Gaining more than you lose

8 miles on the Kaysville BoSho. Seems like its been a while!

A couple of the miles out to were with Davis' track coach, Corbin (who's team had just won 5A in track and field Sat!). He started a little before me, I passed him on the first hill as he took in the view, then he caught back up by Adams and then we chatted the rest of the way to Fernwood. He headed back as I took advantage of the facilities and decided whether I should keep going or turn back. I looked to the west and saw a storm rolling in, so I headed back. Ran through some wind and rain, but tried to keep a decent pace. With about a half mile left, I passed three ladies, and just as I was passing I noticed it was my sister in law running with her mother-in law and sister in law. So I made a u-turn and ran with them for a bit, up the first climb again. :)  

8 miles - 1:12:11 - 9:01 pace - 1100 vert

More BoSho for me today, this time the Draper variety. Jun and I met Scott at the trailhead (park) and when we pulled up Melzter was just getting out of his car to head out. So we chatted with him for a few and then he took off and we waited for Scott to change in his car. So cool to just run into one of the best in the sport and just have a casual chat and then have him in your sites for part of your run (he won a 100 last week, so that helped with the pace :)). 

Great run on the BoSho, up Corner Canyon, then down Clarks trail. A little muddy and sketchy in spots, but super fun. Tweaked my knee a little on one of the 'slides', just felt like it hyperextended a little. Nothing major, I'll just ice it up and rest tomorrow, should be good to go. The weather was decent enough, a little windy and cold in spots, but no real rain to speak of, just a little mist that accompanied our trip up Corner Canyon road - though it certainly doesn't feel like the end of May!!. My legs still felt a little heavy on the climbs, probably just be the mileage and vert from the past week.

And I just remembered its a holiday weekend - oh yeah! :)

11.4 miles - 1:47:22 - 9:24 pace - 1500 vert

Run with Jun in Corner Canyon. This time we started at the Red Rock trailhead and went up Ghost falls. My legs felt super heavy going up, and Jun was flying, which made me feel that much slower - it didn't help that he kept thinking I was going to catch him, so he kept pushing it, ha. Just kept a solid pace and trucked my way up. We continued up Corner Canyon road and then came down Clarks. I saw Jun for the first little bit and then he was just gone. I kept looking at my watch and I was running a 6:30, but I just couldn't catch him, he was feelin' it! He waited for me at the bridge, and then I kept right with him as we made our way back to the start. With about a mile to go Jun clipped a rock with his toe and went down! It actually looked fairly graceful, but falling on a trail will usually leave you with something, and in this case it was some nice lost skin right on the fleshy part of his hand, and a bloody elbow. I knew how he felt, I had fallen on that very trail last year - its one of those injuries that doesn't really hurt terribly bad, its just in such an annoying spot! Anyway, he hopped up and said "Well I'm not going to let that slow me down" and we were off. I kept right with him again, until just before the very last hill I noticed him make an effort to drop me, which he did. I turned it on and ran as hard as I could to catch up, and made it to about 5 to 10 feet behind him when we hit the finish. I'd say that counts. :)  Ended up with a pretty decent pace and some good vert. Nice shirtless run! :)

7.63 miles - 1:08:13 - 8:56 Pace - 1440 vert

More Kaysville BoSho for me to round out the week. Beautiful day, lots of people on the trail. Ran from the Vita Course (200N) trailhead, over to Fernwood and up the Great Western. This time I ran up (no hiking) to the point where Craig and I had run it last (5 mile mark)- the furthest I'd been up that trail- and then allowed myself to hike the steep stuff for the next mile, with running mixed in when I could. A little slow going on that last section, but it was super fun to blast down. Felt much stronger today on the uphills than I have the rest of the week - though maybe that's because I was by myself and wasn't getting left in the dust! :)  Glad I was able to get a run in while there was still some sunshine.

Got slowed down a few times by hikers and such, its always amusing to see people panic when you come up behind them and announce that you're coming through. It doesn't seem to matter what you say - "On your left" "Excuse me" "Coming through" "Pardon me" "EVERYBODY MOOOOVE" - you still get one person in the group that can't decide which side to move to and so they end up doing a potty dance in the middle of the trail. Come on people, its America, drive on the right side. (I nearly got pushed off the Angels landing trail in Zion when a dude with a huge pack WENT left, when I said "on your left" - I literally had to grab his pack to make my way around him! :)

On another similar note, near the end of my run my shoe came untied and so I stopped to tie it. Just as I stopped I heard a horse galloping up the trail, so I moved off to the side of this very wide section of trail so that I could tie my shoe and they could pass. So I'm tying my shoe and the guy and his wife are just sitting there like 10-20 feet down the trail just watching me...then he's like "If you squatter down like that they'll pick you up as a predator..." like he thought I was trying to hide from his horse or something. Anyway, here's my complaint, and as an avid horseman and someone that has trained and worked with horses my whole life, I feel like I can say this with some experience to back it up. Here's my problem - If you are worried that a human being crouched 5 feet off the side of the trail tying their shoe (after your horse watched me walk over there) is going to be a problem for your horse, you 1 - probably shouldn't be riding your horse on a trail that is so heavily trafficked, and 2 - If you do choose to take it on those trails, you really should be using it as a training opportunity to show your horse that it shouldn't be scared of everything on the trail, not sitting there waiting for every person you pass to stand in just the right statuesque position so you can ride passed. I want my horse to be able to have someone go flying by and not have it even bat an eye. It is NOT the responsibility of other runners/bikers/hikers/whomever to tiptoe around your horse because you think that mike spook it. Prepare your horse for the conditions you'll be riding in. I once had a horse that I was going to be riding on trails that I knew there would be mountain bikes on, and I was not confident that he had been around them at all, so guess what I did - I spent several days leading up to it riding him up and down the road with my wife riding a bike next to us, behind us, beside us, around us, etc... While I will always be courteous to anyone else on the trail, especially horses, I've heard of other runners having similar experiences with riders and it really just bugs me when they expect everyone else to watch out for them.  Anyway, long rant over - it was a little thing but it bothered me! :)

12 miles - 1:58:52 - 9:54 pace - 2555 vert