November Adventures

The Fall Creek Beast 

At the beginning of October Ashlee asked if I wanted to run the Fall Creek Beast. I was in no shape to run a hard 50K, but it doesn't take much to talk me into stuff, so of course I said yes! 😆 Four weeks isn't very long to train for a race that's almost 33 miles, and over 6500 ft of vert, but I pushed hard in the time we had to prepare. I've never DNFed a race and I wasn't planning to start with this one. 

The race was so hard, and so fun! It earned its name as a beast for sure! There were 4 of us IFTR ladies running it, and we did pretty dang good!

Ashley-Tricia-Jodi-Ashlee

I had a goal to stay with Ashley and Ashlee for the first 10 miles of the race. We had run this section in training and there was plenty of bear poop, so I didn't want to be by myself in the dark. We all stayed together for the majority of the of the race, which ended up being so fun!

 We had to climb Prospector's Peak in the last few miles of the race. It was BRUTAL! They don't call it the Beast for nothing!

Looking back down Prospector's when I was close to the top.

Ashlee and Ashley heading back down Prospector's with tutus flying. 🙌

1st, 2nd, and 3rd females!

I worked hard to earn that medal, and I'm pretty proud of it!

Cress Creek Area

Ashlee and I ran the Cress Creek area for a little shake out a couple days after the Beast.

Bigelow's X2 & Little Kellys

Joyce and I had a little 'catch up' run up Bigelow's twice and down Little Kellys.

Heart Loop & Biting Goat

I got a bad cold after the Beast, so this was a 10 mile cough fest for me. We have to run mostly in the dark now. We had a pretty sunset for 4 miles, and then we were in the dark for 6 miles. We saw a touch of the northern lights as we were finishing up our run, so that was cool.

Good Enough to Old Tom to Ella's Peak

Ashlee, Becky, and I met a couple of the Blackfoot ladies for a hard run in Pocatello. We did two peaks in 14 miles with almost 5000 ft of vert. It kicked my butt! I'm still getting over my cold, so that didn't help. I loved these new trails though! We started at the Good Enough campground and climbed to the top of Old Tom. That was a dozy of a climb! From there we headed up a peak we didn't know the name of, so we named it Ella, after Ashlee's cute pup. 😁

At the top of Old Tom! We about blew away. 😅
Christina-Wendy-Becky-Tricia-Ashlee

Looking back at Old Tom.

Climbing Ella's Peak.

We made it! This was all of our first time up this one.

Gnarly Climb to Cranky Cowboy to Little Kellys

Mark and I did a 10 miler up in Kellys.

Cute baby cow!

Palisades

A big group of us ran Palisades. The majority of the group did 15 miles, but Mark, Tonya, and I just did 11. I had to be back for a scrapbook thing. On our way back we had two close moose encounters. I rounded a corner and there was one right in front of us on the trail. It didn't have a lot of options on where to go. It flattened it's ears and put it's hackles up. I untriggered my bear spray and we backed up to give it space. She worked her way past us through some bushes and all was well. A couple miles later I ran RIGHT past one. Mark was behind me and Tonya and we heard him go, "Um...Tricia!" There was a moose on the side hill right beside me and I just went right on by without even seeing it. Good thing it was a nice one!

The lower lake.

Tonya-Tricia-Mark

Here's our moose friend after it went up the hill a little ways.

Meadow Creek Loop

Ashlee, Becky, Jodi, and I did the Meadow Creek loop with an Old Meadow detour to give us 14 miles. We had a gorgeous sunrise.

Ashlee-Becky-Jodi-Tricia

Pretty sky!

Ririe Roads

I did a couple runs this month through the good old farm roads of Ririe. 

Bigelow's X3

On Thanksgiving morning, Ashlee, Becky, and I climbed Bigelow's three times. We definitely earned our Thanksgiving dinners!

Ashlee-Tricia-Becky

Black Canyon-Chicken Peak-Big Burns

Ashlee and I did a long, snowy run up Black Canyon and down Big Burns, with a detour up Chicken Peak. I had never been up Chicken Peak before, and I loved it! This was a 16 miler with lots of climbing. It's my longest since the Beast at the beginning of the month.

The sky looked amazing at the start.

A soft pretty sunrise.

A Teton view from the top of Chicken Peak.

The trail was snowy and beautiful.

It was a great month of running!