Day 14: The view from the Y

Date: February 15th 2011
Distance: 6+ miles
Weather: Mild

My schedule dictated that I only run 4 miles today but I've been wanting to run up to the Y for a while now. This morning I mapped it out and discovered that it was just over 5 miles to go up and back. I decided to do it anyways because I figured that running more will only make me better prepared.

The red dot is the starting point (at my apartment). I started by going south (towards the right side of the image)

I underestimated the hill up to the trail head. It started out nice... quiet suburban streets with kids walking home from school. However, the uphill quickly got to me. The running turned into a light jog, and then finally to a shuffle. Even then, I was breathing quite heavily and I worried that I shouldn't be breathing this hard for anything more than a 5k.

When I got to the trail head I was already exhausted, despite trying to pace myself. Had I run any slower, I would have been walking. I was relieved to see a water fountain until I attempted to drink. It was as dry as the Sahara. Funny... I had the thought that this is how Jesus must have felt when he searched for fruit on the fig tree, only to find it bare. He cursed that tree. Boy, I felt like cursing.

Trudging up the trail was a slow and painful process. The ground was mud and the mud was thick. Then the mud turned into snow. Running on the snow made my feet slip with every step so I was burning all this energy to make very little progress. Regardless, I kept it up, breathing heavily, jogging slowly through the muck. I fought this battle long and hard until my pain finally overcame my pride and I started to walk. I felt like an out-of-shape bozo. There was around half the trail left by this point, so I made the rest of the distance through a combination of powerwalking and brief jogging. Even at the slower pace, my calves were burning and I felt a headache coming on (hello, dehydration). When I reached the Y, I just sat on a rock until I could breathe again. In the last 2.6 miles I had risen 1500 ft in elevation. Ugh. At least the view was nice.

But what goes up, must come down. Down I went. Now I was running again but it was more like a constant stumble in the downwards direction than a controlled descent. When I hit snow it was like skiing on the surface of my shoes. When I hit mud, I splashed it everywhere. In no time I was back on asphalt.

Unfortunately, I ran on the streets for about 10 minutes before I realized that I taken a wrong turn somewhere. I was supposed to be traveling back on the same path I came on, but suddenly I had all this additional uphill to run. I started to weave randomly through the streets, trying unsuccessfully to find some way down to Wymount. My five mile run was over five miles now and I had didn't know where I was. At the point when I was most discouraged, there was a break in the fence and I saw the Provo Temple right by me. Salvation! (both in this context as well as the eternal). Using the temple as a landmark, I was able to quickly get back home (doesn't this remind you of a conference talk?).

It was a painful run... but good for conditioning. As usual, I am not in as good of shape as I thought I was.