Every Race is an Adventure!

With the annual neighborhood 5K being this Saturday, Larry and I just ran the course a couple of times this morning. It felt good to be out running again. The soreness behind my left knee feels quite a bit better. We'll see how it responds to running on it again.

I ended up running solo this morning. It was a beautiful morning for a run.

After a 2.5 mile warm up I found myself at the start of the neighborhood 5K course I'll be running Saturday. I decided to run the course, not all out, but pushing pretty hard. I wanted to see where my fitness was after the short layoff, see how my leg held up to the quicker pace, remember what it feels like to run tired, and otherwise mentally prepare for the race.

The course is a winding loop that can be summarized (not exactly accurate but close enough) as one mile downhill, one mile flat, one mile uphill, with a final lap around the track at Northridge Park.

Since all of the significant downhill is in the first mile, much of it right at the start, you pretty much have to start out fast so as to not waste the good downhill. This morning I was breathing pretty hard this first mile, though I felt like I was barely under an 8:00 pace. I didn't look at my watch until the end of the first mile and was shocked (and relieved) when I saw the first mile split was 6:30. I knew I couldn't hold that pace for the level and uphill miles. I ended up finishing in 21:16. My Garmin only measured the course at around 3.0, averaging around a 7:00/mi pace.

While there might be a few young runners that will challenge me Saturday (in 16 years I've never won this race), the only one with a recent 5K time is Taylor who ran this same course last Saturday in 20:13 in the stake YM/YW 5K race, a little over a minute faster than what I ran today. I need to drop 20 seconds per mile, but I think that is within the realm of possibility. In recent years I've normally run that first mile in around 6:00 instead of 6:30, and holding a quicker pace is always easier with a little competition. I'll also be in my lighter racing shoes instead of the heavier trainers I was wearing this morning. (I think I've almost convinced myself.)

Overall I'm very encouraged by this morning's run. My leg didn't bother me, even at the quicker pace, and it looks like maybe I'll at least be able to challenge some of the young bucks a little come Saturday. More importantly, I feel like I'm finally ready to get back into my normal training to get ready for the Wasatch Back Relay and beyond.

I ran with Larry and Wayne this morning. It was great to have Wayne after him missing a few runs. We wandered around for four miles, then followed the 5K course at about an 8:30/mi pace, then ran home for a total of about 7.4 miles.

I guess my hat has become part of my running persona. When I went out to meet Larry and Wayne they asked if it was really me because I didn't have my hat on and I always wear my hat. When I realized I didn't have it on (it's a very comfortable hat so I often forget I'm wearing it) I asked them to wait while I went back in for it.

I love my hat. It keeps the heat in when it's cold; keeps me cool, shades my eyes, and protects my bald head when it's hot; helps keep my glasses clear when it's raining; makes me more visible (it's white); I use the bill to shield headlights from my eyes in the dark; and most important of all, I think I look pretty good in it (and maybe it makes me look a little taller).

Sorry Novell guys, but I won't be running at noon again today. I plan to return to running most Mondays and Wednesdays at noon. I just wanted to focus on the neighborhood run this week, and to support Larry as he also prepares for it.

My primary goal this morning was to see if I could help pace Larry to a sub-24:00 time on the neighborhood 5K course. Larry has been the caretaker of the neighbor 5K run for most if not all its 20 year history, and it continues to be a great event every year. Larry has run every year except maybe one or two I think, and he has never run it slower than 24:00, but he was concerned about this year.

He asked me to pace him to a 7:00 first mile (downhill) and then he wanted to average 8:30/mi for the last two. He hit the first mile marker at 7:00 and held sub-8:30 for next two and finished in 23:43. I knew he could do it, and it was only a training run. He said it was really hard and he doesn't look forward to going through it again on Saturday, but I think he'll run even faster.

Wayne also ran with us today. After the first mile he was still running with us but we encouraged him to go on ahead and he finished over a minute ahead of us. 

Well, I was right about believing I had a chance of going faster than Taylor's last week time of 20:13, but I was wrong about Taylor not having a 19:30 (his goal for today) in him. I finished 2nd in 19:54, a course PR for me, but Taylor finished in 19:33.

I couldn't have wished for the race to turn out any better. I wanted to give Taylor a run for his money, and would have beaten him if I could, but I wanted him to have a good race, too. A boost in self-confidence and self-esteem can help many a young man like Taylor.

At the start there was the normal assortment of participants: kids of all ages, teenagers, young parents with strollers, middle agers, empty nesters, and grandparents...bikers, scooter-ers, walkers, joggers, novice runners and the more serious runners.

They started the bikers and scooter-ers first then started the walkers/runners. There is a long downhill at the start. Taylor and I dodged the little kids sprinting ahead of us, then slowly moved to the front of the other teenage runners whose initial sprints lasted a little longer than the smaller kids. By a mile in it was pretty clear it was going to be between Taylor and me.

At the end of the first long hill I glanced at my watch and our pace was 5:33. When I looked again at my watch as we approached the mile 1 marked it was blank. I have no idea what happened, but it was off. I turned it back on and ignored it for the rest of the race.

Taylor and I ran more or less together until about 2.3 miles in. For some reason he likes to run on the sidewalks, while I stayed on the street (which is the official course). The sidewalks gave him a shorter distance on the turns, but he ran the tangents so poorly as he switched from sidewalk to sidewalk that it all balanced out. I explained running tangents to him...after the race of course. :)

We caught the young bikers by mile 1, and a young girl in a pink jacket on a pink bike (Jaycee) decided to ride near us because we knew where to go. This was working out fine until about 2.3 miles into the race. There is a left turn onto 1600 North. She was a little ahead of us as we made the turn and started up the hill. Taylor passed her on the left and I passed her on the right. As we started to pass her Taylor put in a burst of speed. I don't know if he was trying to leave me behind or just trying to get around Jaycee. Anyway, as he passed her he apparently bumped her handle bars because she crashed to the road. We both stopped to back to her aid. As we did we noticed that Taylor's dad, who had been stopping at various points in his car to watch the race, was also on his way to help her. Since it looked like she was okay, I told Taylor we should continue the race, which we did. I don't think we lost more than 5 seconds or so. I was impressed with how naturally and quickly Taylor was willing to give up his quest for glory to stop and help Jaycee.

This happened at the beginning of the two long uphill sections that don't end until the last loop around the park to the finish line. Taylor slowly pulled ahead of me on the uphills and held on to beat me by 21 seconds, a well earned victory. I was pleased to overhear Taylor tell people after the race that I pushed him the whole way, and that he was hurting. Mission accomplished. I just wanted to make him work for it and earn it. I didn't mind him winning. I got my sub-20:00 course PR, and Taylor had to (I mean got to) take the traveling trophy home...an old running shoe mounted on a stand and painted gold.

Since Larry doesn't blog, I'll mention that he met his goal to break 24:00, and finished around 23:30, 10 seconds faster than last year. He was really nervous this year. Before the race he showed me that his resting heart rate, normally around 49 I think, was in the 90's. He was worried, but I wasn't. I knew he could do it.

Karen, and my two daughters Emily and Amy, walked the course together with some others. As I was watching runners come in imagine my delight when I saw my 12 year old daughter Emily running strongly for the finish. She actually had pretty good form, considering she never runs. She had left Karen and Amy a while back and decided to run the rest of the way. I've had no success trying to get any of my family members to run in the past, so this was a very pleasant surprise.

What an awesome event! The combination of exercise, beautiful weather, camaraderie, and food is hard to beat. I thoroughly enjoyed cheering in the other finishers, the very young to the not quite so young, the very small to the very large, the faster to the slower. I especially enjoyed seeing the very small kids sprinting for the finish. Everyone was a winner.

I dressed based on the thermometer this morning. When I went out I was surprised to realize it was raining pretty hard. I went back in and swapped my outer long sleeve shirt for a jacket. I jogged up to the corner to see if perchance Larry or Wayne was running today. I didn't see them. During this time I realized that there was a pretty strong wind to go along with the rain so I went back home. I was tempted to just stay there, but instead I put on my long pants, put the long sleeve shirt back on, with the jacket, and headed out for a solo run.I only went 5.1 miles at a very easy pace, and my knee was a little stiff, but I enjoyed the loop up through Lindon.

If the weather isn't too bad, and my knee agrees, I plan to run again at noon. I'd really like to get my weekly mileage back up to 50 and headed towards 60, but I'll have to play it by ear and take what my body gives me.

Karen and I visited our Chinese friends Kenny and Mindy on Saturday night. While Karen and Mindy worked on their food plans for girls camp this summer, Kenny and I, and their pre-teen son Nathan, just hung out and talked. I asked Kenny what they knew about "gua sha" (the scraping techinique Josse and others on the blog use). He said, "gua sha?" and looked confused, but then he said, "Oh, gua sha!" I guess I don't pronounce Chinese very well.

It turns out they use it regularly. I was a little embarrassed when I mentioned I had bought gua sha tools. Their tool literally cost them 1 penny. It actually is a penny, stored in a bottle of Vic's Vapor Rub.Kenny also pulled out his cupping set and taught me a little about cupping. I found it very interesting and am considering purchasing a cupping set.

Their son Nathan knew all about gua sha and cupping and demonstrated both for me on himself, going so far as to raise a sha rash on his leg with the penny. Kenny said that whenever he feels a cold or other illness coming on he has Mindy do his whole back. He said she did it once while they were at a hotel. Since it was his back, and it didn't hurt at all, Kenny forgot about it and went to the pool. When other people saw his back they thought he had been whipped or beaten.

I find this all very interesting. I've been experimenting with doing a little gua sha scraping on myself. I'm not sure I've been aggressive enough yet to do much good, but I'm pretty sure I haven't done any harm. Kenny assured me that it is very safe, that I shouldn't worry about doing any damage, and I should be quite aggressive. He says Mindy is very aggressive on him and it has never hurt him. I plan to be more aggressive, but by degrees.

Kenny explained that the western approach is to cover up, wrap, and bandage injuries and treat illness by putting foreign chemicals (drugs) into the body. The eastern approach is more focused on getting the bad stuff out of the body and letting the body heal itself. The latter seems to make more sense to me. The wisdom of man creates drugs and medical treatments, many of which are nearly miraculous in my eyes, but they are imperfect, and none approaches the incredible wonder of our bodies themselves, created by the infinitely greater wisdom of God.

I plan to consider the advantages of both east and west by exploring the eastern a little deeper. It's already very interesting.

At noon I went 6.25 miles on the extended Lake View route with Nathan. There was a little pain in the back of the knee, but it didn't affect my running much and we averaged 7:35/mi.
 

Larry and I were talking last week that we needed to get back on a regular route schedule. We've just been picking our routes on the fly through the winter. So this morning Larry, Wayne, and I ran our traditional Tuesday morning route which includes with the big climb up 2000 N then loops through Lindon. The back of the knee was a little stiff again this morning after the two-a-day yesterday. I wasn't sure how it would handle the big uphill, but it wasn't too bad. I like the fact that when it hurts it usually hurts before the run and feels better by the end.

As I think I mentioned yesterday, Larry, Wayne, and I are trying to get back on a more regular route schedule so today, being Wednesday, was the "big hill", a.k.a. the water tank hills. This is the series of five hills that starts at 800 E just north of the cemetery and climbs about 700 feet in 1.5 miles past the water tanks above Orem. We run a little over a mile to get there so the entire run is about 5.2 miles. No speed records today, but it was good visiting our old friend (this route). The weather was good and as usual the view of the valley was beautiful.

At noon I ran the Lake View 10K route with Tom. We were about 4 miles into it and running at about a 7:45/mi pace when Darin caught up to us. He said he had been chasing us for a while. He slowed down to run with us, but our pace for the last two miles still sped up to 7:26 and 7:27, with the last 0.2 at around 7:00/mi. Tom kept going for another mile at the end. My average pace for the 6.2 miles was 7:46.

I went one mile early then met Larry and Wayne and we went another 6.5 looping through Lindon. It was another beautiful morning for a run. My legs were a little tired from the increased (back to normal) mileage this weak, but still felt pretty good.

I ran from the mouth of Provo Canyon up to Vivian Park and back with Larry, Wayne, Kerry, and Nathan. It was pretty windy and a little chilly for my short sleeves when we started at 6:45am, but I never really got too cold and felt very comfortable most of the run.

Kerry, Nathan, and I pulled a little ahead of Larry and Wayne on the way up. But Larry and Wayne were not far behind and when we made a bathroom stop at Vivian they got a head start on the return trip. We didn't catch them until Bridal Veil. We pulled a little ahead again and then Nathan left Kerry and me and pulled ahead quite a bit farther.

I averaged 8:20/mi for the 12.25 miles, about 8:45/mi going up and 7:55/mi going down. A couple of the downhill miles were in 7:34 and 7:35. I feel good about the run, especially considering that I never really made any conscious decision to push hard at any point during the run. Mentally I was treating it as an easy run, although the pace was a little quicker than I anticipated and to call the effort easy would be stretching the truth.

All in all I would consider my "ignore the back of the knee pain" week pretty successful. I managed to put in a 48 mile week without aggravating the injury. It still gets a little stiff and sore, especially when I'm stuck sitting at my desk for a long time, but it hasn't gotten worse and actually feels quite a bit better.

I ran 6.1 easy solo miles in the early morning, and ran 5.4 miles (Eagle View) with Tom and Nathan in the late morning at work. We went early (10:30am) to beat the heat.

I had a more complete blog entry mostly done but lost it when I accidentally clicked the back button on my mouse. Oh well. I don't feel inclined to type it in again right now. 

Ran the 2000 N hill route with Larry, Wayne, and Kevin (yes, Kevin) this morning. Going back to regular routes proved useful this morning as Kevin missed us at the start but caught us at the top of the hill. It was a beautiful morning and it was great having four good buddies out for a run. We talked about river trips and American Idol among other topics.

I got in 1.5 miles before meeting them for a total of 7.1 miles. 

Ran the water tank hills with Larry and Wayne in the morning. Three mountain bikers started up the first steep hill just after we did. We see them quite often and always share friendly greetings. Today Larry challenged me to beat them up the hill, so I went for it. I'm not sure they were really racing, but I did beat them up that first hill pretty handily. The first bike to reach me after I stopped and started back down to rejoin Wayne and Larry jokingly challenged me to a race back down.

In the afternoon the rain had let up and Nathan and I ran 6 miles over Eagles View way, but heading north instead of up the Eagles View hill. I don't have my watch with me now, and don't remember the average pace, but we moved along pretty well.

I got in a mile this morning before meeting up with Larry and Wayne. Kevin joined us just after we started. We ran a 6 mile loop up through Lindon. It was a little chilly this morning and I regretted not wearing my gloves, but it was still a really enjoyable run. I'm finally beginning to feel strong again. The back of the knee pain isn't completely gone, but it's still fading even though I've stepped up my mileage again.

Running 14 miles up beautiful Provo Canyon and South Fork with good friends on a beautiful spring morning...mornings like this are one of the main reasons I love running.

One of my adult sons bought Wii Fitness and we were "playing" it last night. It measures fitness, teaches yoga, has strength and balance exercises and games. It's really pretty cool. One of the activities is a simulated run through a park. You stick the Wii remote in your pocket and run in place. My wife asked if it wouldn't be nice to have a beautiful place to run like the simulated trail through a beautiful park with a waterfall. I said, "We do. We have Provo Canyon. It even has the waterfall."

Wayne, Kevin, and I met at the mouth of Provo Canyon, left my car there and drove in Wayne's Jeep up to Vivian Park. We ran up 4.25 miles to Trefoil then back to Vivian for 8.5 miles, then continued on down the 5.8 miles to the mouth of the canyon for a total of 14.3 miles. Kevin didn't want to go that far so he turned back 1/2 mile from the top. We met up again at Vivian and he went down to about Bridal Veil Falls, then went back up and drove Wayne's Jeep down so we wouldn't have to go back up for it.

The mile splits up to Trefoil were 10:29, 9:20, 9:38, 9:53. The mile splits back down were a little faster: 8:14, 7:55, 7:49, 7:29. After a potty break and drink of water, the splits from Vivian to the mouth were 8:23, 8:04, 7:46, 7:51, 7:43, 7:33. The overall average for 14.3 miles was 8:28/mi.

I saw Bill McKnight, Doug Eddy, Bryan Johnson and a few other familiar faces along the trail this morning. Wayne commented that there seemed to be quite a few more women than men out this morning, and there seemed to be a lot of bikers, too. There were some ultra-marathoners training up South Fork for the Squaw Peak 50. I saw a deer and a squirrel and smelt a skunk. What a great morning!

Often during my runs, especially solo runs, I find myself thinking about how I'm going to describe the run in my blog when I'm done. Sometimes it motivates me to push a little harder or go a little farther. Other times, like today, it helps me to live in the moment and appreciate the experience while I'm still having it.

I came up with a single word to describe this evening's run, "spiritualicious", a combination of "spiritual" and "delicious".

Short version: I ran 10.1 easy miles starting at 6:40pm at an average 8:48/mi pace. The weather was cool and sunny, a little rain in the middle, fresh air, saw a rainbow. I really enjoyed the run.

If you have time, read on for the unabridged version.

The day started with me opting out of the planned 7:00am run with Kevin. It was raining pretty hard and we both chose to enjoy sleeping in with our families on this holiday morning instead. I knew Sasha wouldn't approve, but after worrying about that for about 2-3 seconds I crawled back into bed, cuddled up next to Karen under the warm blankets, and went back to sleep.

Karen's family has never been much into visiting cemeteries on Memorial Day, so it hasn't been much of a tradition for us. Today, however, we took our four daughters (9 to 23), two sons (19, 21) couldn't make it, and joined my brother and his two young sons, and my sister and her husband, and my parents for a visit to the Spanish Fork and Springville Evergreen cemeteries. In Spanish Fork we visited the resting places of my children's great great great grandparents, born in South Wales and Scotland, and many descendants down to my dad's parents and some of his siblings. In Springville we visited great great grandparents on my mom's side down to her parents and siblings. We also visited Karen's parents who are buried there. We also saw for the first time the plots my parents recently purchased for themselves. Even though the day was overcast with a little rain at times, our spirits were cheerful as we remembered and celebrated our wonderful family heritages, knowing that this life is just temporary, and that death is just another beginning.

After that, we took a brief tour of Springville, showing our children the homes we were raised in, some of the schools we attended, some of our friends homes, etc. I showed my daughters the romantic spot where I was watching the bridge wash out during the floods of 1983. I was talking with Karen's father when Karen came up and joined us. She had spoken at seminary graduation that night and was dressed in an attractive light blue dress with white polka dots. We had worked together the summer before but never dated. That night I decided that would change. I asked her out a couple of weeks later and we were married the next spring.

I had promised my family that we would go out to eat after the cemetery visits. It was lunch time, and after much discussion we finally ended up at The Old Spaghetti Factory. It cost me the equivalent of a pair of running shoes, but it was worth it. It was good food and we had a good time. The "delicious" part of my run comes from the fact that at various times throughout the run I would burp up the delicious tastes of chicken parmigiana, marinara sauce, and ranch dressing. I was worried a little about gastric distress, but that ended up not being a problem, probably partly because I kept the pace pretty easy.

It was sunny and cool (not cold) when I started the run around 6:40pm, with a bit of a headwind to start with. It was beautiful. I headed east towards Provo Canyon but when I got to Cascade golf course I decided to head south on Palisade Drive. I eventually went down to 400 South, west to 400 West, north to 1600 North then east back to home.

As I was headed west about halfway into the run it was sunny but it started raining pretty steadily. I knew what that meant. There had to be a rainbow. I had to give the rain time to get east of me, but sure enough in a few minutes I looked behind me to the east and there was a beautiful rainbow. That's when the "spiritual" part of my run began.

One of my favorite songs, which I've loved since I was a child, is "My Heavenly Father Loves Me". As I looked at the sunny, blue sky in front of me, and the brilliant rainbow behind me, and listened to the birds sing, and looked at the beauty of the world around me I began to sing.

Whenever I hear the song of a bird, or look at the blue, blue sky.
Whenever I feel the rain on my face, or the wind as it rushes by.
Whenever I touch a velvet rose, or walk by our lilac tree.
I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world Heavenly Father created for me.

He gave me my eyes that I might see the color of butterfly wings.
He gave me my ears that I might hear the magical sound of things.
He gave me my life, my mind, my heart. I 'll thank him reverently,
For all his creations of which I'm a part. Yes, I know Heavenly Father loves me.

I then began to sing:

I like to look at rainbows whenever there is rain.
And think about the beauty of an earth made clean again.
I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain.
I want to live the best I can and live with God again.

I'm not sure if the lyrics are right (getting lyrics wrong is one of my specialties) but those are the ones I sang.

Some other thoughts crossed my mind (a little Paulosophizing). I realized the brilliant rainbow required two things: sun and rain. We tend to prefer the sunny days over the rainy days, and easy times over the hard times in our lives. Rain (pain, sorrow, illness, injury, challenge, adversity), however, is required for us to experience the brilliant, inspiring beauty of a rainbow. And the rainbow doesn't usually appear until the storm is nearly over, when the sun and clear skies are returning.

I also thought briefly of one of my other favorite children's songs, "Give Said the Little Stream", that sings about how streams and rain bring life to plants and flowers, and how we should be like them and bring life and joy to others.

I also thought how you can never get to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow (and there really isn't a pot of gold there anyway) but you can always enjoy the rainbow.

I also thought that if someone were standing where I see the end of the rainbow to be, they wouldn't be looking at a pot of gold, or even seeing the brilliantly beautiful rainbow. They would just be standing in the rain getting wet. Sometimes maybe it would help us to change our perspective and look for rainbows instead of complaining about the rain.

I also thought of how the end of the rainbow was near my house, and thought of how the real treasure in my life is my family.

I've been trying to "live in the moment" a little better recently, and enjoy life as I'm living it. Today's run was truly a blessing, a tender mercy from the Lord. It was "spiritualicious".

I ran the Tuesday loop up 2000N with Larry, Wayne, and Kevin this morning. The weather was beautiful. Kevin pushed up the hill and was pulling ahead. I was enjoying the conversation with Larry and Wayne but about halfway up I decided to close the gap then ran with Kevin to near the top. He put on another boost the last block or so and finished ahead of me. It's great to see Kevin running well again. Wayne's boosting his mileage in preparation for the Teton Dam marathon next month and is also running very well. Larry's picking up the pace and mileage as well. It must be that time of year. The sun was bright as we ended the run today. What a great start to the day!

I wasn't planning to run at noon today, but Tom invited me to run 4 easy miles and the day was so nice I couldn't say no. We ended up also getting Nathan, Bill, and Will to run with us. They were going a little farther than four miles and when Tom hit the two mile mark and turned back I was torn about who to go with. I continued with the group, but less than 1/10th of a mile later the combination of a gurgle in my stomach and the talk of maybe going six miles finally convinced me I should have turned back with Tom...so I did. Of course now I was about 0.15 miles behind Tom. We had run the first two miles at an easy pace of 8:44 and 8:33, but I ran the third mile in 7:13 and finally caught Tom. We ran the fourth mile in 7:55 and I averaged 8:05/mi for the 4.25 miles.

The run at noon felt a lot like the 3rd leg of the Wasatch Back Relay. The legs were a little tired and sluggish. Maybe three runs in 18 hours for a total of 20+ miles had something to do with that. I didn't really plan to do that, but hopefully the training will make the real thing just a little easier.

Larry, Wayne, and I ran the water tank hills this morning. It was another beautiful morning. My legs are feeling the effects of the increased mileage, but feeling stronger at the same time. The knee pain has continued to fade. I plan to run at noon as usual for a Wednesday, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to keep up. My legs aren't used to these 10 mile days.

I survived the noon run, barely. After all these months of waiting for warmer weather, today was the first day it felt too warm during a run and I found myself wishing for slightly cooler weather. The warmer weather was only one of the challenges today, the pace was the other. Once again, Tom only wanted to go four easy miles, so the first two miles were okay at 8:44 and 8:15. Nathan wanted to go longer and a little faster, and I agreed to try to hang with him. Tom turned back part way into mile three, which Nathan and I finished in 7:54, still pretty reasonable. We then went to 7:40 for mile four, then 7:23 for mile five. I had had enough by mile six and finally convinced Nathan to cut me loose. He quickly pulled away then came back near the end to run in with me. I finished mile six in 7:47, and then we finished the last 0.2 together. Nathan then hit the treadmill for a couple of more miles.

I was pleased to be able to run a 7:23 mile in the heat with my legs feeling as tired as they do. Also, this was not an all out run, more of a marathon pace effort. I got plenty hot and tired, but it feels good to feel like a runner again.

I ran with Wayne and Larry this morning. Lyle ran with us for a while then cut off early. I'm logging this morning's miles as easy because we only averaged about a 9:30/mi pace, but it felt more like marathon pace effort. My legs are good and tired from the extra miles this week, but generally feeling pretty good.

We're planning on 15-16 miles on Saturday, running the new trail from Deer Creek dam up to Midway and back. With 38 miles now, that would put me at around 54 miles for the week, a big week for me. I may go a few easy miles tomorrow morning, or maybe some basketball.

Somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good. Today's run was another blessing.

Wayne picked up Kevin and me and we drove up to meet Larry at the parking lot at Deer Creek Dam. We ran along the gravel trail on the north side of the reservoir from the dam up to the train station in Midway. Wayne and I actually went an extra 1/4 mile to the barn to get the full 8 miles up so we could get 16 miles overall.

The weather was perfect, with partly sunny skies, moderate temperatures, and just enough of a breeze to keep us cool. I carried a bottle of water and dropped it about 4.25 miles out. It was nice to share it on the return trip. The bathrooms at the train platform where we turned around were also welcome. It would be nice if there was water there, too.

There is a nice variety of uphill and downhill along the route, climbing ridges and dropping into small valleys in between. The combination of running on gravel and all the uphill and downhill made the run feel more like an 18 or 20 mile run than 16. The pace wasn't fast, about 9:30/mi overall, but it was a great workout.

I made the comment during the run how lucky we are. How many people can get together with a few good friends and go for a 16 mile run at about the same pace? And enjoy such natural beauty so close to home?

To top it off, I get home and my 16 year old daughter is making homemade pancakes from scratch. They were awesome. Yes, somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good.