The Jog Blog: Jog Blog Day #3

What a perfect day it was to go running in the outdoors. The sun was shining, it wasn't too hot, oh and did I mention Boreas, Greek god of the north wind, must have been pissed! In fact, the wind was so strong, I was running at what seemed like a 45 degree angle most of the time.

Today's run was a little different than the runs before in that I routed my run on Google Maps beforehand so I could time my run a little better. It was kinda nice in that I could find my route, measure it, see how long it would take me to run it and then execute it. There were a few hiccups in that plan, but it all worked out in the end.

I started out at the base of an active pit mine and the second biggest mine in the area. It's really interesting to see the layers of history that are revealed in places like this. You can tell what kind of activity occurred thousands upon thousands of years ago in a single glance! The only drawback (and it's a big one), is that mines like these create a very large problem for our ecosystem if they're allowed to progress. Take for example the point of the mountain. If no on had ever dug there and it were still intact, our weather in Utah County would be drastically different concerning wind patterns, precipitation and a number of other things. Mining may be fascinating, but it's not healthy for our environment.

Anyway, that's where I began and ended today's run. From the beginning, I could tell that this run was going to be an interesting one, but I ran all the same. the first half of the run was fairly simple and flat and straight with a few slopes that got my heart pumping a bit. At the crest of my run, there were a few guys target shooting and they kindly let me pass with a nod. Right at the end of the bend, is where the "fun" began, everything became much more difficult. There were sudden steep slopes and the wind was even more furious the higher I climbed. The wind pulled against my breath making it much harder to breath and my eyes were watering terribly. Instead of my tears running down my cheeks like normal, they traveled straight across my face and passed the tops of my ears as I trekked to the first peak. At the top of that first peak, I could see our neighborhood and the gravel pits below me but I couldn't stop for long because my time was running short, I had to get to my wonderful aunt's birthday party (happy 45 Auntie!). Peaks 2 and 3 weren't as steep, but my body was yelling at me to give up, and upon my decent of peak 3 I found my road had been completely bulldozed and continued a quarter mile ahead of me, great! I tried to take a shortcut at that point and head back to my car and I found a huge plowed area of dark exposed clay with heaps of soil and rock in completely random places. As the loose sand pelted my body like small bullets from midget guns, I continued on, but found there was no way I would ever get through.

Backtracking sucks so bad when you're already late and completely wiped out. The best part is, that when I turned around to get back to the road a quarter mile up, I ran into the steepest peak in the area. I felt like I was scaling Mount Olympus itself to defeat the gods that were causing such a torturous course. Maybe it was my weary mind, but I swear I heard, "Release the Kraken!!!" But no Kraken appeared (unfortunately).

Things got even better for me once I reached the top of Olympus. There was an old shot up sign that said, "High Wall." I thought, "What the heck is a high wall? . . . Oh, that's a high wall," as I gazed down at a nearly 600 foot drop on the backside of this gigantic mound. "Thanks for nothing Google Maps, you told me there was a way down from here on a road that doesn't exist now! WONDERFUL!!! I'll never get home!"

But I did. After passing some huge 12-15 foot boulders and climbing 600 feet down the backside of the hill, I was finally on a regular dirt road again. Boy was I glad to be down and on my way home to shower and head to the party (30 minutes late that is).

I got a new app for my phone that's way more accurate than my guessing job last time and the whole run was 3.2 miles and total elevation difference was 679 feet. Max elevation: 5195 Feet.