SDrove down to PG with Allie, Jake and Andrea. They picked me up at my 7-11 so I could fuel up on coffee. As luck would have it about a quarter of it ended up in my lap which surely affected the end of my run. Arrived a Julie's just in time and after 5 mins of getting course instructions while FREEZING and not listening we got started. I could try to list all of the runners, probably around 20, but I won't try because I don't want to miss any. It was good to finally meet Rob who was tougher than me and wearing shorts.
As for the run, all I remember for the first 5 miles was stopping to tie my shoes twice (amateur I know), my toes were freezing and my jaw wouldn't work. I slowly started to thaw out at about mile 8 and that is when the fun began. At that point Tony was staying strong and leading the charge and the rest of us, Scott, Jake, Walter, Dan...probably a couple of others were still at a chit chat pace. We took a potty stop at the "eternal fountain", maybe mile 14 and the group got back together. Shortly after that the group broke up again so it was me, Walter, Scott and Jake left to take it home. We topped off the last of the hills at about mile 15 or 16 so from there it was a subtle grade back to the house. The paced picked up a bit to about 5:40s for a few miles until mile 20 when we hit a sharper downhill and through in a 4:55, which surprisingly dint kill me. Scott, Jake and I proceeded on for 2 more but that quickly turned into 3.5 with a sizable hill. By then I was pretty much spent while Jake said, "this is the best I have felt all day." I stopped at 23.5 then jogged another .25, which adding to my .25 jog to 7-11 made it 24 for the day.
After the run Julie graciously had us all in for pancakes and my favorite TruMoo chocolate milk. It was a fun event for all. A big thanks to Andrea for the adept driving early in the morning and to Julie for organizing the event and for staking out the clearly marked course. Despite the crazy coordinate system, which might do more harm than good, I was very impressed by the scenery and terrain of the Alpine/Highland/PG areas.
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