Catching up.

It has been too long since my last post. I will do my best to catch you all up. Training has by and large been going good. I have only had one injury and it didn't keep me down long. I'll explain as we go.

I am continually impressed by the sheer amount of time that my brain thinks about this race. I have Wasatch thoughts all day every day! By and large I have been okay at avoiding distractions at work but it is HARD. I have an app on my phone that does a days countdown and we are now only 113 days away. I should probably delete the app but I think it helps with my urgency in training.

So by way of re-cap here we go....

Last month I decided to run the SLC Marathon for a second time. My sixth full marathon overall.This year the marathon was under stress as ownership changed late in the game and the race even happening was in question. John Peterson, my good friend and potential pacer, was running it and I decided the Wednesday before to join in the fun.

The day was hot! My strategy was to run it with a low heart rate and practice "crewing" with my wife Sarah. I asked her to meet me at mile 15 and we would change out some clothes and GU's etc. I am glad that we practiced as it did not go well. At least we have 113 days to get it right :) Sarah is an amazing support and often pushes me out the door and encourages me to go harder and stronger on my runs. There have been a few times that I have felt that I have to finish the Wasatch to pay her back for all of her support and sacrifice. I am not sure that there is anything that I can do to pay her back.

I finished the race and felt totally fine. In fact that day and the next I was out playing basketball with my son. The first marathon that I did I laid in bed for two days. I attribute all of my hill training and a by chance ice bath to my speedy recovery.

This is me ice bathing in the fountains in front of KSL news studio.

I have been spending a lot of time on Mt. Olympus. It is close to home and a great place to get a lot of vertical. I will be spending less time there as the rattlesnakes are out in full force. I did go to the saddle a couple of weeks ago and was treated to this great scene.



One of my other favorite runs is Bells Canyon. Bells is a small canyon located at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon. It is flanked by towering granite cliffs. There are waterfalls and a couple of small lakes up there. Luke, Anton and I spent one night up there in which we all fell.

This is where my injury comes into play. I was running down a medium grade hill and running faster than I have ever run. I felt like I was on rails. It was dusk and visibility was not ideal. I had a headlamp on but was losing the trail in the shadows as the dusky light was essentially cancelling out that of my headlamp. I must have side stepped a root or rock or something because I severely rolled my ankle. I heard it pop over my tunes that were blaring in my ears. I was able to close the remaining 3/4 mile down the trail and with the RICE method (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevate) I was back on the trail 4 days later.

Luke and Anton pose under the Granite Cathedrals.

Luke snapped this shot of me with Salt Lake Valley in the distance.

Last Saturday I ran 19 miles 9 of which were on the Wasatch course. I parked at the mouth of Lambs Canyon and ran up the canyon road to the Lambs Canyon trail. The Lambs Canyon trail climbs up into the high reaches of Millcreek Canyon. The trail eventually leads to Elbow Fork and up the Millcreek Canyon road to the Upper Big Water trail.

This picture was taken in the saddle of Lambs and Millcreek Canyon. I was pretty puckered at this point as I had been cutting moose tracks for a half hour. Five minutes before I snapped this pic I cut the biggest cougar track that I have ever seen. I prefer cougars to moose but the combination had the juices flowing.

Here is the sign for upper big water. This is located at the top of Millcreek Canyon. There was still a significant amount of snow here but with the temps as high as they've been we should be snow free soon.

This picture was taken last night. The subject is my 10 year old son Camden. He has a major mountain goat motor. If I wasn't so worried about a mental breakdown on my part I would have him pace me on the big day. He said to me while we were climbing Oly "Dad, you are gonna nail the Wasatch!" I said "I hope so buddy" to which he replied "you don't need to hope! You've got this!!" I hope that I can remember his words of faith and encouragement when I am deep in the pain cave in September.