What a fun day! I did the Grandeur Peak Fun Run this morning. It is a free trail race that starts at the Grandeur Peak West Ridge trailhead, goes up and over the peak, down through Church Fork to the Pipeline trail and then over Rattle Snake Gulch and back to the trailhead. This would be my first trail race and I was excited. I got to the parking lot a few minutes before the start and met Twinkies there. I did see a few familiar faces and a lot of serious looking trail runners. I thought I was probably out of my league here, but it was going to be fun to see what I could do.
After writing our names down and waiting for a few minutes the race started with everyone running up the trail. I was in the middle of the pack and very quickly the trail becomes too steep to run. This is one of the steeper trails in the Wasatch and it pretty much goes straight up the mountain. I was doing very well and feeling great power hiking up the trail, passing people along the way and not very many people were passing me, which I thought was a good sign. I figured that this would be the only place on the whole course were I would have any advantage over some of the runners because I have been doing a lot of elevation hiking and running.
We all settled in after about 15 minutes I didn't pass many people and I was only passed a few times before reaching the summit. After I reached the first mile I could still see Twinkies ahead of me and I was surprised because he usually motors up the peaks a lot quicker than I do, so I figured I must not be doing too bad and I was feeling great.
At the 45:00 mark I was hiking with an older guy and his dog that I would see on the trail the rest of the way. He commented that I was doing great and that we were about 15 minutes from the summit. I was hoping to hit the summit in 1:20, so that made me realize that I was going up a lot faster than I thought I would. The summit ridge has some snow, and it did slow us down a little, but it wasn't too serious. I hit the summit at 1:06 and it was easily the quickest ascent of the peak for me. After giving my name to the guys on the summit I headed down quickly. The trail still had a lot of snow and there were a few places that were technical. A guy in front of me fell, although it wasn't anything serious.
I actually motored down pretty well and was feeling really good. Only a few people passed me heading down Church Fork and one of them was Twinkies. I was shocked to see him behind me and found out that he had taken the wrong trail following someone else. He cruised past me and I didn't see him again until the finish. I passed a lady just before the Pipeline trail and then once I hit the Pipeline, the trail flattens out and heads down the canyon. This was the toughest part of the race for me and my pace slowed a lot. I think about 8 people passed me here and I was losing energy.
At Rattlesnake Gulch I stopped to rest and take a Hammer Gel and it almost made me puke, Yuck! I took off my long sleeved shirt and while I was stopped two more people passed me. Heading up the Gulch was tough. It was steep and a little muddy and my energy was down, but after I got to the top I was feeling much better and the rest of the way my energy was really there. Nobody else passed me the rest of the way and I picked up my pace.
I finished in 50th place (not sure how many people there were) but I felt really good and my knee which has been bothering me for two months didn't give me any problems at all. It was only slightly tight and I felt like I could have easily kept going without any issues.
This was a really fun race and I will be back to do it again every year. It was definitely a tough course, but I loved every minute of it. | 