AM - 17.25 Parkway/Dirt Mile. Went up onto the Dirt Mile to see how muddy it was for today's run and the went around the Parkway. For practice we went back up to the Dirt Mile and ran a 40 min tempo (which was a good solid Tinman pace for me). All groups did well and the team is looking strong from a solid summer. Finished up with 8xbarefoot striders. Great temps, albeit a bit humid, after the rain all day yesterday. (barefoot '14 43.75)(Ronin 428.25) afternoon - 8.5 Sand Hill. I love running up on a beautiful mountain trail in the trees, but I am a Desert Rat at heart and today was absolutely amazing. I hoped it would rain today - the weather was pretty sure it would, so I planned on running up on the Sand Hill. The trail should have been perfect with yesterday's rain and hopefully no horses had been up there today to ruin it. Around 1:30, a slight sprinkle started, so I hit the road over to the trail up Millcreek. By the time I got off the road, the rain had really picked up and just poured down on me for the next 30 minutes. The trail was amazing. The sand was compacted and soft; very runnable. Climbing the hill I was able to summit above two slot canyons and watch the flash floods start forming off the slick rock. The desert seemed to come alive with color - greens and sage; and the smell was amazing. The only thing missing was some wildlife. I hoped to see a tortoise, but worried I might step on a rattlesnake (since it was raining so hard I wouldn't have been able to hear it) - didn't see either. Amazing experience in the desert. (Kinvara3 740.5) | 