I ran/hiked/walked and nearly cried through the obvioulsy misnamed run called the "Grandeur Fun Run". It goes up the west face of Grandeur (2.2 miles and 3,400 ft), descends down to Church Fork and then loops back to the trailhead mostly along the Pipeline trail. To make matters much worse, cold rain, high winds, and some sleet/snow set in about 20 minutes into the race.
In summary, I was the first to the top by a good margin, quickly took a wrong turn down a super steep hill, took 10 minutes to realize I would be screwed if I kept going down, hiked back up, found other people and the correct trail, one mile later rolled the same ankle I sprained badly a few weeks ago, stood in a daze for a few minues, refused ibrupofen from some nice hikers possibly from the Orient, watched many people run by, realized I would freeze to death if I didn't start moving again, hobbled my way down the pipeline trail, turned down Rattlesnake Gulch because I was too cold, injured and didn't want to get lost again, quickly hitched a ride in a strangers car back to the car, drove to the finish to meet Amiee in a shiver, jumped in the passenger seat because Amiee didn't think I could drive, got home, jumped in a hot bath and sat there for 30 minutes until I felt better. I can't say whether the mountain, ankle or weather conditions made this a less than fun run. But I am sure running the Ogden Marathon would have been worse. I don't envy anyone who ran it today.
At least today was memorable as it was a first for many things: ascending the west face of Grandeur, not finishing what slighly resembled a race, needed to hitch a ride on a run,
And it was a day for some not so memorable repeats: getting lost in a race, spraining my ankle, and dying while trying to maintain a sub 20 minute mile
| 
