Larry is off camping with his wife and a bunch of young women this weekend, so Wayne and I ran together without him this morning. We wanted to get some good hill running in, but not too much distance, so Wayne suggested we start at Bridal Veil and run up to Trefoil and back.
It was still pretty dark when we started at 6:13am, and we were a little nervous about running into a skunk or something along the way, but it wasn't too long before it got lighter. It was a little cool, but never really cold, and stayed cool the whole run.
Going up South Fork we saw four wild turkeys in the middle of the road. There were two runners coming the other way. The startled birds were between us and fluttered off into a field. The runners were old guys like us. As they approached I said, "Look, Wayne, two more turkeys." One of them smiled and said, "I was just thinking the same thing." On the way back we saw a couple of more turkeys on the hillside (birds, not runners). A little farther down we saw a flock of 20 or 30 turkeys off in a field. I personally had never seen a wild turkey in Utah and it was pretty cool to see so many.
On our way up and down we also passed a recently killed skunk in the middle of the road. The stench was pretty bad.
I forgot to mention in yesterday's blog that I saw three bats hunting insects near a street light and then later briefly ran alongside four deer I startled as I passed a home in the foothills. I don't know that I want the startling animal encounters Kerry sometimes has in Cedar Hills, but it's kind of cool being able to see wildlife during a run.
We ran a total of 13.27 miles this morning in 1:54:24 (8:37/mi). We went up in 1:02:52 (9:28/mi) and down in 51:32 (7:46). We didn't ever really consciously push hard, but still ended up running the last couple of miles at around a 7:30 pace. We both felt good about the run and really enjoyed it.
| 