I Burned 17.6 Ice Cream Cones

17.6 ice cream cones.

My last long run before the Wasatch 100 was 17.6 ice cream cones long.

I ran 30 miles. If you burn around 100 calories per mile, that gives me 3,000 calories burned. And a McDonald's ice cream cone is 170 calories. So I burned 17.6 ice cream cones. I love McDonalds math.

I wanted to get in one last long run before the Wasatch 100 in 24 days. (I just threw up in my mouth when I typed "24 days".) So I headed out the front door as the last light of the day was disappearing.

Fast forward a few hours. Getting two McDonalds ice cream cones in the middle of a 30 mile run seemed like a good idea. I was hungry. And hello, ice cream is delicious. Unfortunately I failed to remember was that even at 11:00pm, it is still eight jillion degrees in southern Utah. So one moment I’m cheerfully double fisting ice cream. The next moment I’m covered in liquefied goo. My brilliant idea left me with sticky hands and a Mcstomach ache.

It was a unique experience to see a bustling world, cars everywhere, stores opened, to a world gone to sleep with no cars anywhere, to a world waking up, lights going on in houses, cars driving to work....all in the same run.

My run happened to be during the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. Many times I would turn off my head lamp and run down the road in the dark watching the sky above me. (Thankfully I turned on my head lamp again just in time to miss stepping on a dead rabbit that didn't make it across the road in time.)

A few times I sat down on the curb of the sidewalk and just watched the shooting stars. My friend Jeremiah Barber is an incredible photographer. You should check out his website HERE. He was out shooting on the same night as my run and shot this:

The other noteworthy run last week was a jaunt on the More Cowbell Trail on Saturday. I am deeply, madly in love with that plot of dirt in my backyard. You can't argue with views like this:

I seriously regretted sleeping in that morning. The late start meant that I felt like a chicken at KFC running through a rotisserie oven.

It was a good week of running. I felt a little better about my preparation for Wasatch after getting in that all night run. And I still owe my body another 15.6 ice cream cones.