The Dirty Dozen on 12/12/12

Some friends organized an awesome, informal trail run this past wednesday called The Dirty Dozen. The plan:

Run 12 miles
On 12/12/12
At 12:12pm

There was a fun crowd that came for this epic event. This picture is courtesy of my friend Alex Santiago who also happens to be one of the finest photographers in the state:

Our location was the Jem Trail, definitely one of my favorites. It was cool to see runners strung out across the trail.

This section of the trail is deeply embedded into my brain from the Zion 100. Every time I run here I so, so vividly remember being here around mile 40 of that race. (Even if my brain felt like an omlett at the time.)

Some people were speed goats and darted down the trail. I had fun with the more casual group including Mel and Karrie:

Another shot of Cherie and Alex running against the Zion National Park backdrop:

I caught my friend Liz on the return trip leap-frogging down the trail.

I still contend that the most fun is to be had at the back of the pack. Fast runners don't know what they're missing out on. Here is a little taste of the back-of-the-pack fun courtesty of Mr. Santiago.

I had so much fun on our run. I look forward to doing more runs like this because I want to build a bigger trail running community. There is something special out on the trails that can't be found anywhere else. This was the perfect way to celebrate 12/12/12. (Baker's Dozen Half Marathon TOMORROW!)