Awesome Group Run down Little Cottonwood Canyon

After a lot of logistic calculations on where and when we could all meet, so we'd have vehicles at the end of the run, at the mouth of the canyon and at the start, we were ready to go for the next morning. With Terri making it 13 people we were all pretty excited!
My alarm went at 5:30 giving me about 4 hours of sleep, which I think was about what a lot of others also had. Becca, Josh and Cindy met at Dan's store at 39th S and drove together to the Mouth of little Cottonwood Canyon. They left two vehicles at 39th so we'd have a ride back to the mouth when all done. The rest of us, (Me, Meridith, Shelley, Christy, Vince, Katheryn, Terri, Jonathan and Susette) met at the midway point which was the Park at Ride at bottom of the Little Cottonwood Canyon. I arrived there about 6:40 and it was cool seeing the full moon setting in the west. Ty was supposed to be there also, but we figured he either slept in or things got in the way. We all packed into two vehicles and drove up the canyon. The further up we drove the more it looked like winter. The wind was blowing, snow blasting across the road, ice, slush, everything. It looked absolutely miserable. We drove all the way up to Alta but the road conditions just didn't look safe for running so we drove about 3 miles back down the hill and parked just south of Snowbird. 

After a short debate of maybe not running, we jumped out of the vehicles, some used the bathroom and we got a couple of quick group pictures kindly taken by Shelley, we then headed down the hill. The wind was cold and blowing into our face as we were descending the canyon, I wanted to get this part over with so it encouraged me to go faster. A few of us didn't dress properly for the weather. Josh was wearing shorts, had no hat, just a bandana, but someone had an extra Touque (as we call them in Canada) and it saved him getting brain freeze. Becca was also wearing kapris which must have been very cold on the legs. I was fine below the waist, but had a short sleeve tech shirt with a long sleeve thin hoody and thin gloves. I was cold! I headed downhill passed a few of the ones who had headed out before me and then I could see three runners way ahead of me, I knew Jonathan was planning on about a 7:30/mile pace and knew Vince was also fast and would be ahead of me. I could see a third person but it wasn't until I got quite close I realized it was Susette.

It was too cold for small talk, she was busy listening to her music so I passed her and kept my eyes on Vince. I soon lost sight of Jonathan, but until mile 4 I was keeping about the same distance from Vince so knew I was doing a pretty good pace. Glancing at my watch I saw some pace times flash up which looked pretty impressive for me. The road flattened out around mile 4 for a bit and my pace dropped to about an 8 minute mile and Vince was soon gone like the wind. 
By that point I realized the wintery conditions were also done thankfully. The scenery running the canyon was impressive, especially the snow covered trees and rocks!

Got to the parking lot at the mouth of the canyon and looked for Jonathan but didn't see him at all. Someone was in what I thought was the men's bathroom for a long time so I used the other one.
That's when I noticed they weren't marked mens and ladies, not that that would have made any difference for me at that point! From there I went back down to the road to wait for the others to show up. Susette was first and we decided to walk up the hill towards the rest.

We probably walked 1/4 of a mile and met up with Meridith and Shelley. They were going to go south on Wasatch to get some extra miles then run back to the Park and Ride, so they headed downhill and we continued up. The others came along soon after and we ran back to the Park and Ride. Terri decided she was done and was going to drive back up the mountain to get her bag which we had hidden under the front bumper of one of the vehicles. The rest of us headed north on Wasatch Blvd. 
We should have had 8.5 miles by this time but because of the bad roads at the top we were short 3 miles. At that point I knew we wouldn't get 17 miles and it would be more like 14.

Wasatch had some nice downhills, but then it became rolling hills. After about 4 miles we could see someone walking towards us on the opposite side of the road. It looked like Jonathan. Apparently he had gone as far as I-215 and didn't know where to go from there and was lost. He decided to head back to the Park and Ride but was seriously dehydrated and had issues he was dealing with. He said seeing us was like being in a desert and seeing a caravan of camels or an oasis! He really though he wouldn't see any of us again that day, had no phone to try calling anyone and had no money. He had tried hitch-hiking but nobody would pick him up. Would you pick up someone wearing tights? At first he said he wouldn't be running with us but would head back to the cars. I told him its a longer run to the cars than what we would be doing to 39th South plus there's more uphill going back so he decided to go with us.

We had no idea where Vince had ended up. I figured it was probably Jonathan that had been in that other bathroom at the Park and Ride and we had barely missed each other. He said Vince kept going past the parking lot and didn't stop there. Later he was able to call Katheryn but he had no money, no credit card and not much idea of where he was, other than there was a Smiths there.   

Everyone was doing well the last half of the run, I think we all took turns running with each other and visited. then watched Becca and Cindy killing the last few miles which were wicked hills. When we got to the mall Katheryn, Cindy and Becca were already there but were wanting to get the full 17 miles done. They headed back down the road we came up. Jonathan, Susette and I we done and we walked over to Subway as Jonathan was dying for food and we watched Jonathan devoured a foot long in about 30 seconds. While there we saw a post on Facebook by Vince that made no sense at all. We wondered if he was delirious or it was his auto correct. At this time I also found out I had done one mile in 6:54, my fasted mile ever! Two other miles were in the mid 7's. Pretty awesome for me I think.  
Josh and Christy wandered around Dan's taking selfies of themselves and food. I found them coming out of the store and herded them into Subway. The others showed up about a half hour later, Becca continued to run around the parking lot trying to get those last needed tenths of a mile. OCD of course ;) She was already overdue for her babysitter but was determined. She did her longest run ever, way to go Becca! Susette, Katheryn, Cindy, and Jonathan headed out to try to find Vince. They must have found him as he soon posted comments to that affect on Facebook. Christy did way more miles than she had planned so she was pretty tickled about her accomplishments too. Way to go Christy!

Josh drove Becca, Christy and myself back to the park and ride. They amused themselves by trying to guess what my middle name was, which brought me to the end of an amazing morning of running with amazing friends. Its strange there is such a huge age difference between all of us but we get along so well.
Love all these guys.