Weatherford/Kachina

10 runners headed up the Weatherford/Kachina Trails this morning. It was pretty toasty. The chat this morning was all about how well our Flagstaff running friends fared at the Trans Rockies Stage Race! Afterwards we headed down to see the wonderful new space that Run Flagstaff has opened next door to Absolute Bikes! Vince has grand plans for the store so check it out ASAP! Exciting times for running in Falgstaff! Download photos from today.

Kendrick Trail

17 runners climbed Kendrick Mountain this morning. It was overcast and quite cool with a fall chill in the air. It was great to have a lot of new faces out there today! Jerry took the best spill of the day with blood oozing from his knee. Tony again hosted us at the Seasoned Kitchen serving up even more iced lates than last week! Download photos from today.

Sunset/Soulstice Sprint Course

Finally, a weekend with no events! I had anxiously awaited this Saturday morning run for weeks as I do every year after the end of the Summer Series. I raced out of the house and got to the trailhead...but no one was there...hmmm. Were we doing Kendrick? Well, I was a bit too excited and had gotten to the trailhead about 10 minutes early. Mackenzie, Caleb and Eric joined in as part of their long runs. Everyone else eventually showed and we had 15 runners ready to take on the hill. With a chilly, gusty wind, it seemed like Soulstice had arrived, reminding us of race day. The course was pretty dusty, but the winds helped push us up the hill. Amazingly, the spring water flowed just above the Lincoln Logs. We ran into Chris Grove donning his broken wrist and pom pom bike handles. Back at the trailhead Tony had pumpkin chocolate chip muffins awaing us before our trip down to the Seasoned Kitchen for iced lattes! Downtown we got great news from Rob that Jill was doing well after her first week of Chemo! For updates visit Rob and Jill's blog. Download photos from today's run.

A-1 Mountain Run

18 runners headed up the Urban Trail and most of the group went as far as the A-1 Mountain Meadow, 9 miles out and back! We had two new runners join in the fun, Chris from Phoenix and Ian from the University of Indiana! Remarkably, there is still standing water along some of the Forest Service Roads. While I was making pretty good time on the downhill return run, I ended up late for coffee at the Seasoned Kitchen as I ran into a bunch of longtime friends, Dana, Nat (The Godfather of our Urban Trail Sytem!) and Merk (Executive Director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Flagstaff). After spending a bit of time chatting I returned to find the gang comfortably enjoying the Seasoned Kitchen. Download today's photos!

Sunset - Soulstice Sprint Course

19 runners and 5 dogs ran the sprint course of Soulstice. We again felt as though we were running through a rain forest. With the recent unusual wet weather, we found water ponds along Sunset! When we hit the Lincoln Logs, Little Gnarly junction, Schultz Creek was flowing! We barely kicked up any dust and marveled at the lush greenery throughout the run. Tony then served up some strong espressos at the Seasoned Kitchen and as we left the next round of large raindrops began to fall. Let it rain, rain, rain!!!! Download photos from today's run.

Waterline

21 runners showed to head up Waterline on another dreary, damp Memorial Saturday run! With drizzle and low clouds overhead, the usually hot and dry Forest Road made for a pleasant uphill run. With last night's rain and the cloud cover, it seemed more like a run through a rain forest! There were a lot of new faces including Erik from Minneapolis who found time to sneak in the NATRA run despite being just 6 days away from directing the newest Minneapolis Marathon! At the end of the run we all returned to the Seasoned Kitchen for Coffee and Brett provided samples of Uncle Buzz's delicious chocolates! Download photos from today's run!

Schultz Creek Trail

A whopping 17 runners showed up to run Schultz Creek. It was great to see so many new faces. In fact, for the first time, it was beyond me to remember all the new names! It was great to have a gentleman from Toronto, our first international runner! As we bolted from the parking area kicking up dust, we quickly got into the cool shade of the ponderosa pines. Several runners caught up in the beauty of the forest managed to trip and fall. We could not find the usual widow maker stumps or rock suspects and decided we had to blame it on the jumping trail sand pixies of Schultz Creek.

Dave pointed out the collapsed "Leaning Tower of Schultz Creek", a monumental snag (dead ponderosa) that stood mightily along the rock garden for as long as I can remember. On my first run up Schultz Creek in 1986, I remembered seeing the leaning tree and thinking that it could fall over at any moment. Well that moment came during this past year. The question is, did anyone hear it?! We took the obligatory runner under the fallen tree shot and moved on.

About 1.5 miles up the trail we encountered running water! What a sight to see and we wondered if there would still be some patches of snow near the Lincoln Logs. The further up we got, the harder the creek ran - well enough to hear the bubbling, flowing water, always a treat around Flagstaff! We made it to the Lincoln Logs (no snow) and notably, more than half the group continued on up Little Gnarly to Rocky Ridge. The rest of us only imagined the blazing hot sun those folks encountered on the rather open unsheltered Rocky Ridge Trail. We then returned to Tony's Seasoned Kitchen for some awesome Cranberry Muffins and Iced Cafe Lates! Download photos from today's run!