Old Man Still running

Marathon training for my one marathon of the year.  Yuk.  How boring can it be trying to make the legs go faster on pavement?  Hit the treadmill.  9 x 7:30 x 6%

I'm still a marathon rookie.  Here is my glorious marathon history

3:44:00 2006 Deseret News

3:34:06 2008 Utah Valley

3:24:49 2009 Ogden

3:33:11 2009 Utah Valley

4:04:53 2009 Park City

3:24:15 2010 Boston

3:23:43 2010 Ogden

Treadmill again.   9 x 7:30 x 9%.   Felt easier today.  The idea here is to feel comfortable at 7:30 pace with a good incline.  The theory is that then I would feel comfortable with a 7:00 pace downhill at Ogden.

Saturday planning on running an out and back of the Good Water Rim trail above the San Rafael River with views of the Little Grand Canyon.  If anyone wants to join in, let me know.  Probably go down very early Saturday morning and start running at dawn.  Back home in the late afternoon.

http://www.utahmountainbiking.com/trails/index.htm

Went for a wonderful evening run in perfect running weather.  Wow!   I ran in the foothills of Lake Mountain.

The highlight was over on the North side near the Church Farm.  As I was running on a trail I had never been on before (an old wagon road), a huge hawk flew overhead carrying a very large snake.  Wow, I wished that I had my camera. I stopped to watch it and very soon, it dropped it.  It fell about 100 feet or so.  The hawk went on and landed about 100 yards away.   I went on, but when I came back I wondered if I would see it again.  I did!   It was up above a small ridge nearby just hang gliding in the breeze.  It wouldn't flap its wings at all, just glide stationary in the breeze with its broad wings extended all the way.   I stopped to watch it for about ten minutes as it would move back over to the area where it dropped the snake.  Perhaps it was hunting, but then it would go back and hang-glide again over the ridge.  It was a very inspiring sight to see.   Some guys on horses came by and I showed them what I was watching. 

Went out to the Ranches in Eagle Mountain and ran on the bike trails (used by both motor and mountain).  There are a bunch of them there the weave through the junipers and roll up and down.  Great run.  In the track below they are in the upper left.  I probalby only did about half of them in that area.  

Next I climbed up to the top of the ridge again on a motor cycle trail.  I've run that ridge many times in the dark, but in the afternoon the views are breath-taking looking across the lake to the snow covered mountains. 

While I was on top, I spied seven hawks near me, all hang-gliding in a bowl area below.  The currents took them really high up in the air and they eventually descended and landed on a ridge where I started my run.   I continued on and ran down a bike trail.  Lots of jumps and bridges constructed for the dirt bikes, fun to run on and very technical running.   Finally I ran on the west border of the Church Farm and took a picture looking toward my home, the lake, and Mount Timp.  Great afternoon run.

Went to the northwest corner for the San Rafael Swell, to the Little Grand Canyon.  Arrived in the late afternoon.  Set up camp down at the river and then ran up Buckhorn Wash Canyon to the Indian petroglyphs.  Returned and then decided to try to find a trail going up the San Rafael River (I hadn't researched it.)   Found on that is used pretty much exclusively by horses.  But it was a spectacular trail going through the length of the Little Grand Canyon.  Went past Kane Wash where all the horse tracks turned.  For there the trail was even better.  I had to turn back because dusk was coming and I was out of water.  Ran the last mile by moonlight.   Cooked up a nice feast and turned in for the night at my camp.

Pictures and details coming.

Detailed report here

Up at 4:00 a.m. at my campsite at San Rafael Bridge campground.  Broke camp, cooked breakfast and drove to the east end of the Goodwater Trail.   Started my run at dawn.  The Goodwater Trail is a single-track mountain bike trail that is amazing!  It is almost totally flat and follows the rim around the Goodwater drainage.  It winds like crazy and was a blast the scenery is spectacular.  I had dropped off stuff at a couple locations.  What is crazy is that you can look ahead where you will be, two miles away, but it actually takes you seven miles to get there because of all the crazy turns. 

As I was running, I decided that this would be a super place for a 50K.  What would really be fun about racing this section is that you can look across a deep canyon, about 100 yards across and see a runner a mile ahead or behind you.  You can continually see lots of runners because of its serpentine nature.

The remainder of my run I spend lots of time figuring what a good course could be.  The biggest challenge is finding a good start/finish area for all the parking that the BLM would accept.  I think I have a good solution.   After running the 15-mile Goodwater singletrack, I ran the dirt roads along the spectacular rim of the Little Grand Canyon.  Wow,  that would really be cool for a 50K --Little Grand Canyon Rim 50K.

After running as far as I could along the rim, I returned, went through the Goodwater single-track again for about 8 miles more and then bailed out onto the direct dirt road short cut to my car.  I took my sweet time on the run because I took a bunch of pictures and did lots of sight seeing.  I finished about 2 p.m. and then went and picked up the stuff I dropped.   It was an amazing adventure run. 

Photos and details later.