Halloween Half Marathon

This Saturday Audrey and I ran in the Halloween Half Marathon in Provo, UT about 3 hours from Kemmerer. The course boasts 2,000 ft. of elevation loss over the 13.1 miles. We went down on Friday to pick up our race packet information. We got what we needed and went to our motel and went to bed early because we had to be on a bus by 6:45 a.m. the next morning. I didn't sleep very good; I never do anymore besides in my own bed.
We woke up at 5:00 and got ready. The temperature was supposed to be around 34 degrees when the race started at 9:00 a.m. They had to bus 2,500 people up to the start of the race which was located at Sundance Ski Resort. We made it to the starting area around 7:15 a.m. They had 2 large tents set up with propane heaters so everyone could stay warm until the race started. While people were waiting they had costume contests.
For this race they had pacers (people who hold a sign on the end of a stick announcing when they will be finishing the race). So if you wanted to finish in say 1 hour and 30 minutes you would find the pacer with that time on their flag. The last half marathon that Audrey and I ran we finished in 1:35:45, so our goal was to finish in under 1 hour and 30 minutes.
We made our way to the start line finally after waiting for what seemed like forever. The first 4-5 miles were incredibly steep. We even had a few switchbacks that we had to go down. We started out pretty fast and kept a good strong pace going. The actual course itself is really pretty as it starts up in the mountains and then runs down a canyon along a river. There is even a waterfall that comes down off one side of the canyon (Bridal Veil Falls).
We only slowed down in a few spots during the whole race, and we ended up finishing in 1 hour and 28 minutes. We beat our goal time by 2 minutes and improved our PR (Personal Record) for the Half Marathon distance by over 7 minutes. Our average mile splits were 6 minutes and 43 seconds. When we looked at the results Audrey had gotten 2nd in her age division and I had gotten 10th. We were 75th and 76th overall out of 2,500 people.

To see the results click here: http://milliseconds.com/races/detail/1387

It was a fun race, and the weather ended up being perfect warming up to around 60 degrees when the race was over. Here are some pictures from the race.

Burn Your Lungs Is On Facebook!

The Weekend

Saturday morning I got up at 4:45 a.m., loaded up the Tahoe, filled my Thermos with coffee, and set off driving North of Kemmerer around 40 miles to Commissary Ridge. It was still dark when I arrived to my destination, but after getting all of my gear ready the hint of morning was enough light to see by. I put on my pack and slid 5 Hornady 150 Grain 30-06 Bullets into my Savage rifle. I was going elk hunting.

The area where I was hunting was a walk-in area only. I climbed up the side of the ridge for about a mile and half to the end of a two track road. Off to the left is a great clearing where a friend has set up a tree stand. I perched myself in the stand for about 2 hours and saw only mule deer, squirrels, and birds. It was perfectly still and quiet and you could hear every little sound. The squirrels digging around in the dried up leaves, the swish of the birds' wings as they flew overhead, the sound of gunshots that were not mine.

My view to the left of the tree stand

And my view to the right, perched right above a nice game trail.

It was early and cold.

After sitting for a couple of hours I decided to get down and walk around some. I ended up stumbling across a trail that led all the way to the top of the ridge, roughly 3 miles up with about 1,000 ft. of elevation gain. I hiked all the way to the top just to see what was there, and the ridges only keep going and going, up and down, up and down.

Last little rise to reach the top.

Little Bear Creek Trail is the one I was on.

View from the top.

I hiked all the way back down to where I parked, ate my lunch and headed home. I didn't see any elk that day, but I sure had a great time being out in the mountains with a gorgeous fall sunny day.

On Sunday I baptized a boy who is 12 yrs. old outside in our local children's fishing pond. Needless to say the water was freezing and it might have been one of the quickest baptisms ever. And then Sunday evening we had a game night at the Church. It was fun to just hang out and laugh together. We played "What's Yours Like?" A game kind of like 20 questions. It was a pretty good weekend all in all.

The Week Of October 10-16

The weather is starting to cool off a bit here, 30's at night 60's in the day, still tons of sunshine and moderately warm in the afternoons. I'm thinking that we will get our first snow here pretty quickly. It usually snows before Halloween.

Elk hunting season starts this Friday. I plan on going out on Saturday to see if I can get one. I am praying that I'm better off this year than I was my first go round. I sighted in my 30-06 on Monday evening. Was within about 1 inch of the Bulls-eye at 100 yards. I'm looking forward to getting up into the mountains and hopefully at least seeing some this year. I've got a couple different places to try this year as opposed to having really no idea where to go last year.

 

I just finished this book, Personal Record: A Love Affair With Running. It was a good read, pretty quick to get through. Rachel Toor, the author recounts how she became a runner, and the things that just become normal to all of us who are runners out there, that other people might look at as crazy. She's a good storyteller and has quite a few funny things that she points out in the book. 

Running Wordle

Took A Little Trip

This past weekend Audrey and I took a little trip down to Salt Lake City. There were a few reasons why we went. 1. Audrey was running in a race for the 3rd year in a row called "Wasatch Woman". 2. We both needed new running shoes. 3. We also needed new dress clothes.
So we headed out Friday morning and encountered our first snow of the season around Evanston, WY. There was snow on the higher elevations, and as we were driving up over one of the passes we got a little on us as well. But we made it through fine.

Our first stop in SLC was Wasatch Running Center. This is a great specialty running store that we have come to love. We also became members on this trip (which also saved us some money!). Audrey and I both got fitted for new shoes. This is a process that goes by having one shoe on the right foot and a different shoe on the left foot. You take a little jog around the store, tell them which one feels better, and then they replace the other one with a different shoe and you do it all over again until you find the best pair.

The shoe that I purchased was the Mizuno Wave Rider 13. Then we went to Deseret Industries & Ross and got some great deals on clothes, and then picked up Audrey's Packet for the race. It was a good Friday.
Saturday we got up early. Audrey had to be at the race start by 7:45 a.m. and I wanted to go for a run before with my new shoes. So I took off from our motel room at 5:30 a.m. for a 4 mile run. The shoes felt great, but I was ongaurd the entire run because our motel wasn't in the best location. Didn't want to get jumped.
We made it to Thanksgiving Point (the race location) in good time. There were roughly 1,800 women who registered for the 10k & 5k. That is a lot of women in one place. The 10k started at 8:30 a.m. and Audrey was in the front. She took off at a good pace and there was only 1 girl in front of her the entire race. Which they didn't mark very well and the first 50 women ran an extra mile. So Audrey came in 2nd place after running 7.3 miles instead of 6.2. She won $125 gift certificate to Salt Lake Running Company. So it was a great Saturday too!

Pinedale Half Marathon 2010

 

I was 9th overall in the men's division.

You can see Audrey's name in 2nd place.

Audrey and I ran the Pinedale Half Marathon for the 3rd year in a row on Sept. 25, 2010. This has become one of our favorite races to do in WY. They put on a good race with great free stuff and the course is beautiful, next to the Wind River Mountains (One of my favorite places on Earth). We have always had a great time in the past, and we were looking forward to another good run this year. Little did we know how great it was going to be.
The weather was perfect, and we took off at a pretty good pace with the front runners of the pack. After about 2 miles I looked at Audrey and told her that she could place for sure within the top 3 females. We have started carrying our own CamelBak Podium Chill water bottles, so I carried hers for her, so it didn't slow her down. When we hit the halfway turn around point there were 2 girls in front of Audrey. We pushed it hard coming back in and caught the second place girl. So Audrey finished in 2nd place and we both smashed our old records at the Half Marathon. Our previous fastest time was 1 hour 42 minutes, and we finished this one in 1 hour 35 minutes.
We got free massages after wards, and a free lunch. It was a great day to run.

Here's a link to the 2009 Pinedale Blog that I posted last year... notice the time difference in one year.
http://jadonross.blogspot.com/2009/09/pinedale-half-marathon-2009-pictures.html

Welcome Back

I'm going to start blogging again.

So here goes.....