Well, this was a pretty strange day. Dominique put out an email earlier in the week to our friends (about 12 or so) asking if anyone wanted to go for a run this Sat. I responded that I did, and we ended up having about 6 people interested. I even made a batch of fuel for recovery at the end on Fri night, and put it in a gallon container. One thing led to another and everyone flaked out except Natalie. Now Natalie is a fast girl (she just qualified for Boston at St George), so she wanted to run with me 'cause she figured the run would be challenging. Unfortunately, there were just 2 of us that showed up at 7:30. I really expected to be running with Dominique, but her son got sick at the last minute. Drag.
As it turned out, the loco club had shown up at Draper Park at 7:00, and were already a few miles into their run. As we were about to take off, we noticed them run by and start on the Porter Rockwell trail (the same direction we were going). So Natalie said "should we just run with them?". I thought it would be a good idea, 'cause I didn't want to carry conversation for 2 hours. Unless I know the other person I'm running with really well, I prefer not to do a long, easy run with just one other person. Shorter tempo runs are ok, 'cause you're concentrating on the distance and speed more. Anyway, in a larger group, you can shift betwen conversations and running mates if things start to get stale.
So we took off at the back of the loco club pack, and I started talking to Christina and George as Natalie took off in front of me. I told them I was running trails, so I would be taking off on my own after a mile. At the mile mark, George told me that the registration to 2 trail events in Feb and March are open for registration. Those are the Moab Red Hot 50k+ (which has a 30k? option this year). The other is the Antelop Island 50mi/50k/25k race. I would like to do the shorter distance of each, if possible. Especially if I can find someone to go down with to Moab. Dominique sounded interested at one point, but I can't remember if she put it on her schedule. Bob has also expressed some mild interest. Kris Lander may be up for it, but he's still recovering from knee sugery and is up to 6 slow miles now. Moab Red Hot is an awesome ultra for a first one, and even has the shorter 20-21 mile option.
Anyway, the run itself was good. I caught the shoreline trail and took it around to the back of the new Draper temple (still under construction) and then came back. I finished at the same time as the loco club. Tracy told me that Natalie was looking for me 'cause I took off on the trails without her. Oops. I'll have to make an appearance at her wedding reception in 2 weeks and apologize. :)
I say I ran 8 miles easy, but I don't know if the hills and trails are ever really easy. It still tired me out. | 