“Let’s run a 100-mile race before we die!” said Cole.
What a great idea!
Except that none of us were in running shape………………………
I had an even better idea: Let’s run a marathon next month for my birthday.
Cole hated this idea, mostly because he hates running.
But I was in love with this idea =D
I moved to Salt Lake City on August 11th, and on this first night in town my friend Cole told me that we should run a 100-mile race before we die.
So the very next day I ran half a marathon to see if I was even close to being in shape for a full marathon.
And sure enough, I ran 13.5 miles without stopping! It was a little painful, but I was still able to go to the gym the next day.
After the test run, I was all in. I knew I could go run a marathon.
I knew the most fun way would be to get a bunch of my friends to go run with me.
That way we could all do it together. I love some good ol 'comradery.
I really didn't care what time I would get, I just wanted to complete a marathon in the mountains.
So for 4 weeks, I went on 1 big trail run per week, and spent all of my other time doing crossfit, biking and working.
I was desperately trying to convince people to go run with me, but no one was down! Not a single person was willing to come do this with me.
Then it hit me: Why wait for an official marathon race? I could just go do it next week.
Welp, at the end of August, I did an 18-mile run, and realized there was no reason to keep waiting.
So I made the decision to go run a mountain marathon by myself on 9/2/23.
The day before, I was over at AJ’s house, and started to plan out my run.
The idea of running to 3 different ski resorts made me excited. So I planned out my run to start at Mill D, then go up to Canyons, then up Brighton, then down Alta and up Cardiff pass back to Mill D.
Water was a big concern, fortunately AJ lent me his water filter, and packed a ton of carby snacks.
About 6 miles into the run, I drank all of my 2-liter Camelbak, so I stopped at a lake to fill up on water.
But for the life of me, I couldn’t get the water filter to work.
It felt clogged, and since I was borrowing it, I did not want to squeeze it too hard and break it.
So I needed to come up with another solution to quench my thirst.
The closest ski resort was Brighton, and I thought that if the general store was open (even though it was summer, when ski resorts are closed) I could go buy water there.
Fortunately it was open!
So I took a massive detour to go grab some more water.
Then I climbed up Albion Basin, and ran down into Alta.
As I was climbing up Cardiff pass, I checked Strava and saw that I was at 6,500 feet of vertical climb.
Dang.
Since I had changed my route last minute, I didn’t know how much vert I was going to complete.
But 6.5k sounds like a lot, so I was stoked!
I started making my way down Cardiff pass, and a new problem arose.
The sun.
It was dusk, and I did not have much daylight left, but I had about 4 miles left to go.
I was trying my absolute hardest to pick up the pace and get back to my van at a reasonable time.
But sure enough, as I rounded a corner not but 2 miles away from my van, a massive Moose was standing in the trail.
Aww shit.
I thought about barking at him to scare him off – but I decided it was best to save my breath.
The good news was that there was a creek bed just up the trail a bit.
I ran back up to the creek bed, and started running down it.
Lone and behold, the moose moved closer to the creek bed than the trail! Looks like I should have waited for him to pass in the first place.
But I kept moving forward, and passed him with no issue.
The second I made it back to my van I was ecstatic!
Holy shit!
I just ran my first marathon, and it had 6.5k feet of vert.
Boy was I dirty!
At the end of the day, the only logical thing to do next was to go smack down a massive chicken burrito from Lone Star, and eat 5 scoops of homemade ice cream.
And honestly, that wasn’t even close to enough calories for me to consume. My Fitbit said I had just burned 7,751 calories on this run.
You better believe I enjoyed the absolute fuck out of that post-marathon meal =D
You should run a marathon.
Seriously!
Or honestly, you should do whatever the fuck you have been thinking about doing.
You know what it is, and I have no idea what it is.
But it doesn’t matter. It just matters that you go outside of your comfort zone and try something new.
So stop whatever you are doing, and take 1 action step
It might be texting a friend that you want to do this thing. It might be going outside and running your first mile.
It doesn’t matter what it is, it just matters that you go do it.
And shoot me an email once you finish this first little action step – I’ll help keep you accountable.