Used to Alley Pond, it will always be tiny for me.
I digress...
So, even with Covid etc, the usual cast of characters were present. For the male speedsters, we had Zandy and Byron. For the female speedsters, we had Shishaldin and Jodi. And for the commoners, we had Phil, Kate, Esther Levine, Mikey and Matet and Andrew and Angelica, John Vogt III, Vladimir, Ke'Mani, Alexis, John McCleary, Erin Petrella, Albert (Big Bird), Mitch Strong, Eliot and Jennifer Lee, Gerald, Jamey and me. Everyone was eager to get back to things. To do races again. And of course, this is local and cheap so ... Kinda a no brainer.
Vladimir, for whatever reason, decided to run with Jamey and me. He stayed with us hoping we would pull him until he couldn't go anymore. That was weird and no surprise that at one point, he left us and got more miles... By the way, I messed up his name for a few hours and kept calling him Dimitry and he never ever corrected me. Mitch Strong and Vladimir both had a crew, the whole time, from the Cunninghammers and they cheered for us too even after Vladimir left. At one point, I realized that I was messing up his name (I think I heard them say it) and I was embarrassed and apologized repeatedly.
Andrew and Angelica Fred were both attempting a Marathon but that just didn't happen. If I remember correctly, the conversation was something like, "if we all do a marathon, then ALL of us would get a tattoo". Didn't happen. As is, the only one who got one was Matet. Mikey was too tired as he worked on his feet the whole day. The kids just didn't have it. Once the bell rung, they left.
Kate, as usual, complained about her feet, ankles and knees but did pass us and made sure that we would never catch her. That's ok...
Michael Prayor came at night and ran 12 miles I think with us. He ran in the morning by himself but needed miles to close the month so that was that. Elizabeth, the kids and the dogs made a showing as well. Jessie took Lily and they both ran with us a loop. Eventually, Lee took the dogs, Jeremy and Min home while Jessie stayed behind. Glad they left as the stupid fireworks started. Still, the dogs enjoyed their outing and Lily enjoyed the loop.
Amer also showed up and ran with us. He got a picture of Michael and Jessie and Lily running with us.
Finally, it was done and done and as you can see by the pictures, I picked up a BUNCH of trophies for everyone. I also took a picture with Shishaldin.
Ritchie was in a garbage mood, as always, and was complaining about everything. One of the things that happened was that the dude in charge of the pizza got lost and that delayed things. I know already to stay clear of him and so I did. He later apologized by email for his extra crankiness.