Break, Breaker, Breaker

Sorry about the lack of creativity in the titles of late. Seems like the trail never gets old, at least! So, Thursday was a day off for errands. Friday it was back to the mountain early with Linda and Bethany. We met Beth's friend Tina there. The goal was to get in almost the full Breaker, just leaving the South Ridge Trail and Summit off on the second loop.

I did my usual - running my pace but coming back to keep the group together. Linda had taken a tumble on our run on Wednesday, bloodied her knee, but was fine. This day, she caught a root and managed to stay up, but tweaked her hammie in the process. A little stretching and she was able to keep running. I don't think it was long into the second loop when she did the same thing. When we got to the Summit, she opted to head down the Terrace and skip the Tote and Northern Loop. It was probably a wise decision since she was limping later in the afternoon.

Bethany and Tina were really psyched with their runs because it was the longest ever for each of them! Both were surprised that the first mile on the Boundary goes much quicker (or seems to) on the second lap. It was a good demonstration of why a warm up is a good idea. They got in a bit over eight miles. I was able to get 9.9!

Today Rick and I headed over again to run with the TMs. There was a big group. I didn't know everyone, but there were Ian, James, Erik, Four, Lily, Yana, Blaine, and Erin. Steve Day, a friend of Rick's from Rumford, also joined the group. There was a fast group and then a couple of slower groups. I felt pretty good on the first lap, but don't know if it was the previous day's run, the cumulative days of humidity, the late night with beer or what, but I struggled a bit on the second. Rick's IT band was getting grumpy and I was happy to bail with him after coming down the South Ridge Trail.

After a shower, lunch, an hour or two in the garden weeding, I couldn't keep my eyes open and took a very rare nap. Then it was on to the Frontier Cafe to use my gift certificate I won as an age group prize in the Scuffle. It was Rick's first visit there. Yum! And we noticed that next weekend the movie is Monty Python and the Holy Grail.