Adventures in Trail Running

I feel like this has been the summer of trail adventures for me.  Which has been a wonderful change from my typical routine.  I haven't been obsessed with times and races.  I've really just been enjoying myself and some beautiful new places to run.  Never mind that I have my toughest marathon challenge in about two weeks.  I'm choosing fun on the trails over everything else right now.  I'm running the Grand Teton Marathon on September 1st.

 I got the privilege of running on some of the trails that I'll be running on during the marathon a couple of weeks ago.  It was gorgeous to say the least.  It's in Idaho and the temperature is at least 20 degrees cooler than here which was a breath of fresh air.  It got me really excited and made me feel less anxious about the run.  I decided that no matter how long it takes me, I will be on new trails, in a gorgeous part of the world.  That sounds really good to me.

One of the "fun" parts of running in this part of Idaho is that you really shouldn't run alone.  There are bears.  Lots of them.  I bought bear spray after talking with my brother who lives there and reading a scary news article and talking with the local guy at the running store.  He had seen a bear the day before on his run.  I guess it's just part of your arsenal when you run there.  I'm hoping that the marathon will have enough people to scare away any bears.

We also got to run the Snake River with my family while we were there and had an absolute blast!  The views were fantastic!

This is the view from my brother's back porch. It is a perfect view of the Tetons.  We all felt like he was so lucky.  He said it's just part of the background now.  Sad.  

We camped a few days in Montana and I got to run with my brother and my dad one morning.  More beautiful trails there.

yes, my dad is running in jeans.  sigh.

After we got back I tackled the hardest and longest trail run to date.  My brother and I ran up to the top of Ben Lomond Peak and back.  We ran a mile towards Willard Peak and back once we were at the top to make it 18 miles.  It was beautiful and hard and a great day.  I was surprised at how good I felt even at the end.  

Mel and her husband Carl ran with us for an hour to show us the way.  We started bright and early at 5:30 at the trailhead.

My brother, Tom

The views were incredible!

We saw 3 large herds of mountain goats.

At the top!  There were some boy scouts up there that took our picture for us.

I did get frustrated towards the end of the run with all the rocks.  It just got old avoiding them and trying not to trip and fall.  It was a really great day and a run I'd like to do again.  Just not any time soon!

My favorite picture of the day that my brother took.  We less than two miles from being down but it looked like we were still really high up there.