So this last weekend I was supposed to do 8 miles for my long run and I was a little worried about fitting it in, because I knew that my schedule was pretty full in Utah over most of the weekend. As well, I was concerned about the heat and elevation in Salt Lake City, to which worries commenter Justin added hazy air from fires. Justin was not just supplying problems, however, but solutions as well and suggested that I run at the Olympic Oval. The Oval looks awesome, but it's a ways out of town and we were relying on our hosts to ferry us around -- I felt a bit weird about asking someone to get up early, drop me off at the Oval and then pick up a very sweaty me a few hours later.

So, when I got up Friday morning and saw that temperature was still only 80° and I knew we didn't have to be anywhere until noon, I decided to seize the moment and I suited up, grabbed a bottle of water*, and headed up into the hills above the University of Utah campus.

For the first few minutes I was gasping for breath and I was worried that that it was the altitude. Then I realized it was because I was running straight uphill and Chicago-running hasn't prepared me for anything more than a slight incline. As soon as possible I headed along a hill and the run got a lot easier.

In the end, it was an awesome run. I walked plenty, especially any uphill parts, but I ran plenty, too. Up in the hills, it was gorgeous -- I actually took my little camera along and took a bunch of pictures, and then somehow lost the camera in the hotel room. [Update: found it.]

I've now trained in 3 states for this marathon (well, Arizona barely counts, since I ran a whole mile there), but Kenner has me beat with his Paris and Dublin runs.

Update: Camera found.

* I'm glad I planned that far ahead, but I realize that running along the lakefront has totally spoiled me about the availabilty of water fountains.