Paul feels better to do it and I get more rested, and we will try to do it faster, maybe we will do it clockwise instead. On the way home I got a uge slurpee and donut from 7/11 and it was the best thing ever. Then I got home, showered, and had a six hour nap. Found out that Ethan could give me a ride to the CBC but it was too late haha, but shoutout to everyone that did it, I heard it was great.