Weekend Report

Rick and I headed to Twin Brooks Saturday morning to help out at the Craig's Cup 5K. The weather was a bit nippy standing around, a combination of cool temps and a brisk wind. We joined TMs Ryan, Jamie, and Kate B. on back-up finish line duties. After what looked like a great race, we headed out for a run ourselves.

Jeff, having just run his marathon debut the week before (really just 6 days before) in a blazing 3:00:36 and then just running a PR at the Craig's Cup (which he also is the race director for), joined us seemingly on fresh legs! It's a good thing, I think he was the only one familiar with Twin Brooks.

Rick forgot to throw his inhaler into his bag of stuff and I could hear him wheezing a bit around 1.5 miles in. He decided to stop (probably got in 2) when we were near the soccer fields. I wanted to get in at least 1 more mile. When I figured I'd hit that mark and was at a place I knew how to get back, I said goodbye to the group. BUT Jeff said I'd be "pulling a Dunn" if I peeled off there. NO WAY did I want to be accused of that : O ! Turns out I'd have skipped a really steep, though short, hill, but I could get it in if I just ran another 1/4 mile longer. So, of course, I did.

Sunday I headed to Bradbury with a goal of 10-12 miles. Mindy met me to run the first six. Originally, I think she was going to do more, but had come down with a cold. Both of us had a hard time peeling off our warm over-clothes; it was chilly. I'd watched the temperature steadily drop going from my house to the park. It was 36 degrees.

We started out on my de-twisty Bruiser course, with the goal of finding the geocache I saw last week. About 3.6 miles into our run, I pointed out where I thought it was. Nope. When we got to where the Ginn meets up with Fox East, I knew we'd gone passed it and we turned around to try again. We ended up back where I originally thought it was and found a place where the leaves were packed down for just the size of the geocache box; someone had moved it : ( Mindy told me fun stories of geocaches she'd found.

Back to running the course. When we finished Fox East, I told Mindy she's probably get her six in if we ran back the Link. Pretty damn close! My Garmin was right at a 10K when we got to the cars. I took my GU, some Gatorade, and visited with Mindy a few more minutes before heading out. I was debating 10 or 12, east or west side. Mindy said it'd be more bad ass on the mountain side even if I went for the lower mileage. That settled it for me.

The change of terrain was good for my spirits. It was also fun seeing all the families with little kids on their outings. I ran the Boundary to the summit, the Tote, Northern Loop up to Terrace, and down. When I got very near the finish at 10.4 ish, I was feeling bad asser. I decided to run up the Switch Back to the summit and then down the Norther Loop. I made it up with no walking! Gorham has been bery, bery good to me! The Garmin read 11.76 at the end. Yay!