24 miles / 10:12 avg. Met some bloggers this morning for a run on Antelope Island. Jun, Dorsimus, Kelli (and Scott), and Brian (non-blog?). As we got started on the run we ran into a guy named Eric, who is on the blog, but not blogging much lately. Jun and crew (some additional runners joined up, but I don't know who they were) took off at a fast pace, so it was nice to start my run off with Eric. We ran up to a weather station (I don't know the names of the trails we were on today), about 3 miles, and that's where Eric turned to go back, I continued south and ended up making an 8.5 mile loop back to the car. I hadn't seen the group yet so I figured I'd run another loop and probably run into them somewhere along the way. About 13 or 14 miles in I found them so I turned around and ran back to the parking lot with the group. Kelli was nice enough to run with me for a bit and it really helped my pace. In fact I ran the second 12 miles of the day 2 minutes faster than the first 12 miles. We spent about 15-20 minutes at the parking lot ( I had 18 miles at this point, the rest of the crew were about a mile ahead of me with 19 miles) before continuing with a six mile loop. Knowing I would be slower, I went the opposite direction and met up with those guys as they came around the other way (good suggestion Jun, thanks). I felt really good at the end. In fact my fastest mile split was the last mile at 8:22. Mile 15 was an 8:29. My slowest mile was a 12:50 for mile 21. I've learned that for me and fueling, less is more, at least in the early stages of a run. I ate two gu's today, one at mile 16 and another around mile 21. For the fifty miler, I'll probably start fueling a little earlier and hopefully avoid emptying the tank. But for today's slow 24 miles, that was all I needed. I finished strong and felt good.

Antelope Island is a GREAT place to run. The trail was relatively soft, even sandy in places, and mostly smooth with some rocky sections thrown in. A great run. Good to meet for the first time Jun, Dorsimus, and Eric. Good to see Kelli and Scott again. Kelli brought some delicious "muffin tops" for after the run, yum, thanks Kelli! I saw Jim Skaggs (Ultrajim) who is directing the Buffalo Run, but I didn't get a chance to meet him. So many runners out today, I'm sure I crossed paths with several others from FRB, but haven't met. Perfect weather conditions; overcast, 50-ish degrees. It was great to run parts of the course for the 50 miler coming up in 3 weeks. The mt101's should work well for the race. Not including the break at mile 18, I ran for a little over 4 hours. A good solid trail run. I'm also pleased to have a long run two weeks in a row. I usually take two or three weeks (or much more) in between long runs.

 WT 60 miles