It's been a busy but good day. It started with 2.5 hours of awesome trail running, followed by 3 hours of neighborhood clean up (mostly loading green waste into dump trailers), followed by hauling furniture (couch, love seat, headboard, large dresser with mirrors, side table, bed frame, wood kitchen table, and 4 oak chairs) out of storage in our basement and to Tiffany & Sean's new apartment (our oldest daughter and her husband). Frankly, I'm surprised at how well my aged body has held out. Since this is a running blog I'll detail the run a little. This was my first run to the "rock pile". It was also Wayne's and Kent's first time. Larry had been there before, but it had been a long time. We started up the water tank hills then cut off on the bottom of hill 5 onto the trail to rock pile. We all commented on how beautiful and enjoyable it was running on the trail. We saw many deer and some grouse. The weather was cool but not cold. I was only wearing a short sleeve shirt and shorts with no ear band or gloves (for a change) and was comfortable the whole run. The rock pile is...a pile of rocks. We met another runner there who was waiting for his buddy. He told me two important things about the rock pile, 1) on your first visit you should add a rock to the pile, 2) don't touch the other rocks because apparently it is quite common for people to urinate on the rocks. I added a cube shaped rock to the top of the file. I didn't feel the urge so I didn't urinate on the rocks, nor did I touch them. We decided to take Trail 51 from rock pile down Dry Creek Canyon. There was some mud, and some frozen snow, to deal with in places...and I rolled my right ankle about 6 miles into it, but the ankle's okay and overall it was a terrific run! I very much enjoyed the flora, the fauna, the weather, the terrain, and the company. I think we all felt the same and questioned why it had taken us so long to discover the awesome trails right in our own backyard. I think it was Kent who said that these have to be some of the best running trails in the world. I would have to agree. I talked with Joe Martel, a veteran trail runner, and he told me runners measure runs on asphalt by distance and trail runs by time, dividing by a reasonable guesstimate at pace to determine mileage. I divided 2.5 hours by 11:00/mi and got 13.6 miles. Based on how hard I worked and how tired I was that seems about right. I'm beginning to gain an appreciation for what I have ahead of me in the Squaw Peak 50. The course is probably fairly similar to today, except the it climbs to over 9000' instead of 6000', and I'll be going for 12+ hours instead of today's 2.5. Am I nuts?!! Of course I am, I'm a runner. How will I ever know if I can do it if I don't try?
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