The Pros: It's cheap, local and really local. The Cons: It's boring and I ran a hundred miler there already so boring...
Elizabeth and I drove there with the dogs. It was raining but she was going to walk with them there and then leave and later pick me up. I was stressing to the point that she questioned me about it. My usual answer is that I always respect the distance, whatever the distance is, and therefore I always stress about it. It is what it is...
We got there and I check in and go to the bathroom while she does 2 loops. The dogs were ok there. Since it was raining, it was also empty. It was also chilly. Spoke to Raina and Jamey. Eventually Elizabeth left. Ritchie spoke a little and then we were off. The goal for us was 18 loops. That would make exactly a marathon.
Ran with Raina a bit and then we left her. Each loop was 1.5423 miles long I think except the first one which was a little longer. The only interesting thing about it was that we went in the opposite direction if the hundred miler. Otherwise it was the same damn thing. I guess when you do 69 loops, you don't want to do more loops.
It was boring tho parts were beautiful. I keep saying that we need to go back there one day. Raina called Jamey after she finished her first loop. She was lost. What?!? She was NOT lost but rather her watch, which she started late, didn't agree with the distance the timers said.
We saw a racoon. She also saw a rabbit. We saw some cranes in the water. Very scenic in that respect.
Before the race started, a guy came over to me and asked me if I am part of ICE since I was wearing a balaclava. I told him no that I am cold but he quite stupidly continueed that his grandfather immigrated legally and he's afraid that ICE would now deport them all. Real stupid guy...
Later I saw him and said to him "Run like ICE is coming for you...". I mean the guy really was stupid.
One guy, Michael, was running like crazy. Yes - he won with 45.11 miles.
Coach Maria had one of her guys there. I think he was doing 18 miles.
Every so often we were with Raina. Her father showed up and took some pictures too. Either he didn't recognize me or something. We ran a little with Jean and his friend Mookie. We also shared some miles with Wilton.
One really really annoying thing happened that is definitly worth mentioning. I lost track of the loops. Jamey didn't. At one point, he told me 3 loops to go. They (we asked) told us only 2 loops. Weird but ok. We finished it thinking we had over 40 minutes to do the last loop. Suddenly they told us they made a mistake. One of had more loops then the other. Bottom line is 40 minutes and 2 loops to go. It wasn't a problem but it was ANNOYING. We ran the first and then the other. We finished with 10ish minutes to go and no will to do any bonus miles whatsoever.
HUGE NEWS: Raina PRed with 16.05 miles while Wilton PRed with 17.50 miles. Congrats to them both...
Elizabeth picked me and I went to work.