Millcreek 50k, Speedy Goats, Waterfalls and Outdoor Retailer!

Wow the end of July and beginning of August have been CRAZY.

August isn't going to slow down either!

On July 19th, there was a Bandit Race - the Millcreek 50k - that I decided I was going to run, since I don't have any other long races planned until the Pony Express in October, and it had been a while since I ran a longer race!

So I bought a new headlamp (because we needed a good one of those finally anyway!) and met up with some friends who were running it as well.

Me before the race - waiting to shuttle a car to the finish

The race started at 9 PM at an Elementary school about a half mile from the Grandeur Peak trailhead, and we took off at a good clip - I was definitely in the top ten for this first half mile - but dang some of those guys were FAST!

Then we hit the hike up Grandeur.

UGH. That's a mean hike! You start at about 4950 feet, and end up at 8250 feet in about 2 miles! 3,300 feet! THEN it's a gorgeous run down Church Fork Trail into Millcreek Canyon. I probably went a bit too fast, passing a bunch of people and then I was ALONE for the next five or so miles to the first aid station. I'm not a very big fan of being completely alone in the dark middle of the night on a trail, not because it's scary, it's actually fairly peaceful. But it got a bit boring after a while.

So I slowed a bunch until one of my friends caught up and we stuck together for the next 12 slow brutal miles... climbing... walking... hiking... UP up UPUPPPPPP.

The Moon was really cool when we could see it!

SO TIRED!!

We took the out at Dog Lake, 22 miles in, running 2 more miles for a total of 24 miles in a time of 7:51. That was 3rd place for the Dog Lake Out! Yeah! :p 8k-12k total vertical gain over those 24 miles... depending on which sites elevation tracking.

Leslie, Kreuzer and Me happy to be done!

We thought we'd have to wait a while for Zac to come in, but we were only there for 10 minutes before he crossed the finish line! He's speedy!

It was great to spend almost 8 hours on a training run. Even though it was almost 10 miles shorter than my longest run... that was definitely the hardest run I've EVER done.


Last week we had the opportunity to see the finish of the Speedgoat 50k. Sage Canaday and Anton Krupicka were AMAZING. My brother also had a hard week of NOT training and being at sea level for 2 weeks, so his race was TOUGH. He finished the hardest 50k there is in under 10 hours!

Top 3, and I am still trying to find out who this yellow shirt guy was...

So cool to see that level of competition!

In my own running and workouts I've had some great runs, and I've started some weights and protein to go along with it so I can look GOOD for the Physique contest.

Warning: WAY Too many shirtless pictures coming up. You've been warned!

I also had the chance to see the Outdoor Retailer trade show. WOW amazing products and people walking around there. Some of the best climbers, runners, etc, and it was like nobody cared. So weird. I even saw Anton Krupicka and talked to him for a couple of minutes. Great guy!

Friday Morning I took the day off and had an awesome run with my wife. Yoga poses on a big rock, a fantastic run up a gorgeous canyon - and a really cool WATERFALL! My wife is amazing.

Oh yeah - I got some shorty short running shorts!

 It has been a fantastic couple of weeks - but BUSY!

This coming week is my TWELFTH anniversary - and we will get some runs and fun in up in Park City, and then we will be doing the Ragnar Trail Snow Basin Relay! Should be fun!