Toquerville Falls and US 24 Hour Running Record

First and foremost, I used Random Number Generator to choose a number between 1-134. Verified by my daughter, the winner of the Peeps and CD pack was comment #2 which was.....SupermomE12! Email me your address and I'll send you the diabetes in a box. (coryreese1@hotmail.com)

This past week was a nice and relaxing taper for the Moab Alpine to Slickrock 50 miler coming up on Saturday.

Monday, September 3rd 2012: 6 miles @ 12:52 minutes per mile. We were in northern Utah for Labor Day and I was able to run on the Draper trails with my brother Kenny and my friend Susette. We only had around a dozen near death experiences when mountain bikers came flying down the trails.

The weather was perfect. Even a little cold when we started. I don't remember the last time I felt cold while running.

Tuesday, September 4th 2012: 3 miles @ 8:34 minutes per mile. I've been trying to do a short push your body to the brink of vomit workout speed workout each week. When I got home I collapsed on the front lawn trying to get the lava out of my lungs, and hoping neighbors wouldn't drive by wondering why I was crunched in fetal position in the front yard.

Wednesday, September 5th 2012: 11 miles @ 12:09 minutes per mile. I ran to Toquerville Falls for the first time. That was definitely one of the harder runs I've done in a while. The road was really rocky and there was lots of steep climbing. (Over the last two weeks I have had around 10,000 feet elevation gain on runs.)

The crazy thing is that I was feeling freakishly good the whole time. It was one of those rare runs where you feel like you are floating through the miles. Along the way there were some forks in the road so I wasn't sure I was going the right direction. I felt more confident when I came across a shoe tree.

Something disturbing happened while I was running. I was listening to the classic rock radio station and they played two songs that came out when I was in high school! What's up with that? Am I really that old? Do I need to schedule a mid-life crisis? Don't worry. I will send them some hate mail. Jerks.

Finally I made it to Toquerville Falls as the sun was coming up. It is like Niagra Falls in the middle of the desert. But smaller. And with less water. And no tourists. And no keychains that cost $9.99. (Yep, I was one of those suckers. I paid $9.99 for a keychain. And while we're on the topic of keychains, what kind of fool pays $9.99 for a keychain? In my defense, that happened in my younger years. Even before those "classic rock" songs came out.)

I walked around and explored a bit. There were lots of little frogs all over.

If you are looking for a challenging run with lots of rocks and hills and a great reward at the end, Toquerville Falls should be on your list. I'm looking forward to going back again.

Saturday, September 8th 2012: 7 miles @ 10:28 minutes per mile. Went out on the Jem trail and listened to the country station to boycott "classic rock".

Did you know the World 24 Hour Championship was over the weekend? The goal: run as many miles as you can in 24 hours. Mike Morton set an American record running 172 (YES, 172!!!) miles. Just the thought of 172 miles in 24 hours makes my toe nails turn black.

"Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up." ~ Dean Karnazes