As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I had been considering running the Spanish Fork half marathon, but when Kerry's plans changed that meant I would be running it alone, so I decided to do the long run Larry and Wayne were planning. Wayne dropped his Jeep at the mouth of the canyon and Larry, Wayne, Kurt Gassman, and I rode up in Larry's truck to Wasatch Mountain State Park. Kent Gassman came along to drive Larry's truck back home so we wouldn't have to go back up and get it. We miss Kent running with us, but it was nice of him to help us out. We dropped some drinks at the head of the Deer Creek North Trail along the way. We also called Mark Nelson who lives in Midway so he could meet up with us. His son Michael ended up not coming along for the run.
We started running about 6:20am. It was still dark and the weather was cool but not cold. The weather was actually awesome the whole run. It was cool most of the time, and didn't ever get too warm. I had never run on the Deer Creek North Trail before. I really enjoyed it. It is wide and in good condition. The Deer Creek Reservoir is really low as they have drained a lot of it so they can do some maintenance on the dam. Along the way we saw geese, cranes, deer, chipmunks, and some other large bird we couldn't identify. The mountains were beautiful, with many of the leaves beginning to turn red. As planned, Mark turned and headed back home before we reached the dam.
After we reached the dam and the end of the trail, things got interesting. With all the road construction going on around there, we ended up doing some running on new roads, old roads, torn up roads, railroad tracks, and up one short steep hill between roads. It was actually pretty fun. We finally reached Vivian Park and the familiar territory of the Provo River trail. The distance to this point was 16.75 miles.
Kurt's hip and knee had started to bother him earlier and, with him planning to run the Top of Utah marathon next weekend, he wisely decided to cut the run short. He called his dad (Kent) who was waiting for him when we reached Vivian. As we ran from Vivian down the trail we saw many of the searchers that are still looking for Camille, the BYU co-ed who has been missing for over a week now. Near Timpanogos Park we were asked by volunteers (who ran along side us) if we had been up the canyon since the time of her disappearance. Since we ran up there last Saturday, we said yes and they asked for our names and phone numbers. It was hard to stop 21.5 miles into a 22.5 mile run, especially with the awesome continuously running fountain only 1/4 mile ahead, but I did (the young lady looked like she was getting tired) and gave her the information. When we reached the end of the run at the parking lot, there was a large group of orange-vested volunteers heading out. A few of them asked us again.
Just after the last fountain a young woman passed us, accompanied by another young woman on a bike. We couldn't let her pass us this close to the end (no one had all day) so picked up the pace. She asked if we were training for a marathon. She is training for her first marathon at St. George this year and asked for advice. This helped the last part of the run go by rather quickly and easily.
Overall, on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give the run nearly a 10. Great company, beautiful weather, beautiful scenery. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and survived with only some tired muscles. We finished the 22.5 miles in 3:38:44 (9:44/mi). This is almost 20
minutes longer than I plan to be running during the St. George marathon
next month, so the marathon will be easier, right? It won't be harder to run a 7:40 pace for 26.2 miles than it was to run a 9:40 pace for 22.5 miles will it? It will? Ah, dang!
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