Old Man Still running

I ran the Freedom 10K for the 4th year.  This is a fairly tough course with some long hills, making it a tough course to PR on.  I ran it with my sister and brother-in-law.   Another brother-in-law and niece ran the 5K.

I had a pretty good race, set a course PR by almost a minute and came within 16 seconds of my 10K PR.   I didn't realize I was that close because my watch wasn't working.  It would have helped push me more if it would have been working.

My splits were 6:44 (long hill), 6:32 (downhill), 6:42, 7:00, 6:47, 7:19 (long hill).

My family had a good showing.  My brother-in-law, Ed, placed 2nd in this age group, my brother-in-law Greg placed 3rd in his age group, and I took third.  There were 1,233 runners in the 10K.

After returning to our family reunion in Midway, I needed more, so I went a ran up and down Sids Canyon above the Homestead.  It is about three miles up and climbs about 1,600 feet.  Near the top a guy with a dog was jogging down.  I pushed to the top and then decided to try to push hard and overtake him. About half-way down I did.  I was surprised that he started to hang with me.  I pushed it pretty hard and he kept up pretty well. It was a blast.   At the bottom I stopped and said, "You must be an ultrarunner."  He asked, "Have you run this before?"  He was suprised that I hadn't run down it before.  He said he runs it all the time but it had been a long time since he ran that fast down it.   He was Kerry Collings from Midway and this was his training trail.  He basically his trail.  He does trail work on it and keeps it in great shape.  I could tell that someone was carring for it.  He recognized my name and explained that he was running Hardrock 100 next week.  Wow, that was cool to meet him.

I did a new run that included about 3,600 feet of climbing.  I started at the Yellow Fork trailhead west of Herriman and climbed clear to the top of the highest of the Butterfield Peaks that have the towers on them.  It was an amazing run first through scrub oak, then maples, then aspens, and finally pines. Going up the prickly pear cactus were in bloom, some of them bright pink others yellow.  They were incredible.  Coming down the flowers were closed.  I saw plenty of deer along the way.

The view at the top was amazing.  To the west, I could see a glimpse of Tooele, the salt flats, and the Great Salt Lake.  To the North, I could see the Bingham Copper Mine and the entire Salt Lake Valley.  Further south, I could see Utah county, Utah Lake, all the Wasatch mountains clear down to Mount Nebo.  I could see all of Cedar Valley.   The best view was to the south, a view of the massive, hidden valley of West Canyon.  Few have been in this valley because it is private property, but it was a wonderful site of green forest and steep mountains surrounding it.  I wish it was open to enjoy.  I know there are some ancient Indian settlements that are being protected.   The mountain valley with streams looks like the perfect place for cabins.  Oh well.

It took me almost 2.5 hours to get up the seven or so miles.   I took it pretty easy.  I did this run as a low carb run to lose some weight.  I ran down pretty fast, in 1:10.   It felt very similar to a Timp run up to the saddle and back.  Roughly the same miles and elevation gain.   I see no evidence of any other runners or hikers doing this.   I'm glad I discovered this and plan to do it many more times.  It is much closer to home and work than Timp.  The route is very runnable except for a very steep rough section for about a half mile or so.

Map of run: http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/us/ut/herriman/497127846923913797

A repeat of the same run I did on Tuesday, up to Butterfield Peak.   On the trail at about 4:15 a.m..   I kept some split times to push me in the future.  Last picnic area: 24:07, ridge road: 1:02, sign frame: 1:27, summit: 2:02:53, sign frame; 2:22, ridge road: 2:37, end of yellow fork: 2:49, finish: 3:14:25.  Plenty of room to improve.  I did it 20 minutes faster than Tuesday, most of that time improvement on the climb.   This is one very challenging section, steep rough single trace only used by horses that feels like the Windy Pass climb at Squaw Peak.  It is great.  It climbs 1,000 feet in about a mile and then connects to a dirt road that takes you to the top.

Dawn arrived while I was high on the ridges, a spectacular site with the orange glow and the city lights.   I saw plenty of deer and a few cows high up on the mountain.

I've climbed 9,000 feet so far this week.  Not bad.

I decided this cap off my week of training with a long tempo run.  With Tahoe Rim 100 a week away, working on some foot speed would be helpful.  My climbing training went well this week, so I need some speed work and signed up for another half marathon.  I hoped that the course would be fast and let me break my half marathon PR.

I ran in the new Hobbler Half Marathon put on by race13.  This half starts up in Hobble Creek and finishes in a park in Springville. They bussed us up and dumped us off in the middle of the road, not much room for a start of the race.  I warmed up by running a couple miles up the canyon, up on the Squaw Peak 50 course on the dirt road at the top of the canyon.  Three other runners did the same.

At the start, we were all very crowded with lots of slow people near the front.  There was about 434 runners in the field. The crowd near the front slowed me down in the first few hundred yards but I soon broke free and was running in the top 20. A Kenyan was with the leaders and eventually won the race.

I have run up the Hobble Creek Canyon several times as part of the Squaw Peak 50 and Katcina Mosa 100K but never have run down it before.   It had some great downhills.   For the first few miles, I ran near Lorenzo, a solid tall runner a few years younger than me.  I've never beat him in a race and still didn't today.  He soon was a small figure down the road.  My splits for the first miles were: 5:53, 6:32, 6:33, with a 19:35 5K split, better than my 5K PR.

Things were going well.  I banked time and eventually was up to 1:30 ahead of my PR pace.  I was very surprised how many small hills there were along the way and lots of winding turns.  The course wasn't as fast as Utah Valley Half.   My splits for the next three miles were: 6:37, 6:32, and 6:43, with a 40:07 10K split, two minutes faster than my 10K PR.  The downhill was helping a bunch.

More short hills appeared and things started to slow down.  I tried very hard to keep my splits near 6:40.  Miles 7-9 were: 6:42, 7:04 (hills), and 7:03.  I knew I now only had about a minute cushion on my PR pace.  I pushed it harder and mile 10 was 6:47.  I was hanging on.

But then things fell apart as the heat blasted us now that we were out the canyon and the sun was pounding on us.  Also the last three miles were a gradual hill and my legs could feel it.  I had to stop at an aid station for about 15 seconds to fill my bottle and pour water on me.  Coming in my splits were: 7:25 (aid station), 7:25 (heat), and 7:56 (out of gas).   I reached the finish at 1:30:41.  It was only 27 seconds over my PR.  I was pleased.

22nd overall and 1st in my age group.   It took 1.5 hours for the awards to be given out.  They need to do better.  Also, to help with the heat, they should have started an hour earlier. I ran laps around the park to use some of the time waiting.  My legs feel good.  I need some more heat training this week during my taper.  Next up is Tahoe Rim 100 on Saturday.  It runs on the ridges high above beautiful Lake Tahoe.

Today I can't keep my thoughts away from Hardrock 100, going on now in the mountains in Colorado, the toughest western 100.  I have so many friends in it and they are all still climbing the mountains.  I'm envious.  One of these years I'll go do it.  Sorry to see Karl Meltzer had to DNF.  I'm sure his injuries caught up with him.  Tough to run with a healing broken arm. 

P.M.  More heat training. Five miles with the dog.