The Summit County Council has proclaimed June 25 "Olympic Day," and with that will come festivities Saturday at the Utah Olympic Park (UOP).

Olympic Day is a nationally recognized event, according to Jennifer Clarke, public relations manager at the UOP. She said organizations across the country have various celebrations that are held in a one-week period. Park City has chosen to celebrate its Olympic Day on June 25.

Park City isn't a stranger to the Olympics or Olympic athletes. In fact, it wouldn't be a fluke if you were to bump into an Olympian on the sidewalk.

"I think for us, here in Park City, that's very true," Clarke said. "For other cities in the country it's a much bigger statement. We do it in support of Olympic athletes and the USOC (United States Olympic Committee)."

On Saturday, following The Flying Ace All-Stars aerials show at the UOP at 1 p.m., there will be a free meet-and-greet event with Olympians Emily Cook and Heather McPhie from 1:30 to 2:15 p.m. Admission to The Flying Ace All-Star event is $10 for adults, $7 for youth (3-17) and seniors (65 and up).

"This is all about reaching out to the youth of the community," Clarke said.

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The Park City native, who is currently participating in Push America's Journey of Hope disability awareness ride, started the cross-country trek in San Francisco over a week ago. On Sunday, he and his team are scheduled to ride through Park City and spend time with folks at the National Ability Center, among other activities.

Thomas, a Park City High School graduate, spent time over the winter months trying to raise enough money to be able to participate in the event.

"It's going amazingly," he told The Park Record Monday. "It's been a great time."

He said the hardest stretch for him so far was the 90-mile ride from Jackson, Calif., to Lake Tahoe, Nev. It involved about 12,000 vertical feet of climbing through four different passes, he said.

"We were on our saddles for about 10 hours," he said. "It was a tough day."

The nine-week, 4,000-mile cycling trip is designed to raise money and awareness for people with disabilities.

According to a press release, the Journey of Hope is a program of Push America, the national philanthropy of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity that raises funds and awareness for people with disabilities. The Journey of Hope team consists of men from Pi Kappa Phi chapters across the country. The team plans to cycle an average of 75 miles per day, beginning in San Francisco and ending in Washington, D.C., on August 13.

"The team has been getting along great and the team has been riding along as well as if we've all known each other for a long time already," Thomas said. "We've had friendship events that have already changed our lives."

The trip to Park City is scheduled to go through Ely, Nev., then on to Baker, Nev., and through Delta, Utah, north toward Payson and then up Provo Canyon to Park City, Thomas said.

He said he is excited to show some of his teammates what to do in his backyard. He said the team will probably try out the activities at Park City Mountain Resort and the Utah Olympic Park.

"Time's flying already," he said. "It's been two weeks since we've been together. I've really been enjoying it. I think we all have. We've been really pushing through these rides. We all say it's all about the program and doing something bigger than ourselves.

"Every morning we ride for someone and ride for someone who isn't able to ride."

For more information about this event or more on Push America's summer programs, please contact Matt Martyn at (704) 504-2400 ext. 159 or log on to www.pushamerica.org .

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The colorful and testing marathon, which began in Logan Friday and finished here Saturday, was a 192-mile trek featuring teams of 12 runners each of whom ran three separate legs. However, some high-profile squads, called ultra teams, ran with just six members.

The race, billed as a 192-mile party, was showcased by team members crossing the line dressed as aliens, Santa Claus, Batman, Superman or even a giant bird. One team ran dressed as rap icon M.C. Hammer, another as ballerinas.

The Wasatch Back is arguably Ragnar's most popular race, and with a record turnout this year, the annual show did not disappoint spectators.

Mike Nielsen of West Jordan ran his second consecutive Ragnar relay dressed in a full-on Gingerbread Man costume. His team name? The Gingerbread Men.

"We're 12 tough cookies," he said.

"It's just a fun way to enjoy the race," Nielsen added. "Gingerbread men are fast 'run, run, as fast as you can'."

With a deep snowpack still intact in the higher elevations, Guardsman Pass, one of the relay's toughest legs, was plowed and cleared at the last minute in order for racers to make it through.

One runner described it as "running through a giant cooler, with huge mounds of snow on each side of you."

Nielsen said he preferred this year's course to that of his inaugural Ragnar relay.

"They made some big changes," he said, "But they were fine. They handled everything well. I really liked it this year compared to last year."

"I was the No. 12 runner last year, and I had to finish. Last year was really tough. Again, they did a really good job. It was a lot of fun."

The finish-line extravaganza was held at Dozier Field this year, compared to the base of Canyons Resort a year ago. Chad Englestead and his team of life long runner's, seven of whom work at The Runner's Corner in Orem, said the store has had a team in the Wasatch Back since its inception eight years ago.

The team was decked out in brightly-colored paint and one team member said they were trying to channel their inner "Avatar" look. The look certainly worked out the team finished second overall in the men's category finishing with a time of 19:43:44.

"It went really well for us this year," Englestead said.

Steve Soelberg, one of the emcees at the finish line Saturday, is a runner himself. He works at the University of Utah hospital and also does stand-up comedy. When Ragnar approached him to emcee a year or so ago, Soelberg jumped at the opportunity.

After participating in his first ever run last year at the Wasatch Back, he then ran the Ragnar relay in Phoenix, Ariz., a few months later. With 14 other races across the country, Soelberg flew out to Chicago, Ill., last month to announce the relay in the Windy City.

"It's been really fun," he said of announcing relays. "I'm a runner. I'm used to being on the microphone and saying things, but I really like running. I'd love to do it more."

This race isn't a secret. This year's Wasatch Back sold out within a few months, and had roughly 700 teams on the waiting list.

Didi Sharp and her team, the Cereal Killers, didn't have to sit nervously on the waiting list. Rather, her team finished with its best time yet, finishing around 12:30 p.m. Saturday.

Sharp said her only qualm was that she would have liked to have had more elaborate and specific exchange points on the trail. She said her team lost some time over-driving a bit.

"We had a great time," she said. "I think we'll be back next year. We'll probably be the same; we'll be the Cereal Killers again."

A man who was identified only as Santa Claus said, "It was quite a sight to see everyone crossing the finish line in Santa hats."

The Brigham Young University team finished first overall in the Wasatch Back with a time of 18:38:18.

Local team The Pavement Pirates, finished fourth overall in the coed category with a time of 23:05:58, while Team Name/RagStock, another Park City-based team, finished eighth overall in the coed category with a time of 23:32:32.

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This Saturday, the second of the four-part Utah State Championship Series, a new MTB event, will take place here in Park City as the Round Valley XC race is set to kick off at 4 p.m.

The first event was a dirt-circuit ride in Alpine in late spring. Following the Round Valley XC race, the series will return to Park City on July 9 for a 50-mile marathon race. The final race is a super XC race to be held in Draper.

Saffell and his partners, Drew Free, Shannon Boffeli, and Ty Hansen, decided to found the organization a year ago. This is the first year of the series.

"We just started talking about putting a few mountain-bike races together," Saffell said. "It's a little mixture of everything on mountain bikes."

Saffell said the series directors chose Park City for two of the four events largely because of its extremely biker-savvy culture.

"The trail system in Park City is amazing," he said. "In my mind, it's one of the ideal places to ride. We made use of all of our connections up there in the mountain biking community all of them across the board."

Saffell said he expects 200 to 250 racers to partake in the unique XC race Saturday. He said the late start time is due to a multitude of other local events Saturday, but said it should be a nice twist compared to the typical early-morning start.

He said the series is trying to form its own path.

"We actually have a 5-to-10-year plan to grow on. We don't want to compete with other race series; we're likely to grow slowly. We don't want to impede on the same weekends as other established events. Eventually, we'd like to bring high-caliber events to the state. But there's a lot of work to be done to get to that level."

Every race in the series will be a fundraiser designed to raise money for the Huntsman Cancer Foundation. Saffell said one of the series' founders' wives was diagnosed with breast cancer in January.

"We wanted to give something back tangibly, other than helping to build the sports," he said.

Saffell said he is excited to come to Park City and thinks this location will be one of the strongholds of the series for years to come.

"The first year is really the hardest in getting locations and all the routes set up," he said. "Once we get all the appropriate relationships set up, we want to come back."

A pre-registration fee for all adult categories for Saturday is $30. Juniors ages 13 to 18 are $20. Day-of registration includes a $10 additional fee. For kids 12 and under, there is only day-of registration which is $5. To register go to www.raceuscs.com . The series' registration system is unique in that it has no online fees.

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To finish her degree, she needed a full-time internship on her transcript. She chose the entrepreneurial route and started the Park City Mini Trail Series runs, put on by R-U-N? Events.

It's a 5K, 10K and 15K trail-running series which starts and ends in the Quinn's Junction area. The series is run on the Round Valley trails. Now in its second year, the series' first of three events is scheduled to take place June 25. The other races are scheduled for July 9 and August 13.

"It's designed for trail runners of all experience levels," she said of her race. "The courses are pretty easy and they're good experience."

Growing up in Orem, Widders said she became a trail-running addict, finding all sorts of new routes around Provo Canyon.

The creation of the series, which coincided with the completion of her degree, went along with what she has always wanted to do: introduce the idea of nature running to more people.

"I always wondered what made it so different for me," she said. "I love trail running far and away better than road running or being in a gym. When I was creating this, I really thought about it. I found some research saying that running in green areas actually helps the brain.

"It also showed exercise is one of the only ways to create new brain cells after the age of 30."

Widders said official trail running means avoiding any sort of man-made surface.

Widders said she'd like to see some improvements in the race this year, but knows she has to be realistic.

"Of course I have a number I want to hit, in my head," she said. "It's one of those little fantasies everyone has. My No. 1 goal is to provide people a chance to learn how to trail run; for people to learn in a really organized venue."

She added: "I'm looking forward to seeing some growth. I've already seen some minor growth in the series. I'm looking forward to getting some money to donate to Mountain Trails (Foundation)."

Widders, who lives near Jordanelle Reservoir with her husband, says she couldn't be in a better place and calls Park City "a trail-running mecca."

Rather than give away T-shirts, she said they give away pint glasses to the top racers.

"People go wild over these things," she said. "People just love them."

Widders said that last year about 20 percent of the athletes who competed in the races had never done a trail run before.

"Trail running helps, and can actually change you," she said.

For more info on the Park City Mini Trail Series and R-U-N? Events, go to www.r-u-nevents.com .

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"I found that some of my swimmers were getting better and better at swimming and couldn't do anything else," she said. "Running was just the hardest thing in the world for them."

That's when the wheels began to churn for Davis and her husband, Scott, both professional triathletes.

"During their off-season, we started running, biking, playing soccer, doing fun obstacle courses," she said of her swimmers. "They ended up getting (to be) better swimmers, and they became overall athletes.

"We figured we could start Tri-Kids and that's where it flew off."

Now in its fifth year in Park City, the Tri-Kids 123 Triathlon camps for kids ages 5 to 12 returns to town June 27-July 1. The remaining camps in town will be July 5-8 and Aug. 8-12. Following each camp, there will be a triathlon day for kids in the camp.

The Davises spend half the year in Park City and the other half in Westlake, Calif., near the headquarters of K-Swiss, the camps' main sponsor. Aside from the camps in Park City, Tri-Kids has camps in Thousand Oaks and Ventura, Calif.

"When we lived in San Diego, that's like a triathlon mecca," Kari Davis said. "People got excited to learn what a triathlon was and wanted to make sure what they were doing.

"With our camps, the ones in Park City, our repeat business is probably 80 percent. We have people who started coming to the camps at 6 and now are getting close to 10 or 11."

Davis said her son went through the Tri-Kids program and was coached by his parents to have fun and become versatile in exercise, which Davis says is the point of the camps.

"I think at that level, everything is fun," she said. "Sometimes, when we're running, we'll go through the park, we do obstacle courses on the bikes and show them how to shift gears. Some kids come in with training wheels and leave some of our best bike riders.

"We want them to learn something and be fun. If you're a kid, you're not coming back if it's not fun."

Davis said she and her husband are the primary coaches. If camps balloon a bit, they'll bring in other triathletes to help coach. She says the goal is to keep the coach-to-child ratio about 1-to-8.

One of the most rewarding parts of the camps, according to Davis, is seeing some of the youngsters who they coached back in the early days in San Diego continue on with triathlons. She said a couple of former Tri-Kids participants are looking at becoming pros.

Watching the actual triathlon following the camps is arguably the highlight of the week, she said.

"When they cross the finish line, they get a cool medal and wear it to bed," Davis said. "Their self-esteem, you can just see it in their faces. They're accomplishing something that they've never done and now they know they can do it too."

The Tri-Kids camps in Park City will be held at the Ecker Hill Middle School. Camps are one week long and last 2.5 hours Monday-Friday. On Saturday's there is the kids-length triathlon. According to Davis, these triathlons are open to the community. For more information on the camps or how to sign up, go to www.trikids123.com .

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"What we always used to say about Elli is, you can't hurt what you can't catch," said Park City High School girls' soccer coach Chip Cook, Reed's coach in high school.

Since day one, Elli Reed has been a soccer player. She openly admits that, she always wanted to do nothing else but play soccer.

She wanted to play soccer so badly that she graduated a semester early from the University of Portland to be eligible for the 2011 Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league draft.

"For me, it was always about having fun," she said. "It was never about playing soccer to get my college paid for or anything like that. I wanted to play every day and wanted to practice every day."

That attitude made Reed a first-round WPS selection as she was chosen by the Western New York Flash with the No. 8 pick. But after going through the preseason with the squad, Reed just didn't fit.

Within a few hours of being released from the Flash, she dialed up a former coach who guided her U-20 Women's World Cup squad to a title back in 2008.

Tony DiCicco, who is now coaching the Boston Breakers, knew Reed and knew what kind of player she was. After her phone call, Reed hopped on an airplane in hopes of keeping her life-long dreams afloat.

"I just wanted to see if he was interested in me playing for him again," she said.

DiCicco knew what he was getting in Reed: an athletic, quick and aggressive outside back defender. Since joining the Breakers, her inaugural year in professional soccer has been a rewarding one, she said.

"It's great," she said. "I can't complain. I'm doing what I love: playing soccer professionally."

The Breakers are currently 3-5-2, ranked fourth in the six-team league nearly at the season's halfway point. So far this year, Reed has played in five games and started two, logging a total of 231 minutes on the pitch.

Reed said since the league has so few teams, every team is stacked with some of the best talent in the world. U.S. Women's National Team stars such as Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan, Heather O'Reilly, Amy Rodriguez, Heather Mitts, Carli Lloyd and Hope Solo are featured in the WPS.

She said the best way to improve is through training, and since she has high-profile teammates such as England's Kelly Smith and Alex Scott, she goes up against the best every single day.

"The level is definitely top notch," she said. "It took me a little bit to get used to the speed of play, but I think since I've been playing at this level for a few months, I'm starting to get into the groove of things."

Reed wasn't an outside back initially. In fact, during her days in a Miners' uniform, she was a deadly scoring threat up front for Park City. From 2004 to 2006, she scored 50 goals.

"That's a really good sign of a great all-around soccer player," Cook said, "Someone who can take their skills as a goal scorer and translate that to defense."

Reed starred on a Park City High School team that won 3A state titles in 2004 and 2005. She was a Parade Magazine All-American her senior year at PCHS in 2007 and was a four-time first team all-state selection.

"Growing up in Park City, I always played soccer," she said.

As for the transition from being a Park City born-and-raised kid to playing in a prestigious University of Portland soccer program and then on to one of the most intense sports cities in the world, Reed said she is living the dream she envisioned for so many years.

"It's a lot different, for sure," she said. "It's a fun city and there's a lot going on with the Red Sox, and the Bruins just winning the Stanley Cup. So far I really like it.

"I think the Boston Breakers have one of the biggest fan bases out of the six WPS fans. A couple thousand, I'd say, to each game. We have great fans, have a cool drum squad. But there's still a lot of people out there who have no idea who the Breakers are."

The five other WPS teams are based in Atlanta, Ga., Buffalo, N.Y., Philadelphia, Pa., Piscataway Township, N.J., and Boca Raton, Fla.

Having starred at Portland for four years and having now overcome some early-career turbulence, Elli Reed has done what few have been able to do.

Dream it, and do it.

But she has a next step, an upper echelon she has yet to reach.

"I definitely want the WPS to stick around and want to play professionally as long as I can," she said. "But one day, I'd like to play for the U.S. Women's National Team and play in the World Cup and Olympics."

All she has to do to etch that next accomplishment on her record, she said, is to play well enough to be seen.

"We've had some great players, and we've had some world-class players," Cook said of her time as coach at Park City High School. "She's definitely one of the latter."

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An instructor, competitor and member of Park City Stand Up Paddleboarding (SUP) for the last year, Hickman said the sport is a perfect mixture of relaxation and exercise.

"Some of the appeal is, it's got surf culture, which is appealing to a lot of people," he said. "It's almost a primal feeling to be standing up on something propelling yourself through the water."

Having lived in Costa Rica during the summer months for five years, Hickman became tuned in to that surfing culture. He said he eventually grew out of riding shortboards on the pristine beaches of Costa Rica, and when he returned to Park City, he was introduced to paddleboarding.

"I actually started here on the Jordanelle (Reservoir)," he said. "I was immediately hooked. I knew I wanted to promote the sport through a fitness perspective."

He was persuaded to enter a paddleboard race at the end of July 2010 after just two weeks of experience and borrowed a board. He finished second and has been involved in competitive events and giving instruction ever since.

"It's such a neat little community," Hickman said. "It's sort of grassroots right now."

But the sport is growing within the aquatic confines of Summit County.

In the winter, professional stand up paddleboarder Betsy Risner took to the ponds at Park City Golf Course to stay in shape and in tune with her board.

Todd Fischer, owner/operator of Silver Star Ski & Sport, said he has friends who stand up paddleboard on the ponds at Deer Valley.

Fischer said he is "gambling" this summer by trying to rent out paddleboards as another addition to his store's summer repertoire. He will start out with two paddleboards available for rent and will have portable racks adjustable to any type of car.

"Paddleboards are becoming more and more popular up here," Fischer said. "In the summer, you're always trying to find a new niche. Bicycles are commonplace, and you almost have to have them as a sports shop, but paddleboards are just really catching on.

"What you're seeing is a lot of people out in the reservoirs."

Perhaps nobody has been involved locally with paddleboarding as long as Marty Shattuck of All Sports Eyewear. He mainly started on the stand up board just to stay in shape. He said his lingering back problems and lack of core energy were relieved when he started on a paddleboard. "It just seemed like a really great thing to stay in shape," he said.

Shattuck began selling boards back in 2006.

"Back then, no one was really selling them. My wife and I thought, 'Let's just go ahead and start selling them to see where it goes.' And boy, has it boomed."

Shattuck said the evolution of the sport, and most importantly, boards, has helped lower the cost of participation significantly.

"Now, you can get into a board for $1,600-1,700," he said. "A year or so ago, it was over $3,000."

"It's just another fun way to go out and stay in shape in an active town like this," he added.

Activity is the main selling point for Hickman.

While Hickman teaches paddleboard lessons on the Jordanelle, he is also a personal trainer at the Golden Door Spa at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Park City.

He said paddleboarding will give any participant the same type of complete body workout as other outdoor activities.

"Your feet are on the board, hands on the paddle and standing up will work everything in between," he said.

To stay balanced, he said you use muscles in your feet you don't normally use.

Your legs are working especially hard if there is any kind of chop on the water. Hickman likes to tell people to keep a slight bend in their knees to stay in form and keep balance. Balance training, he says, is important for people.

"You're just standing on the water, and relaxing," he said.

Fischer said his first-year experiment is a worthy one and he is looking forward to getting out this summer and becoming more accustomed to the feeling of the board under his feet.

"I'm planning on setting at least one day a week aside where I can get some paddling in," he said.

Hickman said paddleboarding isn't a community that would be opposed to more company.

"I'm all about growing the sport," he said. "The bigger our community gets, the better it gets. I really believe it's a great thing for the human body to exercise, and I love sharing the Aloha of it, for sure."

Added Shattuck: "It's just another avenue for your landlocked surfer."

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The 2011 Summer Trail Map, to be released today, has a number of new features for the plethora of trails stretching from the basin out toward Park City.

Charlie Sturgis, executive director of Mountain Trails, said with every new year comes more tinkering. New developments, trails and reroutes lead to revisions, and with that comes more work for the following year's map.

This year, the group decided to try to make the map more user friendly.

"The trail system is pretty complex," Sturgis said. "When you put it on a map, it's pretty difficult to read at times. We identified a number of high-use areas or difficult-to-navigate areas and, with that, we decided that those were the areas that we wanted to highlight on the map."

Sturgis said on one side of this year's map, roughly one-third will be dedicated to trails from Summit Park to Guardsman Pass.

He said there will be an overview of that area with trails in various colors. There will be neighboring matching color-coded insets that magnify details in certain areas along those trails on the map.

Sturgis also said on back of this year's map there will be a section dedicated to the area ranging from McPolin Barn to Guardsman Pass.

"This being all the old hand-built trails," he said. "Showing the easiest way up Mid-Mountain and up the ridge. The big thing is, all these small trails tucked in between Deer Valley and Park City will be highlighted and way easier to read."

The background color of the map has been changed to improve visibility and reading different trails on the map, Sturgis said. Another new feature is every trail will be indexed with numbers and color coding.

The Summer Trail Map has been released each year since 2002, and Sturgis said the groups want to continue to make it as user friendly as possible.

"It's all in the details," he said.

The 2011 Summer Trail Map will be available at local sports and bikes shops, the visitor center, and other locations around town, for a $5 donation. The map will also be available for download at www.basinrecreation.org and www.mountaintrails.org .

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The Fusion Football Clinics, headed up by former NFL wide receiver Chris Thomas and former quarterback and Utah State graduate Bob Gagliano, is targeting July 5-8 as its first ever camp outside California here in Park City.

Thomas, who won a Super Bowl ring in 1999 with the St. Louis Rams, and Gagliano, who learned under the tutelage of NFL legends such as Bill Walsh, Joe Montana and Steve Young, are hoping to see a strong turnout from skill-position athletes across the state. The trip out to Park City is a "defined endeavor", according to Thomas, but for the clinic to happen, he and Gagliano are hoping for a number of players age 11 to 18 to give it a shot.

If there aren't enough kids signed up a week prior to the camp, Thomas said it wouldn't make sense fiscally for both he and Gagliano to come out.

Thomas said his goal is to work with roughly 50 receivers, while Gagliano generally hopes to work with about 20 to 25 quarterbacks. They have taught this clinic for seven years now.

A clinic which features intensive physical and mental workouts for wide receivers, tight ends and quarterbacks, Fusion Football sets itself apart from other football camps due to its focus on the psychological part of the game.

"We're not coaching football, we're teaching football," Thomas said. "It all starts psychologically. In the NFL, the game becomes 85 percent mental, 15 percent physical.

"The reward is a greater end result. There's way more to the game if you want to play the game on your own terms."

Thomas and Gagliano work with an average of 56 athletes per clinic, according to Thomas. He said interest in the clinic has been spiking over the last few years and that was a driving force in wanting to expand out of California.

"It's enticing to us," said Thomas.

Why would the clinic choose Park City of all places?

Gagliano was in Park City a few years ago for the Luc Robitaille Celebrity Shootout during the Sundance Film Festival. The former quarterback met Jason Glidden of the Park City Ice Arena and told him a little bit about the camps.

"Obviously, with Park City having a real recreation base, I figured it would make sense to bring something like that out to Utah," Glidden said. "It's an unbelievable opportunity to get coaching from former NFL players."

A few years later, the trip is coming to fruition.

"When I think about places like Utah, they're playing a different type of football," Thomas said. "We want to help other kids in other areas."

Park City High School head football coach Kai Smalley said he's spoken to Thomas a couple times and said he is hoping for a legitimate turnout.

"I think the whole mental aspect with it, from talking to these guys, sounds like they're pretty into it," he said. "It sounds like it fits well with what we're doing as a team. We really encourage the leadership aspect and playing mentally tough. I hope that we can get some of our guys there. It's a good opportunity for them."

Thomas said he encourages athletes to appreciate the simplicity of the game.

"You'd be amazed how simple concepts of getting off the line of scrimmage are important," he said. "It's really been life-changing for a lot of our athletes. They take on a completely different perspective."

Added Glidden: "I have no connection to football. But this does fit in with our city. Anytime we can bring in these opportunities for kids here, we should do so."

For interest on the Fusion Football Clinics, go to www.fusionfootballclinic.com or contact Chris Thomas at: chris@fusionfootballclinic.com or 805-338-1219.

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