Wheeler Farm Loops

AM - 10.5 miles. First half of the run along the lake shore path with Andrea, then added on around the harbor and finished by running the last 2.1 miles of the race course. Pretty much all of the turns in the entire race are in this stretch, and I wanted to get it locked into my head for next year. Stood in Lake Superior for a while afterwards... Whew that is a cold lake! It's a beautiful day in Duluth... Sunny and warm!

After breakfast we rented cruiser bikes and rode around for a while, then walked several more miles, did another round of soaking in the cold lake, and now we're just killing a little before we fly back to SLC.

The awards dinner last night was a lot of fun (and had great food). A highlight for me was when Adam Goucher came up and introduced himself to me, and told me that he likes our blog (wasatch and beyond). That was pretty cool because I've been a huge fan of his for over a decade.

I felt really good on the run this morning... Although a couple easy weeks will be good for the body and mind.

In other news, did you know Dairy Queen will just fill up a 16oz soda cup withsoft serve for you? It's not on the menu... But apparently we've been to the one across the street enough is weekend that the manager decided to let us in on that secret! :-)

AM - 4 miles in Minneapolis, slowly. We were supposed to get back to SLC last night, but our flight from Duluth to Minneapolis was delayed due to mechanical problems, so we ended up spending the night at the Marriott near the airport. Hung out and chatted w/ Ryan Bak and his wife, Natalie. They both ran the Grandma's Marathon on Saturday. Since Delta picked up the tab for everything, we had no problem ordering really overpriced food at the hotel! $6 for a bowl of ice cream? Sure, as long as we're not paying for it! The bartender really had a hard time believing we were over 21 years old... apparently not many people our age go sit at the bar and order soda and ice cream. In the grand scheme of things it worked out OK b/c I got Delta to give us vouchers for future flights, which took the sting out of those darn 2 seconds from the race a little bit.

Posted a Duluth Mega Photo Gallery. Here's a few...

PM - 7.4 miles easy. Felt like an oven outside! But much more enjoyable than the muggy, sticky air in Minneapolis. 

AM - 7.3 miles. Slow run commute. I was thinking of riding my bike, but that would have taken just as long.

PM - 7.3 miles home. 

AM - 7 miles. Got the wolfpack back together for a JAKJAFR, and almost added on an "S" and "A". We'll wait for you next time Susannah! :-) 

PM - 9 miles. Met Kevin, Rob, and his XC team for a run up at Alta. Coach Murphy had us do a few easy laps around the parking lot to warm up, then we ran up the dirt road to Albion Basin, did a few laps around the campground, and back down. Perfect evening up there, capped off by a tall glass of cold chocolate milk. Kevin and I agreed that running at 9000+ feet would have been brutal for us when we were in high school!

This is going to be a regular Wednesday night thing for the summer. 

 
If you happed to have a wedding coming up at Snowbird, its beautiful up there right now. I took this picture on my drive down. 

AM - 11.5 miles up to work. Passed Allie along the way but she was moving too quickly in the opposite direction so only got off a "Hey!". I think I figured out the secret to making the hill up to HCI seem tiny - run at Alta the night before.

PM - 3 miles. Ran from HCI down to the zoo and met the girls... switched into my cycling shoes (WHAT?) and we biked up Emigration Canyon to Little Mountain. Nice ride - very enjoyable gradient for cruising on the way up... and after a mile or so on the way down I wasn't a scared little baby anymore. I am not an all-star when it comes to trying to clip into pedals. Oh, and we forgot to bring water... no big deal... it was under 100 degrees today :-)

Olympic Trials start tomorrow! There are a thousand articles on Letsrun and Oregonlive about the track meet, but lost in the shuffle is a very interesting article about David Katz and measuring marathon courses (with a focus on the London Olympic Marathon route). He doesn't use a Garmin and Google Maps :-)

AM - 12.3 miles up to work. Much warmer out this morning - I was actually seeking out sprinklers to run through! Slightly embarrassing moment when I saw a blonde girl running towards me in about the same spot (and same time) I saw Allie yesterday... I just figured it was her and started to say something witty... but it wasn't Allie. Lesson learned = I need Lasik.

PM - 10 miles home plus an extra loop around the neighborhood. Hot out! 

10K tonight!

Tim Layden of SI wrote a nice article on Webb & Ritz today. He flashes back to this piece he wrote 11 years ago. Most high school superstars (in all sports) flame out quickly. These two guys, who were given the absurdly difficult task of rejuvenating American distance running when they were 18 years old, actually lived up to (and maybe went beyond?) the hype. And are still going strong over a decade later. If Webb is in the hunt with 2 laps to go next Thursday, you can pretty much bet that the internet is going to explode :-)

If RAGNAR counts for race reports, than so does this! :-)

Had a great time at Allie & James' Wedding Bells Relay this morning. Allie posted the results here. We stacked the deck for our team - not necessarily in terms of talent, but definitely in terms of outfits! The girls wore dresses...Kevin and I wore our best shorts. Devra ran our leadoff 200m leg, then we alternated 400s - me, Kevin, Amiee, and Andrea. My splits were 63, 62, 64 for my 3 legs. It felt harder than running a full mile at that pace a few weeks ago! Pretty good for my "easy" week and running 22 miles yesterday.

Our main competition was the Pachev family - Sasha and Benjamin really took on their fair share of the load for the family, running more legs than any of us did. It was so cool that their whole family ran - even down to the ones who are barely big enough to walk!

Just a lot of fun this morning... thanks Allie & James for putting this together. I think of all the cool races I've run in the past month, this was definitely my favorite.

8 miles warming up to SHP, then cooled down about 3.5 w/ Bonnie and Dean. Awesome to finally meet those two and spend some time running and chatting with them. 

Took LOTS of pictures... 

Full slideshow...