This morning I had a breakfast/meeting in Smithfield at 8AM. Since it was supposed to be hot out today, I figured it would be best to run before the meeting, rather than after, but that meant getting up at 5AM, eating something, and then driving to the Smithfield Lions Club, parking, and running from there. Then I could show up at the meeting all sweaty, stinky, and hungry. So I parked at the Lions, and then ran down to Mack Pack and began running up Canyon Road. Smithfield's version of Canyon Rd is much steeper than the Logan version. It seemed a bit steeper than Blacksmith Fork, but I could have just been tired from Thursday still. In any case, I averaged around 7:15/mile on the way up, and then turned around at the campground (where the pavement ends), which happened to be the 5-mile mark too. Found a nice bathroom to use at the campground as well. Coming back down out of Smithfield canyon, it was finally light out, so I could enjoy the scenery, and could also enjoy the downhill. No traffic on this road, and a fair amount of other runners. Hit all the miles in the low-6's, despite not feeling great, which made me think that it is indeed steeper than BSF. Hit the 10-mile mark when I got back to Mack Park, but that meant that I still had 10 miles to go. So I decided to explore the city trail system of Smithfield. Figured I'd be spending a lot of time on them in the future, so probably a good idea. Took the golden mile trail out of Mack, then linked up with the downtown Heritage trail through Central Park and then out to Forrester Acres (rec fields). Looped back on 100N, then north on 100 W, where I eventually found the North Canal Trail, which took me out of town along the canal. That trail terminated, so I came back into town, then ran all the way on 100 W back to 300 S, and decided to run up to our future house, since I would need to the practice. During this time, I kept the pace around 6:30-6:40/mile.
The problem with "living on the hill" is that you have to run up big hills, and this is no exception. 300S up to Dry Canyon is a bear, much easier in a car. But it was nice to see our new neighborhood on foot, which is how I prefer to view the world. I ran past our new house on 700E, and then hit up the canal trails on that end up town. Ran on the paved trail near 900 E (ie - Planet Walk II), down to 600S, then turned around and came back. Then crossed 300 S and hopped on the dirt canal trail northbound, until I was forced off near the golf course. At this point I was over 19 miles into the run, and really laboring, and pace dropped a lot. The hill up 300S, combined with lack of fitness, killed me. Stumbled down Summit Dr back to the Lions building, and called it good at 20.25 miles. Averaged 6:49/mile for the entire run. I was tired, but it felt satisfying to cover 20 miles in a single run again (had been two years). Plus I got a sneak peek of running in Smithfield, which I will be doing full time, once we move in two weeks.
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