A Busy but FUN Week

This week I had to make a quick trip out to Utah. Yes it was work related but it was fun work.

The company that I am working for now, Venafi, is a big believer in making sure people know each other and are able to work well together. So twice a year they have team building events. This one sounded exciting from the start - a day at Utah's Olympic Park.

I flew in Tuesday night and headed up to Park City where we were staying. A quick beer and bite to eat at the No Name Saloon also allowed me to catch up with a few of the guys that I already knew and to meet a few more. The next morning I finished off some real work and we headed up to the Olympic Park for noon.

Looking down one of the ski hills
towards the lodge

The ride up there is cool in itself. It is a steady, windy, drive up but as you go you can see all the ski jumps which are very impressive (as you can tell from the picture). While we waited for everyone to get there we watched some ski jumpers practice off the varying jumps and landing in the pool. Some were obviously experienced while others were brand new to it. Once everyone was there we started with a quick briefing and some team building and then headed up to the mountain top. We literally spent the next 5+ hours having fun and getting to know each other. We were doing street luge, summer biathlon (including air rifles to hit targets - first go two shots to get a center and second go - one shot one hit), zip lines, alpine sledding and the best - a run in a 4 man bobsled down the actual Olympic course. Driven by a professional driver using a wheeled sled - we still hit 70 mph and pulled 4 Gs.

After the full afternoon being active most drove back down while a few of us zip-lined back to the lodge where we had some food and drink and spent the evening playing blackjack, craps and betting on roulette.

It was a great way to get to meet and get to know a lot of people. You learn a lot from someone when they are next to you on a zip line that is 1500 ft long, dropping 500 feet at 60 mph.

Looking forward to the next team event.

Utah Trail Running

Wednesday was a great day to be in Utah. The weather had been warm but it was dry. A few rain storms had rolled through the mountains so they cooled a bit which was ideal for running the local trails.

I left Sandy and drove to Little Cottonwood Canyon Trail. The trail starts at 5400 feet above sea level and pretty much goes up from there. Of course I am not fully acclimated to altitude running so adding a 1000 foot climb over 2-1/2 miles made the run ..... interesting.

The trail itself is a great trail for running or mountain biking. The run or ride up is challenging and the way back down is even more challenging.

Hopefully the little bit of altitude training on the road and in the gym here in Utah will help my run in the Marine Corps Half-marathon on Sunday.