What a day! Jun and Scott made the trip up to my neck of the woods and we headed on out to Antelope Island to give the 25K loop trail a go. Weather reports had chances of snow and overcast, and even as we were driving across the causeway it appeared that we were probably in for another cloudy day. Couldn't have been further from it - started off a little overcast with very little wind, however as the run wore on the sun made appearances with a blue sky to the west -we could not have asked for better running weather. We'd only wished we'd worn shorts! Started the run a little slower to warm up, then after the first mile Jun dropped it into gear and picked up the pace. I tried to stick with him as best I could, because I know that if I lose him he's hard to catch back up to! Had some good sub 9 min paces as we climbed up out of the valley. Dropping back in the White Rock bay valley we picked up the pace, ran past a big herd of buffalo on the valley floor, then began our way back up towards the Elephant Head turn off. That Lone Tree climb is about the only spot on the course that required any walking. We paused for a brief pee break and regrouped. We headed back down into the Split Rock valley, and Jun was flying! I stayed right on his heels, and at one point I looked down at my watch and saw 4:54 - it certainly wasn't for long, but it was fun to think that my legs could actually move that fast. I heard Scott yelling at us from behind, but neither of us could discern what was later revealed to us as some friendly advice for Craig. :) The trail starts to take you back up with a gradual climb, and then there are a series of switchbacks. This was very cool for me because when I had looked at the maps, I assumed these would be steep switchbacks that would require some walking. Not so, they were completely runnable, and since Craig had gained a little ground on me, it was cool because you can still have a few words as you pass by each other. Hitting the top and heading back along flatter ground, I fell into a surprisingly comfortable (for me) 8:30 pace. I could see Craig moving well a ways ahead of me (he really gained ground on the uphills) and then I noticed three people between us. So, of course I picked up the pace and decided that I needed to pass them before we got to where I knew Craig would be waiting, at the Elephant Head turnoff, where we had stopped before. I passed one guy fairly quickly, and didn't pass the faster 2 until just a few yards before I made it to where Craig was waiting. The three guys left after a very brief chat, then we regrouped and chatted for a couple of minutes ourselves, and then headed on out. It was a little harder to go super fast down the Lone Tree hill, since its fairly steep and hard to get a good rythmn, but we got down quick enough and pushed through the valley, again with the three guys ahead in our sites. I did walk about 10 feet of the hill up out of the valley, and the back onto the flat stuff for a bit, where I passed 2 of the three guys as I tailed Jun by just a few hundred feet. He ran with their leader for a bit, then dropped him, then I caught up and chatted for a bit, they were also going to be doing the 50K and he was going for a 2nd loop today as well. He stopped to walk and let me go on my way. I tried to keep Jun about the same distance from me the whole time, and again I was surprised when I thought my pace was feeling slow I looked down and was about 8 min/miles. Trail started heading down and so the pace remained well under 8 minutes until the finish. Finished only about a minute behind Jun, and about 4-5 minutes overall behind him, all of which was him waiting that second time at Elephant head. I felt great the entire run, no knee pain to speak of. Did get a couple of hot spots on the balls of my feet, so I need to figure out what that was all about. Simply an amazing run, with perfect weather, and my personal long though it didn't feel like it, which is even better. I was very happy to get the full look at the 50K course and am feeling much better about having to run 30 miles in less than 2 months! 16 miles - 1:25:30 - 9:05 pace - 2000 feet - See Jun's blog for pics
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