When The Only Thing Your Friends Want To Do Is Run

My friends Clair and Catherine came down from northern Utah a week or so ago. They came down for one reason: to help eat the three loaves of cinnamon bread I bought from Costco. Wait. Come to think of it, there was one other reason: to run.

Catherine and Clair had never enjoyed the awesomeness of southern Utah's trails before. The plan was to show them around my very favorite trails. We just wanted to run and run. Mostly to justify all that Costco cinnamon bread. There was a hefty supply of reminiscing. A hefty supply of laughing. And a hefty supply of jumping.

I got to know Clair and Catherine many years ago through work. We've run countless miles together during many races, including every step of a 100 miler together. I can't tell you how much I love these peeps.

The first destination of the weekend was Gooseberry Mesa. It is a little slice of heaven. These amazing trails are also part of the Zion 100.

I seriously love this jump shot from Catherine:

Clair is kind of a freak of nature. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he is actually a Cyborg. Clair is more than two DECADES older than me and Catherine....and yet we continually found ourselves working hard to keep up with his speedy legs.

In the evening we headed to Sand Mountain with my wife Mel, Catherine's husband Kacey, our friend Tia, and my brother-in-law Matt. The views from the top are unspeakably beautiful. (To get a true appreciation of the scenery, check out THIS video from The Piano Guys which has 49 MILLION (not a typo) views.

There were a few jumping pictures to be had at the edge of the cliff. Here is Matt:

And then I got one in myself:

I caught this shot of Clair running along the ridge:

Watching the sun set along the cliffs of southern Utah was the perfect ending to a perfect day.