A few months ago I moved from Phoenix to Salt Lake City. I finished medical school in May and am now working at the University of Utah as a resident physician. For me, the worst parts about moving are leaving friends (especially my Sonoran Distance Project teammates), and leaving my favorite running spots. In Phoenix I lived right by South Mountain Park and I would run on San Juan Road at least 3 times per week. I had some special experiences there including watching beautiful desert sunrises over the Saguaros, running alongside coyotes, and watching meteor showers in the early morning hours. I ran the South Mountain Classic race and won it two years in a row. South Mountain felt like my spot, and I miss it.
On the flipside, one of my favorite things to do is explore new places to run. Since I've been here in Salt Lake City, most of my (rare) free time has been spent out on the trails or roads. Here are my favorite places I've found so far. Come visit me in SLC and I'll show you around!
To make this blog post more interesting, I took pictures of each of these locations during my runs this week.
1. Liberty Park. This one is right by my house. Beautiful park with big trees and a 1.5 mile flat, mulch trail around the perimeter.
2. Sugarhouse Park. Another beautiful park with a great view of the mountains. ~2 mile loop around the perimeter, some dirt and some paved trail.
3. Bonneville Shoreline Trail. Approximately 100 miles total of dirt trail extending from Idaho and south of Provo, UT. It's a dirt trail in the foothills of the mountains. Lots of elevation change and a tough run, but the parts I've ran on traverse through forest, canyons, and open alpine meadows. Just happens to be (literally) steps from the back door of the University of Utah Hospital. The first picture is where my run-commute ends most mornings!
4. City Creek Canyon. This is a 7 mile paved trail with a dirt trail on the side. It goes up City Creek Canyon, so it's alongside water, is shaded, and is usually nice and cool during the summer. It's uphill the whole way out and then downhill on the way back. Sorry – it was too dark for a good picture when I ran it this week!
5. University of Utah track. I run to and from work each day (4 miles each way) and the track is 1/4 mile from the hospital. A lot of times I add on a few easy miles on the track or do drills/strides there. It's also where I've done most of my track workouts since being here. It's a really good quality track, is open to the public, and has everything you need including port-a-potties and water! The view is amazing - mountains to the east and the city to the west. The University is up in the foothills, so you can see the whole valley from the track. The other morning I watched the sunrise from the track and there was a huge rainbow across the whole sky.
Come visit me in Salt Lake City and I'll show you around :)
Happy running,
Natalie