View Benchmark solo: Because of the UGE fire burning above Alpine I wasn't sure where I would run this morning. My plan was to get up early and take a look at the smoke and decide where I could run without inhaling gobs of smoke. VB was totally clear and the rest of the Wasatch looked pretty socked in, so it was an easy decision. I wasn't feeling great for the first few miles which I think was due to the heat and the Buffalo Wild Wings hangover. Slug! By time I hit the VB trail some good music hit the ipod and all of the sudden my tummy started feeling much better. Maybe I farted. I cruised up to the VB summit and checked out the views. Mostly I was looking at the fire that is out of control to the east. As soon as I heard about that fire I knew it was going to be bad. That area is steep and full of timber and there is almost no way to fight it without Mother Nature stepping in. Hopefully they can keep it from going North to the Alpine ridge and the Lone Peak Wilderness area. Luckily there wasn't much smoke on top as there was a wind blowing north and most of it was hovering above the Wasatch range. I got into a good groove on my way down and just as I got to the bottom of the gradual hill I ran into three runners coming up, which is odd because we rarely see runners up there, so I stopped to chat with them. It was a guy and two girls training for the Kona TRI. We chatted for a few minutes and they were asking me where the trails go, so I offered to run them up to VB and they thought that was awesome, so I ran back up to the summit with them and they totally loved it. We chatted and checked out the views and then ran back down to the VB trailhead together. They were really cool. Back on Ann's I finally started feeling really good and pushed the pace all the way back to the car. My Garmin hit 9 miles just as I came off Ann's trail and I finished in 1:38. I was happy I was able to get out of my funk. Happy 4th everyone. Be safe out there.
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