Each Day Is a Gift

Got up at 4am before the alarm.  Karen came to pick me up at 5:15 to meet Toby who has already run 8 miles earlier (what awesome inspiring dedication!!!), changed and was waiting for us.  :)  Collette joined us at the corner of the street...us giggling foursome on the dark streets of AF! :)  Hope I didn't wake Toby's neighbors with my enthusiasm! :)

My fingers were frozen holding a flash light in one hand and a hand-held bottle in the other.  Could hardly keep up with the girls especially up temple hill! :)  Very grateful that they were so kind to stay close because I had no headlamp and was scared to death of tripping!  We were extremely grateful for NO wind! :) :) :)

We ran west on 700N > 500E > Art Dyke Park and joined up on the Murdock Canal Trail > east thru Highland, Cedar Hills, Pleasant Grove and Manila.  Very little traffic on the road and we were alone in complete darkness on the trail...peaceful.  We ran under the tunnel access onto Canyon Rd then west on 700N (AF) to east side of Temple hill.  By then the morning traffic got heavy with dawn breaking and we had to run single-file. 

Toby's hubby was waiting with a smile as we finished our 7.5 mile loop.  He offered to let us shower, eat, nap! :)  I took a rain check on the nap and shower but did eat a banana and used the bathroom, quickly said goodbye to Toby then headed out for more miles. 

Karen and I decided to run further south and west of the previous loop to add more miles and avoid the steep Temple hills.  We ran south onto 300N > 400 E > 700N to west of Fox Hollow Golf Course.  That was the only bad part of the whole run because we encountered very very heavy high school traffic and my fingers were still frozen.  :)

My daughter called as we were running north on the Alpine Hwy and east to Highland Glen Park.  We talked during those couple miles so I was jogging very slowly.  My fingers were very frozen so we said goodbye, then I took a Gu.  We got onto the Murdock Canal Trail which we ran earlier in the dark.  It's nice to be able to see the trail and recognize where we're at.

Karen was calculating the distance/mileage to determin where we should run or turn around to get back to Toby's (where her car is parked) to make a total of 18 miles.  I had this brilliant idea that instead of turning around we should keep going on the Murdock Canal Trail past where the 4 of us had gotten off earlier at Canyon Rd. and continue on the bench above Manila.  Boy, were we glad we did!  Other than the little section off of the tunnel from Canyon Rd, we discovered the entire trail is paved!!!!  We ran south on the canal trail overlooking the valley and Utah Lake.  It was beautiful!!!!  If we had more time, we would've kept going (the trail eventually meets up at the mouth of Provo Canyon, Provo River Trail). 

We hiked down through an open area of the hillside onto the east end of Murdock Dr which turns into 1800N.  We ran straight west on 1800N and soon hit school traffic by Manilla Elementary.  We could see the temple just slightly northwest which means we're not that far from our "finish".  My legs were trashed but OH SO HAPPY!!!  Had not planned on 19.5 miles but would've gone for 20 if we had time.  We stretched for 5 or so min. then drove home in a jiff. 

So grateful for Toby inviting us to run early.  A blowing snow storm hit us just as we reached SR 92 driving home.  What a gift this run was with perfect weather and awesome company!  THANK YOU Toby and Karen!!!

For this run I ate 2 bananas, 1 gu and 32 oz of fluid.  Not bad considered all I had was a kid's meal at Chic-Fil-A at 4pm the day before! :)

Home in time to give hubby the Enoxaparin. Quick shower then shopping at Costco.  Taught lesson 5 of fundamental of PMG to our tutor.   Then had a wonderful dinner party with our friends!  :) :) :)