Many Moons...

It has been "many moons" since I have blogged in here.  I wanted to give a detailed description of our great trip over Resurrection Pass (4 days from Coopers Landing to Hope, Alaska) with photos.  However, the events of the summer had me sidetracked for quite some time.

 Here is the quickie version of our 40 mile Resurrection Pass trip.  It turned out there was a whole horde of us that ended up going on the trip which was quite nice.  It was a very fun group.  We had the "Trail Blazing Fools" (which did just that), the "Just Happy to Be There" group, and - - - me.  I can’t remember everyone’s nicknames - otherwise I would spell them all out here.  Actually I was happy to be there but hiking about ten miles every day for four days straight started to take its toll on me and a few times on the trip I was felling somewhat worn out.  I slowed down the running for the summer and was not in as good of shape as a few months earlier.  I have a lot of photos of the trip and will put a few in this posting.  The group photo above was taken at the start.  A group of three men just finished hiking form Hope and they looked beat - we asked them to take the photo with all of us in it.  I remmeber thinking "I hope I dont look like them when we finish."  Four days later - when we did finish, I felt a little tired but not as "beat" as those three guys looked...

Photo above is our first night at Juneau Lake Cabin.  We experienced an unusually high amount of rain during the summer of 2010 and the weather forecast for our trip in July did not look very good.  Fortunately, for some reason, we experienced very little rain on our trip.  It was overcast about half the time.  We had cabins reserved for each one of the three nights and I will have to admit - they were VERY NICE!  When we got to mile 38 it started to drizzle a little then two miles later when we got to the parking lot it was raining harder – good timing.  We sent the kids ahead to go pick up the other vehicle at Coopers Landing and bring it back to Hope which we figured out would take them about an hour.  About the time the kids came with the vehicles it just started to rain very hard.  Driving home, when we got to the other side of Turnagain Arm, we looked over at Hope and it was dark with rain and clouds.

Photo above is Devils Pass - not too much further to Resurrection Pass.  We did a little Geocaching along the way and found a few caches.  The second cache we found was in pieces, ripped apart by a bear.  One cache, just over the summit, was about 200 yards off the trail in some heavy brush – we let that one go.

Photo above at Fox Creek Cabin - our last night.  Did not have a good outside photo of the Devils Pass cabin which was in a very scenic area.  Two weeks before our trip some mountain bikers were attacked by a bear on the same trail so we were a little concerned about bears.  We set the “trailblazers” up with some bear spray.  I had my 10mm G29 with a 15 round magazine in an easily accessible small pack with a rip open zipper and Dan had his 1911.  We did not see any bear.  Any sign of bear we saw was at least a week old.  Usually we see a few bears, black and brown – but not this trip.  We were a little disappointed – we hardly saw any of the bigger animals at all.

There is a lot more, a lot of good times but I will leave the stories for another time.

Upcoming Adventure

Upcoming 34 mile adventure Rez Pass - we will let you know how it goes.  Click on map to see the big picture...

Commute

Here is the info on my 15 mile commute.  It is uphill most of the way (see graph).

It starts out on a narrow trail through a forest with a lot of roots on the trail.  It goes through a construction area where I have not found out the best way to get through there yet so, I just barge through for the time being.  So far no flack from the construction workers.  After the first mile it finally gets to a paved trail.  Miles 2-3 is the only part of the commute were I have be on a road with traffic.  At mile three I am on paved trail all the way to Eagle River.  In Eagle River I cut through the VFW where I show my military ID and they let me pass...  Then up through the new neighborhoods in Eagle River until we hit our house in the old neighborhood.  It is the ultimate commute that seems to change every year.  Right now Michelle takes me to work and I run home.  Hopefully later I will be commuting both ways.  Click on map to see the bigger view.
  - Brad

"Takes a licking and keeps on ticking..."

I have a Timex watch - that Michelle uses.  Now that I got that out of the way, I have been running a race every Saturday since April 17.  I am surprised I have kept it up.  I will probably do something for the Midnight Sun in June - not sure what yet.  I iwll probably get back into the Orienteering competitions again this summer which will keep me going.  I am seriously considering doing the Fireweed again also.  I have not done the bike commute yet this year but I will probably get going on that soon.  Keep on running and let us all know what is going on.
- Brad

La Grande Corsa | The Big Race

It has been over a week since the big race (April 17) - I could not remember my PW for this blog when we were traveling so here it is - now.  I really enjoyed running the race in SLC - it was much easier than I expected.  Probably because I trained for the marathon and ended up running the half marathon.  A lot of things seemed to add up for the half marathon being the best thing for me to run - my physical therapist stating I "...should probably reduce your exercises with a lot of impact...,"  three weeks ago, seemed to be the cherry on the top.  So the half it was.  Things seemed to go very well.  Our hotel was about 100 feet from he starting line so that reduced a lot of logistical concerns.  It was a great day weather-wise.  Sunny, and out of the five times I have run the SLC half, 5k , bike marathon it was the warmest.  Got a little too warm near the finish which is way different than previous years.


Back to the Race (Torna alla Race)

I missed the gospel choir at the start (they were there the last two years).  The start was packed - it was at the Legacy Bridge at the University of Utah (the race ended at the Gateway Mall in downtown SLC).  We lined up in the back of the middle third and it took us five minutes of walking to cross the start line after gun went off... (was there even a gun - or was it just a countdown???).  Once we crossed the start and began running I immediately found myself winding through the walkers and slower runners (probably should start lining up in the middle from now on...).  Michelle was with me and Chris, Jason, and Austin were making a break for it.  I did not see Rachel or Chelsea until a mile from the end.  Michelle was going to walk but kept up with me very well.  Started out with 10:30 min/miles which seemed very easy.  My plan was to run the entire way but walk through the water stations (which is what I did).  Michelle kept up with me very well until about mile three.  I slowed down to see if I could see her but she did not catch up so I kept on going.  I ran alone for the rest of the way.

Water Tragedy (Acqua tragedia)
I never felt like I need to take walking breaks so I kept the walking short at the water stations.  The Garmin was telling me around mile four that my times were slowing down to 12:00 min/mile - I was still feeling good.  The next two miles were downhill so my pace picked up.  I was getting pretty thirsty at mile six and was looking forward to the next water station.  I remember that there was one coming up soon from my previous years runs.  When I got close I saw a hole (~8" diameter and 4" deep) in the middle of the road that I jumped over - I remember thinking that I "hope Michelle sees it because they are like magnets to her."  Getting closer to the water station I remember seeing some bog round orange and black things waving in the air.  I wondered, "are those some kind of flags marking the next water station?"  Why would they do that?  The orange and black things ended up the water coolers.  Apparently they did not have any cups and were holding the coolers in the air for people to put their mouths below the spigot.  I was much more thirsty than previous water stations so I figured I had to stop and get in line.  This is the only time I stopped during the whole race - just to wait in line for a couple of sips of water...  Tragedy in my book.  I took my sops and easily got going again.

Let the Entertainment Begin (Che il divertimento comincia)
As usually about mile three my runners high started kicking in and I was pretty much zoned out for the next few miles.  I saw a to of people around me that I felt like I knew - I might have actually known them but everyone kept on running.  In long distance runs you usually settle in with the usually crowd that you will be running the rest of the race with at about mile seven - at least that is what happens with me.  So, I picked out the usuals and tried to pass them about mile seven.  I passed a few but settled in with "my crowd" for the rest of the race.  There was a group of women that had a faster pace than I did but every mile they would stop on the side of the road (considerate) and do yoga and stretches.  They would pass me then stop again.  I got to see this the rest of the race until we hit the hill at mile 11 where my marathon training let me pass them permanently.  It was entertaining watching them and the different things they would stop and do on the side of the road.  The leader of the marathon passed me just after mile 11 past Liberty Park.  It was motivating to see the leader, running all alone with a pace car.  I temporarily picked up my pace for about a mile.  Mile 11-12 were going up State Street.  A gradual hill that got steeper at the top.  I tried to pass a few people but they ended up returning the favor, back and forth until we got to the top.  We had to run through some road construction and I took the tangents zigging and zagging through the construction and ended up ahead.  I am not sure why people stay in lanes like they are driving a car when you are running a race...  It was downhill the rest of the way to the finish and I really picked up the pace.  I felt great and passed a lot of people the last mile.

Finish (Finire)

I immediately started seeing people I knew just after I crossed the finish line.  Susie and Rodrigo, Austin and Jason, James and Martha Willis, Chris, then Michelle (a lot of others too).  I felt like I could have run a lot further (of course, I trained for twice the distance I just ran...).  It was good to see everyone.  Chris got some updates on Chelsea and Rachel on the marathon course.  I kept on suggesting we run the course backwards to find them then finish with them.  No takers.  We got all our post race snacks and were talking to people.  Chelsea texted that they were at mile 23.  We walked out to the Jazz BBall place and waited.  I decided to walk up the course and run back with Chelsea and Rachel.  I walked, then sat, then walked and finally saw them.  It was fun to run the last short distance with them.  I peeled off before the finish parade zone and got some good video of them crossing.

It was a to of fun - pretty cool to do it as a family.  It was very easy but felt good to rest the remainder of the day.  Rachel and Chelsea did great running the full marathon with impressive time.  Now it is over it is easy to say "I want to do it again."

Ooohwhee! Wat up wit dis? Wut up wit dat?

Did a seven mile training run with Jason on Saturday.  He smoked me - Wut up wit dat?  It was a sunny warm (40 degrees) day good enough for shorts.  Plan was to do a casual seven mile run.  There was a little ice on the road in the shady areas where we started.  As we started the run I brought my chalkboard and laser pointer to give Jason the fatherly lecture on how to pace yourself in a long run.  Before I got the chalk out of my pocket Jason "did a little jingle, did a little jangle" and took off.  The next thing I knew was that Deandre Cole and John Stockton came running by.  When I got to the weigh station I though I would see Jason on the long straightaway - I did see him, as a small dot on the horizon.  Anyway it was a good run for me.  Jason went nine miles and finished 20 minutes before I finished my seven miles (algebra that in the train to Chicago formula).  It was fun running with Jason for the few minutes I saw him.  We did see a lot of church members on the trail taking advantage of the GC halftime.

I'm going to try this instead...

I noticed a few weeks ago that the Salt Lake City Marathon finally got its web site back up.  I also noticed that they added a new racing category.  Besides the Marathon, Half Marathon, 5k, Wheelchair, and Bike Tour, they added a Motorized Rollerblade 26 mile marathon on the same course and starting time as the marathon.  Well -  this solves all my problems.  I wont have to train any more, all this running is getting pretty tiring and making me sore.  Also, the excitement of blasting through the streets of SLC going 20-30mph on rollerblades is pretty exciting.  When I found out I ordered a pair of motorized rollerbaldes and they just arrived.  Here is a photo of them.

It looks like I will have to wait until packet pick-up to actually change to the motorized rollerblade category - they wont let you do it online if you are already registered.  I am supposed to get a helmet too.