Went at ran the 10K in Orem put on by Run 13. I PRed in it last year, so I wanted to try again. It is a very fair course, not downhill, some uphills. I was shooting to break 42 but didn't quite make it, but I was still pleased because during the last mile it felt like I had plenty of energy and speed in the tank. Gene Moreland won the age group as usual. I've never beat him, but I'm getting closer. Also Lorzeno, who turns 50 next month always beats me but this time I came within 100 yards. I'm getting very close.
My splits were: 6:31, 7:15 (hill), 6:48, 6:54, 6:55, 7:09 (hill), 6:56 (last .2) Pretty consistent. I finished 33 seconds off my PR. 16th out of about 180 runners.
The problem with Run 13 races, is they take over 1 hour to hand out the awards, so slow. When I saw in the results that I placed, I groaned because I would have to stay around to get my medal.
I next went to run on the altered Squaw Peak 50 course on the BoSho Trail from Rock Creek to Spring Canyon and back. Believe it or not, I've never run that section of the trail. Well, except for a small section that I used to hike and play on as a boy, above my grandparents house in the mid-60s. No BoSho trail then, just some motorcycle trails, and a trail that led up to the Y. Back then there was a big stone cross near there that was called Easter Cross. Its long gone now. No nice Y trailhead then and the houses were much further down the foothills. Lots of memories as I ran by there. I remember looking down watching them build Deseret Towers. So it was about 45 years since I've been up there.
As I ran between Provo and Springville, I remembered that in 1980 after my mission, at BYU I started running for a few months. If you ran 150 miles during the first half of 1980, you got a T-shirt in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Church. My longest run was a run down 9th East and along State Street to Springville and back, about 10 miles. I was so proud of that long run and I thought it was very, very far, that few people could do it. Well, it took me 23 years to beat that distance. So lots of memories on this run as I looked down at BYU.
I saw RD John Bozung out on the trail checking things out. I'm glad I ran it. I took two wrong turns. I'll give my feedback to John. They are taking a faint upper single track section between Provo and Springville. I blew by the turn on the way out. On the way back I took a wrong trail near the Y trailhead. | 