My First Thirty Mile Run

  Yesterday I accomplished a run that I've been wanting to do for a long time. My goal was to run the Jordan River Trail from our house in Bluffdale to downtown SLC. Pretty much the full length of the SL Valley. I thought if I did that I could take the train back home, but the end of the lines are still 7 miles away from our house and I knew I just couldn't run another 7 miles plus I didn't have the time. So adjustments had to be made and I ended up parking the car at the Daybreak station and started the run from there just after 8 a.m. The fog or smog was really thick to start, I could barely see the sun through it and it was cold! About 22'F. The first five and a half miles along 114th south were quite easy as it was a nice gradual downhill. About 100' drop for each mile. I think I was averaging about a 10 min/mile pace. Once on the Jordan River Trail I knew there were washrooms but could barely see off the trail as the fog was even thicker along the river bottom. As I progressed along the trail I was finding they were all locked up for winter! So, as I ended up using another means to an end...like I've heard others say, my whole world is a toilet!

  Running is a lonely sport, but most sports I've been involved in have been individual sports rather than team sports. I believe that comes from moving from the UK when I was 11 and struggling to understand the rules to baseball, basketball, football etc. None of it made sense to me. And at that age I had only just begun to learn rugby and soccer in the UK which weren't too popular in Canada at that time. So, to keep me company along the run I listened to KLOVE radio. It has about the best mix of modern Christian Rock/Worship music.
  One of the other reasons I wanted to do a long run was to practice fueling and hydrating properly on a long run. So every 2.5 miles I would eat and have a drink, plus I tried to drink at other random times. I had with me, 2 and a half packets of Cliff Bloks, a banana, bagel, small bag of skittles, 20 oz of water and 20 oz of nuun.
  The miles clicked by slowly. I think I passed only about 5 other runners in the first 15 miles. It was also difficult to keep track of where I was as its almost impossible to see street signs on roads crossing the trail, but around 53rd south I had a call from London saying she was done her field trip and they could come meet me. She knew the area a lot better than me, and I tried to describe where I was. I did find running through Murray they had some street numbers on the trail which really helped. I told her I could see a road away's in front of me. She figured it was 48th south and there was a trail head there with bathrooms and a Maverick. So that was our meeting up point! I looked forward to having some company.
  I got there first and found the men's washroom was locked and out of order. Fortunately the women's was open. I tried to be as fast as I could as the door wouldn't lock and I didn't want to surprise someone while I was in there.
  After a few minutes Monte and London showed up and we continued running north. They had commitments and figured they could run until about 12:20 which was a huge boost to me. So we visited and ran for about three and a half miles together. I did a lot better pace with them than I would have done alone.  We got to about mile 20 or so and then before they left we got a selfie of the three of us taken and they headed back south while I continued north.
  The scenery in this area was nothing to write about, industry, gang tags, and just not a nice area to run in.

  I passed under Hwy 201 and thought I'd check facebook and there were messages from Becca asking if I'd like some food when going around Liberty Park, by this time anything that was edible was going to be great, but a turkey sandwich sounded awesome. By then I was at 17th south and I realized I had this run in the bag. It was an awesome feeling coming off the trail onto 13th south knowing I didn't have that much distance left. I was also realizing by this time I was getting a bit over my estimated finish time so that I could get home in time to make it to work. I had been keeping my goal pace of 12 min/miles but that wasn't including some stops I had made. Going along 13th south I slowed down quite a lot. With all the crossings of the streets, waiting at lights, it was hard to keep any kind of momentum. and it seemed to go on forever heading east. I couldn't remember how far it was from the trail head to Liberty Park. I kept looking ahead hoping it would appear, but each block seemed to be just more old houses and businesses but finally it did show up. I had sent Becca a message I would meet her on the south end of the park, but didn't see her. Looked up her number and it took me about 4 tries to memorize her number and remember it long enough to key it into the phone! My memory skills when tired are definitely lacking! By this time I was also at mile 26.   We ended up meeting on the west side of the park and visited for a few minutes while I ate the sandwich she had brought me. It was awesome she would do that.
From there I headed north to 9th South and then headed west again. It was tempting to just get on the train near the park, but I wanted to beat my old longest run which was around 27 miles and I hoped to get 30 miles done. Continued on and again it seemed to go forever until I got to 6th west and headed north past my work place. it was about 2:40 pm I popped in there and just as I was running across the yard my boss came out of the shop, saw me, and exclaimed, "You ran to work?"  I said "yup", he said, "You're %&#$* me, you ran all the way to work?" I said, "yes, it was the easy part, the tough part will be running home tonight". I then told him the truth, that I wasn't going to run home tonight but just wanted to let him know I'd be a bit late for work as I still had to get the train back to my car, go home, shower, eat and then I'd be at work. I stocked up with some water for the train while at work, then continued north to the train station. I was at 29.2 miles, and although I was totally worn out and I wanted 30 miles so, I kept running.  I ran around the block and then had to start going around it again and back and forth until finally it clicked over the 30 mile mark and I was DONE! Thank goodness! It was so nice to sit and relax on the train even though its a strange crowd that uses it downtown.
  One guy sat across from me, got off at the next station and left half a burger on the seat, which was taken and eaten by two other guys on the train a few minutes later. Strange.
  I was stiff the rest of the day and the bottom of my feet felt like they had been pounded by sledge hammers in some spots, plus I had a slight pain on the front of my left ankle.
  I think I did well with hydrating and fueling. Usually in a long run or race I can lose up to 5lbs but after this run I was pretty much the same as when I left. So for me it was a successful day. I accomplished for me, what was an incredible distance and trained myself to eat and drink better than I've done in the past on a long run.
  So what distance is next? Not sure. I'd like to try a 50 mile race next year but we will see.