Tour de Draper with Rob Bladen: I wanted to get in a long run this morning to make up for my horrible week. My friend Rob wanted to run with me, but he is getting ready for UVM so he only wanted to do about 10. We met at the Orson Smith trailhead in Draper at 6:30 am and started uphill on the BST going south. At the trail fork we went right and hit the Gasline trail which eventually took us to Ghost Falls. Rob was running pretty fast and I was hoping he wasn't planning on keeping the pace the entire run because I am not feeling 100% yet. I kept up with him for the most part though. We went up to the top of Ghost Falls and then took a quick break. The weather was perfect. It was overcast with a slight breeze that felt great. We went east to Canyon Hollow and followed that until he hit Broch's trail and then at the trail junction we stopped to take a gel. We then got onto Ann's trail and got into a good groove. There were so many cyclists on the trail today and some of them were a bit annoying as they would come flying down the trail and not even attempt to move or slow down. DBs! Luckily most of them were pretty cool, but I have never seen so many bikes on the trail. We ran to the tunnel and then took a right and went back to the BST where it was back uphill to the trail junction. At the trail junction we decided to go right (uphill) instead of running the mile downhill back to the cars, so we could get in a little more mileage and some more elevation. We hit the trailhead in1:47 for just under 11 miles. Rob was done, but I needed more miles so I decided to head over to Ann's trail to go up View Benchmark. I drove over to Ann's and took a gel and hydrated. There were some ladies at the trailhead that looked confused and asked me for directions to Ann's and I told them to just follow me. I put on my ipod and got into a good groove. I wasn't as fast as normal, but I still felt great. The first mile clicked by and I noticed the ladies were well below me on the other side of the canyon. The run up to the VB trail was nice and easy, but when I got to the VB trail there was a dude running right behind me just starting up. I hate getting passed on the trails so I cranked up the pace a lot. I was thinking this guy has no idea I am 13.5 in, so I can't look like a wuss. I kept a strong pace up to the big hill and he was still about 100 yards back. I power hiked the lower part of the hill while I took a gel, but it was quick and I noticed him gaining ground, so I picked up my pace and ran the rest of the way to the top with only a few short power hikes. I reached the top and he was nowhere in site. I crushed him! Now he was running in jean shorts and high top basketball shoes, but I was still pleased with myself for pushing it up. Haha. I was up in 51 minutes, which is slow, but the run up the VB trail was about as fast as I normally do it. The run back down was tougher because my legs were getting tired. At one point I thought I was pushing pretty good, but I looked at my watch and I was only at a 10:00 pace. The last two miles I did manage to keep it in the 9's and high 8's and other than my hammy getting really tight I felt pretty good. With about 1/4 of a mile to go I noticed a huge snake ahead covering the entire trail. It looked like a rattler, but it didn't have a rattle and it was the biggest snake I have ever seen in the wild. I had to bushwack around it because it wouldn't move. I finished feeling good with just under 19 tough miles and a lot of vert. I got back to my car and saw a text from my 12 year old telling me she just got Justin Bieber tickets. Woohooo!
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