Reflections While Running in Salt Lake City before Outdoor Retailer

I woke up and picked up my phone: 7 a.m., two hours before the Outdoor Retailer trade show opened and an hour before I was meeting the Rock and Ice crew at breakfast. The hotel Internet was, as always, slower than dialup, so I decided to go for a run.

I’m not used to city running, and Salt Lake is a funny city. The streets are a minimum of two lanes wide in each direction, sometimes more, giving one the feeling of crossing an interstate at the end of each block. Since I’m not used to stoplights and didn’t feel like waiting for a walk signal every quarter-mile, I opted to run squares around the block our hotel was on, zigzagging through the various fast-food parking lots every few laps to mix things up.

The mountain I'd rather have been running up.

I passed the same man handing out Outdoor Retailer information magazines each time I went around my circle; we smiled at each other. “You running the mile?” he asked. I hoped I would last that long, thinking of all the unfinished projects I wished I climbing at Rifle instead of lapping people pushing shopping carts with everything they owned down the street.

As I jogged past the Holiday Inn, I saw two police cars busting a guest for having beers purchased outside of Utah in a cooler—Coors Light.

I ran past a man biking in circles around a back parking lot, dress pants cuffed to keep them clean from chain grease. He was here for the same reason I was: to get a little early morning exercise in before beginning hours of meetings about SUP boards, ultra-light bike frames and the newest Black Diamond cams, ounces lighter than last year’s. He was on a mountain bike, which belonged on the trails surrounding the city, not in it. I was wishing I could be running between walls at Rifle Canyon instead of McDonalds parking lots.

Twice a year, in August and January, the outdoor industry comes together in the Salt Palace to show off the newest gear along miles of booths costing thousands of dollars each. It’s a place to do work but also a place to meet old friends and make new connections. Those who attend break the culture of the city, biking through parking lots at 7 a.m. and drinking beer full strength beer—illegal to brew in Utah, where only beverages with an alcohol content of 3.2% or less are defined as "beer." We talk about the latest gadgets that get us up the mountains and cliffs, down the rivers, across the lakes, and through the oceans we love.

However, the outdoor industry isn't just about selling you a product that you "need" to be complete; it's about providing you with the best tools possible that will allow you to have the experiences in nature you'll remember.