The boys and I had been throwing out ideas last week for runs we could to today. Time and snow conditions limited our options, so we decided to just run the beginning of the Wasatch 100 course until we ran out of time or ran out of trail, and then would turn around and run back. Ended up that only Jun and I could make it, and we set out early in the morning. Jun was still really really sore from the 5K we had run on Saturday, so we picked up a nice casual pace to warm up (OK, he had done a crossfit challenge before running the 5K, so his normally unused muscles were still screaming at him). After a well needed pit stop and Fernwood (3.5) we started the climbing in earnest. We ran for about 2 more miles and then settled in to a pretty decent power hike. Craig started to fall back a little (something I'm really not used to!), so I just pushed on. It was a beautiful morning and the trail conditions were great. At about 8000 feet the trail started to have a little snow covering on it from the weekend storms, but it really wasn't bad at all. As I got to the traverse that then drops you down to the spring before chinscraper, Craig got my attention and told me to hold up. Once he got to me we decided that we were about out of time, and that this was as good a place as any to turn back. Chinscraper looked like it had a fair amount of snow on it, but looked like it was passable. The way down was a lot of fun, several miles of downhill in the morning sun. A couple of short steep climbs reminded me that my climbing legs were pretty tired, and a mile or two more of downhill let me know that all of my legs were tired!! From Fernwood Craig started to pull ahead a little, we were both pretty wrecked, it was kind of funny. I caught back up to him on the last steep downhill and then we just casually ran in the last dirt road part, with a nice 100M sprint at the end. With the amount of running I've been able (or NOT been able) to do in May, this was a good run and I felt happy with how it went. Weather was great and we caught sight of a couple of jets from Hill Airforce base fly by. 16.3 miles 4600 feet of vert.
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