One Bad Run (that turned out to be really good for other reasons)

The Timp Trail Marathon is a little over a month away, and I had a bad run on Saturday that turned out good for other reasons. I was supposed to do 18 trail miles and was so done at 15. I never got into a good run rhythm, was hating my music, was annoyed at all of the rocks on the shoreline trail in Provo Canyon and wondered why on earth I was doing anything but mountain biking. I am not sure why the physical part of the run was so bad. It could have been the silly amount of junk food I ate on the way back from St. George. I ate enough Fridays Jalapeno Cheese Poppers to feed an army. 

I ate Caramel corn, ice cream and who knows what else.  

It could have been the night's sleep that I didn't get. It could have been the hard run I had on Wednesday that was my fastest yet. I actually ran a few short sections at 6:30 mile pace. It could have been the ride at Gooseberry Mesa or the three rides on Bearclaw Poppy (more on that later). I am not sure what it was, but the run was awful until I got to the 10 mile point. I was trying to add on a few extra miles so I left the shoreline trail entrance from the paved Provo Canyon path and headed toward Bridal Veil Falls. 

As I crossed the small bridge at the falls that had been damaged from an avalanche, I saw a familiar face. It was my friend of 45 or so years, Kendall Bohman. That made it a good run. He and his wife had camped the night before at Nunn's park and were out for a 10 mile run. We stopped and got caught up on everything for about 20 minutes. 

Kendall Bohman

He was kind enough to step down off the path to make us closer in height

We have been following each other on Strava for about two months and had exchanged occasional kudos and comments, but this gave us a chance to reconnect. Kendall and Lisa are running and getting serious about it. I'm sure we will do events together in the future. 

That made a bad run good. After our interaction, I trotted home to soak my legs, eat and re-hydrate. I am sore in new places which does not make sense to me, but my wife assures me that bad runs are common enough not to worry about them too much. Catching up with Kendall and Lisa made it worth while.