I agreed to go on a hike with the YW today. The 4th year girls scheduled a hike up Mt. Timpanogos. As of the morning of the day before, 3 girls were going. One dropped out the night before, and one didn't get up this morning. That left just my daughter Emily and 3 adults...Larry & Jolene Marshall and me. We figured Emily wouldn't want to go as the only girl, but she surprised us by saying she kind of still wanted to go. This was true, but after the hike I asked her about it again and she said another reason was that she knew we adults had prepared a lot and wanted to go. She's awesome...and so was the hike. We didn't run up, as we've done in the past, but we didn't dawdle on the way up either. It took us about 4:30 up. It took us 4:10 down because we did dawdle some. I ended up taking 163 photos on the hike, and Emily took quite a few, too. I was repeatedly in awe of the beauty of the mountains, the greenery, and especially the abundant and brilliantly colorful wildflowers in their many varieties. I've heard multiple sources say this was maybe the best year in many years to hike Timp. I must agree. And the weather was nearly perfect as well, cool on the way up, no wind and the top, didn't really start to feel hot until we were nearly back down. I was so proud of Emily. She proved her toughness once again. She's not an experienced hiker, and has not done much this summer to stay in good shape, but she out-hiked me. Her calves were burning as she climbed the steep rocky path to the summit, but she paused only briefly a few times and just kept going. On the way back down, especially in the last few miles, she would break into a run for a stretch. It was hard for me to keep up. I believe she is a natural runner if she ever feels inclined to give it a go. Because of my stress fracture recovery, I had pretty much resolved myself to not running the St. George marathon this year even though I'm registered, but recently I've reconsidered. This would be year #9 on my way to the 10 year club. I decided to do this hike and also go ahead and run the Red Rock Relay and see how I feel. There's no way I'll be in top marathon shape, but Larry (recovering from heart surgery) is planning just to try to finish between 5:30 and 6:00 this year. Maybe I can just take it at a slow pace with him. Today's hike was the first phase of the test. I ran about a mile from the car to the trail head, and another mile back after the hike, and the hike itself was about 15 miles. After 9+ hours on my feet climbing and descending about 4,500 feet over 17 miles, I really felt pretty good at the end. My sacroiliac belt felt secure and comfortable. My muscles and joints held up well. This is encouraging. Whether or not I run the St. George marathon is not really very important. There is no way it will compare to the blessing I had today going on this incredible hike with Emily and my friends Larry and Jolene. It was truly a tender mercy from God for which I am deeply grateful. | 