Seeking a better country...

8 pm  I keep forgetting which shoes I wore.  I took the kids to Freedom Hills to play, and ran and frolicked about on the grass and trails.  When we came home we ate some grapes.  All in all, it was quite satisfactory.  

6:30 am.  Met up with allie, Tara and Andy for an elephant rock climb.  The elevation profile of this run looks like a capital letter L (with an extended side-ways stroke) rotated clockwise 135 degrees.  

 Afterward we sat in the river and made fun of something or another.  allie had 11 miles remaining to complete her training for the day, in her alternate universe where long runs (when I originally typed the word runs I transposed r and u.  It really alters the meaning of the sentence)  occur on Wednesday.  I need to get me one of those time machines.  It could really come in handy.  

 Someday, perhaps some portion of my ashes will be stored in a long urn.  I wonder if crematoriums really do that great of a job keeping track of who is who.  When you are just down to ash, dust, and bone fragments, it's probably hard to tell... (oxford comma for Neasts and allie, and the oft-departed Bam)

7 am.  Ash came with on her bike.   When crossing Parrish, we saw my BIL and his son, so we changed course and ran with them.  We ended up at Smiths for an ice cream cone instead of Dicks for a donut.  I only had $1, so she got a big one and I ate a kiddie cone in one bite.  I hate running south.  There is so much additional traffic.

4 pm.  Who runs in Escalante at 4 pm in 105 degree temps?  Nut-jobs doing this relay.  I kept looking up into the sky and seeing this cloud.  I willed it to move and block the sun, but it stubbornly refused until I was finished running.  The scenery was gorgeous, and the one farmer that was irrigating his weeds lost a bit of water when I soaked myself a mile before the finish of this hot leg.

2:45 am.  Leg 24 went from somewhere in Bryce to Hatch.  It was the middle of the night, temp in the 50's, so much better than the afternoon leg.  The moon was mostly cloaked by clouds, so this was an extremely dark, solo run.

1:30 pm.  Leg 36 went from North Fork Road to Clear Creek Ranch just outside of Zion NP.  Once again, it was sweltering hot.  I passed one runner, my only "kill" of the entire relay.  When I reached the inflated finish line, a gust of wind blew it over, and blocked me from crossing.  I backed up, and vaulted up and over the top.  Put a fork in me, I'm done.  TOZ > WB.  We had a great time running this small relay, despite the horrible heat.