This morning I ran up to the Dry Creek trailhead and took the BST over to City Creek Canyon. From there I ran the BST up the west side of the canyon before dropping down to Ensign Peak and continuing past the capitol and home. It's funny how little average pace actually means on a run like this. According to my Garmin, I averaged just under 8:30 per mile, but as you can see below, it's unlikely that I was ever actually running at that pace.
The run got off to a slow start. My head wasn't feeling as clear as I'd like it to, and my stomach felt a little rebellious. I decided to push on, hoping that I'd feel better as I ran, and while I didn't ever feel 100 percent, I did feel well enough to enjoy the run. In fact, I think I ran faster between Dry Creek and City Creek than I ever have before, although I think that was more because of the improved conditions (there was only a brief muddy section) than because of my improved fitness. Of course, while I was faster on the first part of the trail, I was considerably slower on the second part. When I go up the west side of City Creek for my morning run, I can run up the 1.2 mile, 700 foot climb in less than 12 minutes. Today I shuffled up it in 14:14. But from the top is was almost entirely downhill back to the house, and I finished with just under 15 miles in just over 2 hours.
Total vertical: 2,600 ft Average pace: 8:29/mile
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