A friend told me about the Wasatch Trail Run Series 5K/10K which started up this past week. The races are held Wednesday evenings at 6:30 initially at Corner Canyon April 24th-Sept 11th, then the series moves to Solitude and Snowbird on Thursday evenings in the weeks between the Corner Canyon races starting in mid July 2013.
I zipped up to Draper after work to check it out and treat it as my run for the day. $15 registration included a well-marked and creative, well thought-out course and a good raffle after the race. It's clear the RD (name?) is passionate about course marking with the runner in mind mixing it up with a different course each week.
1 mile warm-up. Got the pre-race instructions and we were off. Mildly steep start heading up the single track. After about a mile started passing some that just started out way too fast. The lead guys were gone--fast bunch of guys. Nice climb (1,100ft.) in the first 3 miles, very runnable but couldn't manage much better than a 10mm pace. Passed a couple more on the way up as well as a bunch of mtn bikers--is there anything more fun than passing a mountain bike heading up trail? Nearly got caught by 2 guys near the top of the climb and immediately dropped them when the trail headed down--"downhill is kind of my thang"--say it in cool Dad voice of Phil Dunphy (Modern Family).
Next 4.4 miles, most downhill, with some undulating sections (wish I knew the names of the trails--first time in Corner Canyon). Loved the downhill section from the top down behind the temple into the valley. Single track seems to be created with the mtn bike in mind as the trail has perfectly formed burms and smooth as glass. I managed a 6:20 mm avg for the next 4.4 dropping into the mid to low 5 range in some sections.
Pushed hard to the finish, finishing in exactly 1 hour (8:06 avg pace). I think I came in around 9th? A bit disappointing as I really ran it hard but up against some very talented roadies.
Looking forward to doing more of these if I can get comfortable finishing mid-pack with such a group. Fun day on the trail and highly recommend.
| 