Timp Trail Marathon is a new race put on by Shawn Christian and Marc Collman. The course is on the west side of Mt. Timp above Orem.
I had no expectations going into this race. I ran Ogden marathon last week, took zero time off after that, jumped right back into training and thus had somewhat tired legs. To say the weather was a challenge today is an understatement. It rained at our house all night long and rained most of the way down to Provo this morning. Not only that, but the temp was 40 degrees.....in late May. What's up with that? Since it was 40 outside, I knew that we'd be up in snow given that the race course went to a high point of over 7700'. Even if this would have been a nice day the course would have been a tough one. When everyone started at 6am, there was a light rain falling. This rain continued to fall for the first couple of hours, then quit. At times there was snow coming down on us as well.
The first half of the race actually kept us below the snow level, but at that point, the steepest climb of the day was there for us to enjoy. Roughly 800' of gain is about .6 miles. Keep in mind that if the ground was dry this would be a hard climb. Now add in the fact that the trail was slick, slippery mud. Two steps forward, one step sliding back. Now we were up in the snow, about 2 inches worth. The trails didn't have snow on them, just very cold muddy water and mud, lots of mud. Did I mention that there was mud on the trail today?
After that inital hard climb, we cruised for a bit then started up a canyon. The trail took us along steep cliffs where a slip over the edge would result in getting hurt really bad or death. It was gorgeous though. This is why I run trail races. This climb up the canyon eventually took us to the high point of the course, a little above 7700'. This climb was pretty steep as well, about 2000' in 3 miles. At the high point there was about 4-6 inches of snow on the ground. The trails were still just had lots of mud and water.
After the high point, the rest of the course was pretty much downhill. We did have a couple more short but steep climbs.
After the last aid station at 21.5 miles, the course became a downhill cruiser. By this time the sun was trying to peak out and the views became even more spectacular with all the snow up on Mt. Timp.
Well organized race, good aid stations. Beautiful and very tough course. Just what I like. I'll run it again next year.
One thing I did notice is that I wasn't nearly as tired and painful as I was after Ogden. That road pounding just did a number on me. Give me a trail any day.
Here's a link to the course mapped by my Garmin.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/34172537
Oh, did I mention that the course was muddy in places?
| 