West Mountain Running

The first couple of days in Utah after the epic event of pacing Jennifer Vogel in a second place female finisher at Badwater I took it easy on the trails. There is a nice dirt trail just up from my parents house where I was staying. I believe it is the canal road. It is less of a trail and more of a dirt road. Just like my Everglades running. Getting there is a nice climb. By climb, I mean a small hill to my family members. I chose to walk the first half mile to avoid dieing before the workout. I started my clock every time once I was on the trail/dirt road. I of course kept the clock running for the return to the house since it was a fast downhill. The first run was with Lisa, Celeste, and I running. My mom and sisters Tiffany and Kellie quickly walked the trail. I did this trail pretty much every day. Including the days of my single track and hiking trail days.

The West Mountain canal running got me looking at West Mountain. My first thought was I want to run straight up that. The first day I went out I decided to head South before jumping over the canal. I got lucky and didn't have to jump over the canal as there was a path that I could cross the canal and go in an open field which lead to the top. I warmed up for a mile on the canal road and returned to the crossing. I started running up the hill and my speed quickly deteriorated. It became more of a fast walk. Progressing up the mountain and lack of breath turned into a couple of steps, catch my breath event. I was going to make it up to the Cell Tower. However, I had to be back for church at 12:00 so I would have 15 minutes to shower, do my girls hair and be ready to leave the house. I didn't have time to spare because of how slow my climbing abilities proved to be. It took me 40 minutes to make it one mile up. Every time I thought I was at the top, another peak showed its face. I turned around just when I got to the spot where I didn't have to climb another peak and could easily get to the tower. Time was gone and I returned home. Going down the hill took me 20 minutes for the mile. It was that steep. This was my first climb, and it didn't go so well.

The second climb was with Kevin and Celeste. We started North and decided to do ridge climb, which had a bit more gentle climbing grade with a few more miles. Instead of 1 mile to the top it was 5 miles to the top. It still lacked switchbacks and an actual trail. I was glad at the moment to be wearing compression socks as nothing was itching my legs. Celeste broke out in hives on her legs. There was one section of the run where we where almost stepping on sage bushes because they were too tight to go around. I didn't really like that part of the trail. Kevin and I went ahead and did a couple of runs up and down, while Celeste made her way up the mountain. I thought Celeste was going to hate me after convincing her to come with us. She didn't enjoy it during the moment, but I think she had fun after everything was over. The view of the city was nice. It was a little more hazy then my last climb, but I still loved the view. We were in the middle of nowhere and there was still a little city down below. The final 1.5 to 2 miles was on a four wheeler track and was a really easy run. Kevin and I ran this section then stopped to check out the view from the top. It was about the same as the first peak. Except now we had a view for both sides. I liked the view of the lake. Celeste had a 3 month old at home waiting for her and we where already a couple of hours into the run as we mostly hiked it with a couple of sprints here and there. We decided that we could descend the face of West Mountain faster then returning down the ridge. I also didn't want to bush whack through the sages as I would prefer to avoid any unhappy tics. This required fresh legs and lack of fear. You couldn't really go down it without taking one step and sliding about three in the rocks, grass, or gravel. It was a great mix of all three. There where also sections where we got to climb down. I thought that the descent was a lot of fun. We also stopped by a big hole and a cool little cave on the way down. The cave was fitted with a couple bones to add to the freaky factor. Kevin went in first so I followed and Celeste came in as well. Then we exited and returned down the mountain. We encountered one almost unhappy rattle snake, but he left us alone and just let us know he was there. Another successful West Mountain hike.

The after affects of both West Mountain hikes consisted of a couple of bruises on the ankles from the sliding rocks and hours of tweezer picking time from my socks and shoes. I also decided that the trail running shoes would not be sufficient for the Speedgoat. They did not provide much support. Steep descents hurt my ankles because they slid all over the place. However, I decided that it would be better to go with the shoes that wouldn't be good over ones I had never tried. Besides, I didn't want to go into town and try and shoes. I could have done it since I had plenty of days to try the shoes before the race. I figured the race would not be as steep as West Mountain because it was at a ski resort and they would be concerned over vegetation and anything that steep would be done via switch backs. I like my shoes anyways, they are really light and pretty.