Cursed Realm of the Faceless Ghost

Jun and I ran up Timpanogos at about 3:00 this morning. I'm sure Jun will write plenty about the run, so I'm going to outsource the full report to him. I'll just say it mostly went well, other than a rough patch coming off the top when my frozen fingers caused a wave of nausea and I was sure I was going to puke. It's very, very cold and windy up there in the dark.

Best exchange of the day:

Some kid at the summit: "We're going to wait up here to watch the sunrise."

Jun: "Dude, that sucks."

3:24:xx

AM: Two and from the Towne Centre, plus three laps around it. I ran the last two laps at an average pace of 6:03.

35:24

PM: I went to Gold's Gym with Catherine after school. One of the Transformers movies was playing in the Cardio Cinema, so Catherine only stayed for a mile before retreating to the normal treadmills. I didn't have any headphones, so I stayed and watched the movie. Lots of stuff blew up and there may or may not have been a plot. Awful, awful movie . . .

Anyways, my plan was to run 5 easy miles, but then I wanted to run faster so I bumped the pace up to 6:00/mile. I was going to run one at 6:00, one at 5:30 and one at 6:00, but it turns out the Cardio Cinema treadmills are old (the good stuff is in the main gym) and they don't go past 6:00. So, I ran a 5K at 6:00/mile and then cooled down for a bit.

After the gym Catherine and I took my sister to Zupas for dinner. I dropped the tray with our food and spilled soup all over the register, cuz that's how I roll. 

I won't have time for a second run tonight, so I went out for a longer run this morning. Basically, it was the Slate Canyon loop, except I ran an extension that took me down into Springville for a total of 10.6 miles.

1:15:57 

AM: Nice and easy, 2.8 miles, no watch.

PM: Cardio Cinema with Catherine. The movie was better than last time, and it turns out that some of the treadmills do go faster than 6:00/mile. I was going to run five miles, but since I like whole numbers for the day I decided to stay on for 5.2. I picked the pace up for two of the miles, and the rest was pretty mellow. 

There's a lull in my workload, so I got an early start and ran Timpanogos again this morning. (Catherine and I might race tomorrow, and there's no better praparation for a road 5K than a long, slow run up a mountain the day before.) Other than a dropped glove that required a bit of backtracking, the run up was uneventful. There were very few people on the trail, and I ran all the way to the cirque. From there I started mixing some hiking with the running, and it was mostly a crawl from the saddle to the summit. It was bitterly cold at the summit, but there was no wind and I was wearing thick gloves so it was much more tolerable than on Monday. Plus, summit was dusted with snow and engulfed in fog, and I had it to myself. Very cool.

I stopped at the summit long enough to send a text to Catherine and then it was back to running. Descending to the saddle was much easier with the sun out, but I was still slow. I stopped after a couple of miles to check my fluid levels and tighten my shoes, but once I untied my shoes I had a lot of trouble relacing them with my forzen fingers. That annoyed me, but then I ran past about 7 goats right next to the trail, and that cheered me up.

Descending today was much nicer than on Monday, partly because I could see and partly because there were fewer people coming up, and most of them passed me without incident. Except for some idiot about two miles from the trailhead who was hauling his bawling baby in a Chariot jog stroller or bike trailer of some sort. I'm not sure what he was thinking, and I would have been screaming, too, if I were his kid.

1:45:47 up

1:02:39 down

2:48:27 total 

Not my favorite race.

Catherine and I decided to run a 5K today because my PR is just a little outdated. We had to choose between Spanish Fork and the Beat Beethoven 5K in Pleasant Grove. In the morning we decided on Spanish Fork, which was a little cheaper and a little closer and had a little prize money on the line. But at the last second I changed my mind and we went to Pleasant Grove (small races can be fun; plus it was a library benefit, and Catherine and I like libraries). Bad decision.

The course wasn't marked at all and there was no traffic control, and I and the guy I was racing at the front missed a key turn (it turns out we were supposed to run through the red light and across the busy street with no traffic control--go figure). As a result, we ended up running 3.03 miles, according to my Garmin (everyone else ran the full 5K). Which means I don't get a new 5K PR. And that's especially annoying, because given my pace I would have met my goal of sub-17, especially if we hadn't had to slow down and look both ways before running through traffic, but now I have to run another 5K sometime.

At first I wanted my money back, because the way I saw it I paid for a 5K and the race directors didn't deliver. I mean, I think the most basic requirement for a race is that the course be marked. In the end, I just asked them not to post my name and time in the results, because I didn't want anyone to think I ran a 16:26 5K when I didn't. They said they wouldn't, but they went ahead and posted my name and time anyways.

On the plus side, I'm happy with how I ran. I felt pretty bad before the race (my legs were heavy and slow from the day before), so the fact that I was able to run as fast as I did makes me think I may have a 16:30 in me--maybe not now, but soon. Or maybe not.

Also, Catherine set a new PR for herself, so the morning wasn't a waste.

In the afternoon I went riding with the law school cycling club. In the evening I went with Catherine to run at the gym, but after two very easy miles I was cooked, so that was it.