Blogs from Solon, Ohio, United States, North America

Started the day early; might be because I was asleep by 8:00 PM last night! This getting old thing is no joke! So this morning I made my way down to Flagstaff, stopping at the Coconino National Forest to hike the Fatman’s Loop. Great hike, just enough to loosen up my very sore legs! From there it was off to the Historic Downtown district in Flagstaff to wander around and sightsee. What an awesome little town! I stopped in at “Late for the Train” coffee shop and had a great cappuccino, then walked up to a community market that they have every Sunday from May through November. It was huge and packed! A little bit of everything local, it was impressive! Eventually I made my way to Seligman, where I checked into the Aztec Motel and ... read more

So this morning I started at the visitor center about 4:30 AM. By 4:45 I was starting my run on the rim trail towards the South Kaibab trailhead. The weather was perfect, 50’s with a bit of a breeze. By about 5:29 I was at the trailhead and by 5:35 I started my descent into the canyon. There were a lot of people on the trail, both hikers and runners, which was nice. I found it tough to keep going because I wanted to stop at every turn and take pictures, or just look because it was so awesome. I got to see all of the landmarks I had seen while doing the run virtually; Ooh Ahh Point, Cedar Ridge, Skeleton Point. It was a pretty nice run, but the constant running downhill really pounded my ... read more

A few of years ago I started running on trails, thanks to my exposure to an iFIT trainer named Tommy Rivers Puzey via a NordicTrack treadmill my wife bought. I would run on the treadmill primarily through the winter, and hit the Metroparks trails in the warmer weather. One of the programs presented by this trainer was the 6 part Rim to River run in the Grand Canyon. I started to think, “hey, I could do this” and it wasn’t too long before I started training specifically for the Grand Canyon and eventually settled on the loop via south Kaibab to Bright Angel Trail and back to the south rim. So this Friday I head to Arizona and, around 5 Am on Saturday, I’ll start running down South Kaibab. I’ll blog my progress with pics and ... read more