My Near Death Experience On The Trail

Last week was the highest training week I've ever had. My scrawny chicken legs carried me 80 miles. This gave me a little nugget of confidence for the Buffalo Run 100 coming up next month.

Monday, February 4th 2013: 8 miles
Tuesday, February 5th 2013: 10 miles before work, 20 miles before bed
Wednesday, February 6th 2013: 5 miles
Thursday, February 7th 2013: Rest
Friday, February 8th 2013: 7 miles
Saturday, February 9th 2013: 30 miles

During Wednesday night's run I also had one of my scarier trail experiences. I spent the first seven miles weaving my way through some trails in the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve. I found this great rolling trail that lured me into the belly of the desert guided by the light of my head lamp. Just for fun I stopped and turned off my head lamp. It was the kind of dark that feels like it's swallowing you. All I could see were the pin pricks of a million stars above me.

I turned on my light and ran. Soon my body went on autopilot the same way your body can go on autopilot while running on the road. But all too soon I was snapped into reality by what felt like a near death experience.

As I passed a bush, a crash exploded through the silence.....and then flew away. It was either 1) an eagle on performance enhancing drugs, 2) a pterodactyl, or 3) an enormous owl. I ruled out the steroid-enhanced eagle and the pterodactyl. It must have been an owl I surprised in the middle of the night, perched close enough that I could have petted him.

I heard myself yell in fright, making a sound that a grown man shouldn't be making. My heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest. Like I just had a near death experience. Autopsy = Death By Owl. That thing sounded like a helicopter as it flew away. I'm scared of rattle snakes, mountain lions, and drunk hippies.....but owls? OWLS!?!??!

About an hour later I passed a power pole and I heard an owl with it's distinctive "Whooo. Whooo." But it wasn't a sissy "Whooo." It was a determined, powerful, deep "Whooooo". The kind of "Whooo" that is generally followed by "let the dogs out!"

After those seven miles on a dark trail, I was thankful to run the other thirteen miles on the much more harmless roads. The next day I went back to this same trail to see what views I had missed the night before. They were awesome! There was a great shot of the Virgin River down below.

On Saturday I ran 30 miles on the Chinle Trail in the back country of Zion National Park. Serious props to my wife who let me escape for a plethora of hours. There were ominous clouds on the horizon and I was just waiting for them to start dumping.

The trail wraps right around the base of Mount Kinesava. Pictures don't do this place justice.

Much of the trail is very runnable and not very technical. On one side of the valley the clouds were rolling past the sky all day. I had a hard time putting the camera away.

It felt like it would be unethical to pass a place like this without getting a jumping picture.

I read that this trail used to be called the Petrified Forrest. No surprise why. Sections of the trail looked like someone broke open a pinata filled with petrified wood.

Some pieces were huge, and some were approximately the size of a Zinger. Oh, great. That reminds me of Hostess. Pardon me for a moment while I sob uncontrollably.

After a few hours of running I was out in the middle of nowhere. I'm talking nowhere. I'm totally cool being in the middle of nowhere by myself. But then I saw some people coming toward me on the trail! In the thousands of miles I've run on trails, I have seen another runner a total of TWO times. Not only were they runners, but they were also runners I knew! It was my friend Locke Ettinger who runs the IHC Live Well Center / Run Fit program and his wife Carol Sue!

It snowed for about three hours total of the run. It was a little chilly but not bitter cold. I'm okay with chilly, not okay with bitter cold. Eventually that ominous storm hit with a punch. It was a complete white out with huge snow flakes. The whole experience was stunning and beautiful.

This was the perfect ending to a record week. And as a public service announcement, beware of startled owls. That would be an embarrassing cause of death.

"Go fast enough to get there, but slow enough to see." ~ Jimmy Buffett

Beautiful Miles This Week or Why I Hate The Dark

I have run in some beautiful places over the last few days. So far, my 50 miles this week have taken me:

Past the wheat fields of Hurricane, Utah that glow like gold during the summer:

Past the looming mountain of Molly's Nipple:

Across some beautiful trails in the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve:

And many trips on the hill I have (un)affectionately named Widowmaker:

And guess how much of this beautiful scenery I have been able to view? Nearly none. Out of the 50 miles so far this week.....45 of them have been in the dark! No bueno. It's a good thing I've traveled these miles many times in the past so I can envision all this beauty - when all I see is the light of a head lamp.
Here's to more miles in the light!

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The 20 Mile Slog

A bit of a cut-back this past week in planning for more miles this week.

Monday, January 28th 2013: 6 miles before work with Shane and Karrie. My body was still in bed.
Tuesday, January 29th 2013: Off
Wednesday, January 30th 2013: 20 miles around Smith Mesa
Thursday, January 31st 2013: 4 mile tempo run (Note: My "tempo" pace would make fast runners scoff.)
Friday, February 1st 2013: 4 miles speed work. At a track! Don't remember the last time I did that. Late that night I ran 7 miles around the LaVerkin Outlook.
Saturday, February 2nd 2013: Tons of yard work. I told my wife at the end of the day that I wanted a Do Over. That day was no fun at all.

So for Wednesday's 20 miler I started by running to the top of Smith Mesa. That road is more than a little bit of a grunt to get to the top. Within the first mile you've already climbed 1,000+ feet.

Once you reach the top, the pavement turns to dirt. It was horribly, miserably muddy at the top. The miles I ran up there were nowhere near what you'd call running. They were a slow, trudging slog.

The dirt caked a few inches on the bottom of each shoe. I realized that planning to do 20 miles up there would take me around seven weeks. I spent about an hour in that nonsense before returning to drier ground.

I was thankful to start the descent and clean off the extra pounds that were added to my shoes.

I ran the rest of my miles on some faster trails down below. I was thankful that I wore my slightly girly tights because it was still chilly outside. The last ten miles were considerably faster and I was feeling good.

Friday night I drove to the LaVerkin Overlook dirt road. I need to get more experience running trails at night. I figured this would be a good spot to get that experience. It's got some decent little climbs, it's not very technical, and I was relatively sure a mountain lion wasn't deciding if I'd make a sufficient meal. Here is the view of Hurricane from the overlook:

In other more exciting news, I bumped up from the Antelope Island Buffalo Run 50 miler to the 100 miler coming up in less than seven weeks! I'm pretty excited about that one. It will be strange to run a 100 miler when it isn't 95 degrees outside. Bring On The Buffalo!

"Fear is a part of everything you do....You have to take great risks to get big rewards." ~ Greg Louganis

Transform Yourself

I'm a little behind on telling you about the Transform Yourself race last Saturday. Who knows - maybe I'm behind because of the blood sugar spikes from one too many cinnamon rolls during the week.

It was a 10 mile race on the Diamond Ranch Academy dirt road. I wanted to get in a few extra miles so I got there an hour before the rest of the group. It was pouring rain but the group was no less ambitious at the starting line:

This was an Underground Runner race - which makes it less of a "race" and more of a fun run with a medal at the end. I was really happy to run this one because I'd be running with by brother-in-law Cody - this was his first race ever. Also joining the gang were his wife (my sis in law) Rach, my awesome wife Mel, her sister Heather, and Heather's support crew of Shannon and Taylor.

Within a mile we started up a slog of a hill with really slick mud. It was literally one foot forward and two feet back. If runners were able to detach from themselves, the absurdity of the scene was quite comical.

Despite the rain and shoes weighing an extra seven pounds because of the mud, our gaggle of runners was doing great. This is Cody, Polli, Micah, Rach, and Mel who I ran with the whole time. Cody is downright funny and made the miles pass easily. He has been training hard and did awesome.

The course was an out-and-back. This mud was similar to running on a sheet of Crisco (but much less delicious).

With some miles beforehand and a few miles afterward, I was able to stretch the 10 mile race into a 20 miler. This was the scene afterward. You will notice three things: 1) Some tread-less Hoka shoes, 2) Some dirt-covered pants, and 3) my gaiters which could make you feel like you're on an acid trip.

I've done lots and lots of races but never received a two-sided medal like we earned from the Transform Yourself run. I also brought home a bonus souvenir of lots of mud on the bottoms of my shoes. (Sorry about that mess in the car Mel.)