Two Words, RRR RRR!

Well, they might as well re-name the place C OOM. Why? Because I took the R home from Croom this morning!

Where do I stand? Pinhoti tR _ _ _ on my way to Pinhoti Trail.

Yesterday's run was solid, but a little slower and shorter than I'd hoped. But I finished strong, Running all the hills and flats the with Steve Wheeler and Woody for the last 6 miles. It was great crew we had out there. Becky and Lisa came up with me for the early 5. We were joined by Adam, Lindsay, Andrea, A2, Steve W, Woody, Traci Cole, and a friend of Steve's. Overall I had nice 21 mile jaunt.

This morning it was just Davo and I running out a then Croom (now Coom, as I mentioned, I took the R home with me!). I wanted to do the 12 mile Orange to blue loop that I plan to use for the Croom Zoom 100 in January. I scouted the course, I think it lays out perfectly for an 8 loop 100. It won't be as fast as Umstead, but it'll be comparable to Rocky.

Davo pushed me the first 7, though it was easy for him. I'm used to bit more of a warm up with some walking mixed in, while Davo is a hard charger (guys, he even stops his chrono when he walks, that's so, Roadish!). Anyway, after the first 10 I made him go on alone. I told him it would help me if he took off and I hung on as long as I could. This lasted about 1/2 mile, before I backed off to my tortoise pace. I was a little down because I wanted to run the whole loop non-stop, but the 21 from Saturday had zapped a legs a bit. So, I figured I had to do something extra to earn a letter. I made the deal that if I did the 1 mile out and one mile back west on Croom Road that I would earn a letter, provided I ran the whole thing. It wasn't looking good as I walked up the car coming up the South slope of the orange trail. But as I got to the parking lot, I couldn't let the opportunity to capture my Arr get away. So, I took off. I ran the mile out and the mile back. Not only did I get my Arr, but was treated to a chat with June and Dan, Spencer and Claude, with their wives, Wendy and her mom, Shawn (or Sean) and his friend Ilene, Tory, Robin, and two cats also doing Pinhoti, Greg and Chris. They are both looking fit! I was hoping for a 10 3 finish, with those 2 and Steve Wheeler going up, I may not even be in the top three from Florida! Oh, well, I'm not racing them, I'm racing..... no one! I'm just going to survive!

I can feel my legs getting stronger and my stamina increasing. I sure do appreciate having a large community with whom to train! Like June says, "It takes a village to run an Ultra!" (or did she say it takes a village idiot? I can never remember.)

Truly it was a fun day at Coom! (hey, you guys get your own R's, ARRR, ARRR!)