After spending the weekend in the dreary, rainy, cloudy Spokane, I was itching to get out for a good run. That itch became even more pronounced when the morning was shaping up to be a perfectly sunny cloudless day. Jun and I finished up with some conference calls and headed out for a lunchtime run. We decided to hit up the Corner Canyon/Clark Trail in Draper, and man were we glad we did. We started the run with me in front (I think Jun wanted to make sure that I didn't get lost), though I almost did because the leaves so thickly blanketed the trail that I could barely make out where it was. We made some sarcastic remarks about what a terrible place this was to run, because the trail was jut perfect - Beautiful leaves had fallen, snow capping the peaks above, not a lot of people out, all with some sunny but cool crisp fall weather. The trail has a fair amount of ups and downs for the first two miles, but then you hit a nice three mile uphill stretch. Apparently this where Jun decided he was done pussyfooting around. I stayed with him for about the first mile, then he was feeling his oats and dropped me like a wet sack of potatoes. I kept him mostly in sight until the very end, and at those times I was sure he was going to pop out of the bushes and try and scare me or something. I made it to the top a couple of minutes behind. Took a water/pee break then we were off down the Clark Trail. Again, Jun couldn't contain himself and Jun blew down the trail, I couldn't even think about keeping pace with him, especially on this downhill. So I just kept my pace and got into a good rhythm until I met up with him at the bottom. Still had about a mile and a half to go and he lost me again. I was feeling OK, just had no gas in the tank- it'd been a while since my oatmeal breakfast, so I think there was just nothing left to go on. I still finished averaging about a 9:16 pace, and a couple of minutes faster than my last run on that trail, so I feel pretty good about it. Jun gave me something to chase (and not catch), which is just demoralizing enough to keep me motivated to keep working. MT 101s were great, especially over the rocky patches that would've eaten my track flats alive. Driving back we couldn't believe the people that we saw running on the side of the road when there are such amazing trails nearby. To each his own I guess...
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