Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

Logan Peak Trail Run

Recent EntriesHomeJoin Fast Running Blog Community!PredictorHealthy RecipesPaul's RacesFind BlogsMileage BoardTop Ten Excuses for Missing a RunTop Ten Training MistakesDiscussion ForumRace Reports Send A Private MessageWeek ViewMonth ViewYear View
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2003200420052006200720082009201020112012201320142015201620172018
15% off for Fast Running Blog members at St. George Running Center!

Location:

Fort Collins,CO,

Member Since:

May 15, 2003

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Local Elite

Running Accomplishments:

Unaided PR's:
5K: 14:48 (Track - 2001)
10K: 30:45 (Track - 2001)
10K: 31:32 (Bolder Boulder - 2013)
Half Marathon: 1:06:09 (Duluth - 2013)
Marathon: 2:17:54 (Grandma's) - 2014)
Marathon: 2:19:47 (Indianapolis Monumental - 2013)
Marathon: 2:19:49 (Indianapolis Monumental - 2010)

Aided PR's:
10K: 29:38 (Des News - 2011)
Half Marathon: 1:05:30 (TOU Half - 2011)
Marathon: 2:18:09 (St George - 2007)
Marathon: 2:17:35 (Boston - 2011)

Short-Term Running Goals:

Diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis in June of 2008. Started taking Enbrel in March, 2009.

Run as much as I can, and race as well as I can. Make the most of however much time I have left as an able-bodied runner.

Training for the 2018 Colorado Marathon

Long-Term Running Goals:

  Run until I'm old, and then run some more. Stand tall.

Personal:

1 wife, 2 kids. 1 cat. Work as a GIS Specialist/Map Geek

Endure and persist; this pain will turn to your good. - Ovid

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. - Romans 5:1-5

 

 

Click to donate
to Ukraine's Armed Forces
Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Saucony Trail Shoe Lifetime Miles: 247.50
Hoka Clifton Lifetime Miles: 491.50
Saucony Type A6 Lifetime Miles: 186.50
Saucony Zealot Lifetime Miles: 478.75
Saucony Kinvara 6 Lifetime Miles: 433.50
Saucony Kinvara 6-2 Lifetime Miles: 358.75
Brooks Pure Connect Blue Lifetime Miles: 337.25
New Balance Trainers Lifetime Miles: 314.50
New Balance 1400 Racers Lifetime Miles: 65.00
Brook Pureflow Lifetime Miles: 99.50
Race: Logan Peak Trail Run (26.5 Miles) 05:29:37, Place overall: 5
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
26.500.000.000.000.0026.50

This morning I did my first trail race: the Logan Peak Trail Run. It is a 25-mile semi-loop up in the Bear River Range in Logan. Actually, it was more like 26.5 miles, but whatever. Start elevatoin is about 5000'. Max elevation (Logan Peak) is about 9700'. Total elevation gain/loss is around 7200'. Course map is here. Course profile is here.

The race started at 6:30AM from a park up in the Logan Cliffside neighborhood. I have never been to this park because I am not rich enough. There were 27 runners, which was a good turnout, because the race director's goal was only 20 for this first year. But several of the participants were seasoned, decorated trail runners, so I knew stealing a win would be out of the question, especially since I wanted this race to be a "fun run". Cody and I were planning on running the entire race together, and I was looking forward to the trail, the scenery, and the company.

Start to Mile 4.5 -The first part of the course leaves the park and hits the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. There were some immediate rolling hills. Cody and I found ourselves in 4th or 5th place by the time we departed the BST at the mouth of Dry Canyon, around Mile 1. At Dry Canyon, the race really begins, as there is non-stop climbing to Mile 4.5 on rocky single-track.

We started ascending Dry Canyon and caught a few people. However, we would get passed whenever I stopped to take pictures. It was a slow grinding climb (3000' in 3.5 miles), and we were glad to see the first aid station. Mmmm...trail mix and pretzels. Mile splits were first 4 miles were 9:45, 12:31, 14:41, 16:02. This includes stops, as I wouldn't stop my watch when we took breaks.

Mile 4.5 to Mile 11 - After departing the aid station, the course turned off of Dry Canyon and onto the south portion of the Syncline Trail. Finally, we got some relief from the constant uphill. Terrain was variable - flat, up, down. But in general, this portion of the race was really nice. I had never been on this trail, and was treated to some good views of the Cache Valley and Providence Canyon. We were holding steady somewhere near the Top 5 for position. After a couple miles of single-track, we got on the Welches Flat jeep trail, which wraps around the north side of Providence Canyon. Around Mile 10 we were spat out at the top of Providence Canyon, above the old rock quarry. Terrain was still quite variable, but there was a lot of uphill that we were walking. Once again, we were quite glad to see the second aid station, near Mile 11. This station had even better food, and we took a 5-minute siesta where we focused on cramming food down our mouths.

Mile splits for this stretch were 16:50 (includes stop at first aid station), 9:05, 7:59, 13:55, 10:09, 14:23, 16:45 (includes stop at second aid station). I accidently stopped my watch at the first aid station and didn't realize it until 0.6 miles into this segment, so that threw things off a little.

Mile 11 to Mile 16 - This segment was an out-and-back to the namesake of the race: Logan Peak. We faced a 1000 overall vertical ft climb in 2.5 miles to reach our destination, which for all intents and purposes served as the halfway point of the race. As usual, we were walking the uphills, and running the best we could on the flat and downhill parts. The hardest thing was that we could see Logan Peak the entire time (big radio towers), we had to circumvent a ridge to get up on it first. I was planning on doing the Rocky thing at the very top of Logan Peak, but after the final quarter mile shuffle up to it, I didn't have the energy to jump around, make jabbing motions, and yell "Yeah! Yeah!". Instead I just filled up my water, ate a Gu, and talked to the volunteers. Several people passed Cody and I up here, since we were once again eating, chatting, and taking pictures. Everyone else seemed focused on running or something.

Finally, we started back down Logan Peak, back to aid station #2. We passed back several people, and also got to see the people behind us, who were going up on the out-and-back. It was nice to see the whole field and give them encouragement. Trail races are laid-back events, and it's cool to give and receive smiles from your competitors. We noticed that the first woman (Sarah Evans, a Wasatch Running Center teammate) was about 10 minutes behind us. The downhill was very good to have after the long climb, and we made it back pretty quick to the aid station at the junction. Once again we stopped for trail mix, cookies, drinks, etc, etc. Several people passed us back. I took their picture.

Mile splits for this segment were 14:36, 19:53, 8:07, 8:52, 14:02 (includes aid stop).

Mile 16 to Mile 22 - We turned right at the aid junction this time and continued on the jeep trail. Terrain was undulating (a pattern for this race). Walk, run. Walk, run. I was still feeling pretty good, thanks to the frequent and long aid stops. Around Mile 18, we turned left onto the north segment of the Syncline Trail, and started traversing the south rim of Logan Canyon. Views were fantastic, and I had never been on the stretch before. US-89 was about 4000' below us.

After a couple miles on the Syncline Trail (on which we were moving pretty good), we caught up to runner ahead of us, who had come to a stop at a junction in the trail. We soon saw the dilemma. There was a race sign pointing right, and some flagging on the right junction, but all common sense told us "go left". We decided that someone was playing a mean trick and that going right would take us off a cliff, so the three of us agreed to go left. We soon saw flagging again on our chosen course, and were 99.9% sure we made the correct choice. We found out later that some random jerk turned the sign around and messed with the flagging to be a wise guy. Ah, Cache Valley.

Cody and I ran with the other runner for several miles and chatted a little bit. He was from Salt Lake, that's all I remember. This stretch of single-track dragged on and on, and I kept expecting to see Dry Canyon again "any time", but it never came. Cody and I passed the other runner, who had decided to walk more than we wanted to. Finally, we came to the nose of the ridge and started winding back down to Dry Canyon. Hurrah, no more uphills! On this stretch we passed a guy that I'm pretty sure was in the Top 3 earlier in the race. That was satisfying; we were tired but not slowing down at all. We soon made it to the Dry Canyon aid station, the same station that was our first stop nearly 4.5 hours earlier.

Mile splits for this segment were 12:01, 9:58, 11:37, 13:41, 12:04, 14:24 (includes aid stop).

Miles 22 to 26.5 (finish) - I wasn't intending to spend much time at this aid station, since all we had left was 4.5 miles of sheer downhill, but then we got incentive to take off even faster: the top woman (Sarah Evans) came into the aid station while we were still eating. I didn't say anything, but gave Cody the universal telepathic signal of "We can't get chicked." I don't care that it was a "fun run", it just wasn't going to happen, especially on my home course. I was actually quite impressed with Sarah, though; she must have been hauling over the last 8 miles. Myself, Cody, and Sarah started down the trail, beginning our 3000', 4.5-mile descent. We just pointed ourselves downhill and went. We soon lost her within a mile or so. Crisis averted.

With about 2 miles to go, I was really smelling the barn, but momentum was halted when I hit a big rock at 7:00/mile pace. Gravity + steep downhill + lots of rocks is a bad combination, and I took quite a tumble. I think I absorbed most of the fall with both shoulders, as they really hurt afterward. My left palm got bloodied pretty good, and my right calf cramped up at same time. I peeled myself off the rocks and took a quick assessment: scraped hand with a flat of skin hanging, but nothing deep. Shoulder hurts, but not dislocated. Calf is starting to unlock. Nothing to do but start running again. We found our groove again within a few minutes. I was happy to draw a little blood in my first trail race.

Somewhere in there we passed a runner who had been quite a ways ahead of us. Always a good thing. Some hiker at the botton of the canyon yelled at us we were 4th and 5th. We didn't believe him. We exited Dry Canyon with a mile to go, and climbed up onto the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. The rolling hills of the BST were most unwelcome, but we were almost there, and my legs still had some pop. We made the turn off of the BST, back onto the grass leading back down to the park. I missed the flagging for a turn and Cody corrected me, but got out in front in the process. There was one last very steep downhill going into the park, and Cody looked back and told me he wanted to beat me while I was still stumbling down the grade. I told him he better start sprinting if that was the case. Cody started sprinting. He finished a couple seconds ahead; Cody was indeed 4th overall and I was 5th. The random dude was right. The winner (Leland Barker) was a little more a half hour ahead. Third place was only 5 minutes ahead, and 6th place (the top woman) was two minutes behind. According to my Garmin (SportTracks) we spent about 42 minutes stopped. I suppose if we hadn't have taken so many breaks we could have placed higher...or we might have run slower. In any case, I think I'll recover pretty well due to all the breaks, food, and water I took during the race.

Mile splits for this segment were 9:01, 7:33, 8:30 (with tumble), 7:56, 3:06 (11:08-pace).

This blog entry turned into a book, but it was my first real trail race, and was memorable to me. I enjoyed the vast majority of it, and had a lot of fun running with Cody. It definitely beat doing chores. The race organization was quite good, the course was well-marked (except for vandalized areas), and the aid/food/voluteers were all awesome. Shirts were very cool too. And Cody won a huge vat of HammerGel. Good times. Again, I must say that our Cache Valley trails rock, and I encourage people to come up and run them.

(Cascadia: 196 miles)

Some pictures are below (in chronological order). They are reduced to fit the blog, but you can see full resolution by right-clicking and selecting "view".






Comments
From wildbull on Sat, Jun 30, 2007 at 20:41:13

great job on the race. sounds likeyou had a great time.

From James on Sun, Jul 01, 2007 at 00:10:56

Paul,

Nice run! I hope you didn't get too beat up from the race and the fall. Part of me wished that I would have done it with you and Cody, and the rest of me enjoyed just watching the finish. Maybe next year I will give it a try. Now that you guys have a taste for runs like that we can plan on the Grand canyon next year.

From Jon on Sun, Jul 01, 2007 at 00:19:39

Great pictures! And I love your humor of the entry (Several people passed us- I took their picture)

From Cody on Sun, Jul 01, 2007 at 00:29:47

Paul, sweet run! Couldn't have done it without you. Good times...as you would say.

From wheakory on Sun, Jul 01, 2007 at 01:27:19

Great run Paul sounds like you had a blast and that's what it's all about. Sometimes running for fun vs. being serious is why we run.

From bc on Sun, Jul 01, 2007 at 01:43:37

These are great, a picture tells a lot. We live in a great state.

From 26.2runner on Sun, Jul 01, 2007 at 11:39:10

Hey Paul, I've decided to finally go with a blog. How do I make my blog "live"? In other words, how do I make it a web page--like yours. Thanks,

Joe

From 26.2runner on Sun, Jul 01, 2007 at 11:48:03

Sorry Paul, I figured it out. Maybe it would help if I read Sasha's instructions better. Take care.

From James on Sun, Jul 01, 2007 at 17:16:17

I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure that you are 28 today. Happy Birthday buddy!

From Paul Petersen on Sun, Jul 01, 2007 at 17:54:24

Yup, I'm getting old!

From BC on Sun, Jul 01, 2007 at 18:15:50

Hey, Cancers are cool. Happy B-day.

From Cody on Sun, Jul 01, 2007 at 18:55:32

Happy Birthday! I hope you are feeling better than me. I am SORE! Enjoy your day!

From Chad on Sun, Jul 01, 2007 at 18:59:51

Paul--if you're 26.5 course measurement is correct, you just ran your first ultra. Congrats! I wouldn't feel bad about Leland Barker beating me by a half hour. The year I ran the Wasatch 100 (2001), he won the race and beat me by about 12 hours :) Anyway, great job. Looks like a beautiful course and a fun race. Next stop, the Bear 100.

Oh, and how did you upload the pictures? Did you post them to a web page and then paste the link? If so, what did you upload them to?

From Paul Petersen on Sun, Jul 01, 2007 at 20:10:23

Cody, my legs are a little sore, particularly the hip flexors, abductors, and a little bit in the quads. Most of my soreness in my shoulders from the impact of chundering head-first down Dry Canyon. My left knee is a little bruised too, but arnica has already helped that a lot.

Chad, yeah Leland is a Cache Valley legend and I was happy to finally meet him. I will probably do the Bear 100...that is, I am thinking about volunteering at one of the aid stations! It will be a fun thing to do during my St. George taper. By the way, there is a documentary about the Bear 100 that is pretty good, you may want to check it out:

http://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Bear-Kelly-Bradbury/dp/B000QSIZGM/ref=sr_11_1/102-5583538-1908927?ie=UTF8&qid=1179175272&sr=11-1

Regarding pictures, the only way to post them is to upload them to a website and then link to them. I uploaded them to my MarathonGIS.com website.

From David on Sun, Jul 01, 2007 at 21:56:52

Happy birthday Leland Jr.

From Jon on Mon, Jul 02, 2007 at 09:44:33

Yeah, happy birthday.

Chundering? Are you making up words again?

From David on Mon, Jul 02, 2007 at 15:02:17

Paul, I've always suspected Jon was something of a chunderhead.

From Jon on Mon, Jul 02, 2007 at 15:12:50

Hey, watch it now- my mom taught me it's not nice to use a word if you don't know what it means. And in this case, even if you do know what it means. Especially if you are referring to me.

From dutch on Mon, Jul 02, 2007 at 15:15:31

chun-der [CHUHN der]: verb

to vomit

gross, paul.

From Jon on Mon, Jul 02, 2007 at 15:54:26

Thanks for the translation, Ben.

From dutch on Mon, Jul 02, 2007 at 17:17:11

paul's not leland jr. until he carries a folding 410 shotgun and shoots a grousse from a tree at mile ~3 and carries the bird the rest of the way.

From Paul Petersen on Mon, Jul 02, 2007 at 17:22:38

Ben, is that a true story??

FYI, Chundering is also geology slang used in reference to hurling rocks from a high cliff into a canyon just to hear the noise. Rolling the rocks is also acceptable. In this case, the "rock" was my body.

From Jon on Mon, Jul 02, 2007 at 20:49:32

That one makes more sense. I was trying to figure out how you vomited head first...

From dutch on Tue, Jul 03, 2007 at 08:41:30

For better or worse, yes. When I ran this course with Kelly, Leland was with us and was hunting grouse with a "survival gun" that folded up. It was the most bizarre (and yet coolest) thing I've ever seen.

Add Your Comment.
  • Keep it family-safe. No vulgar or profane language. To discourage anonymous comments of cowardly nature, your IP address will be logged and posted next to your comment.
  • Do not respond to another person's comment out of context. If he made the original comment on another page/blog entry, go to that entry and respond there.
  • If all you want to do is contact the blogger and your comment is not connected with this entry and has no relevance to others, send a private message instead.
Only registered users with public blogs are allowed to post comments. Log in with your username and password or create an account and set up a blog.
Debt Reduction Calculator
Featured Announcements
Recent Comments: