Notes
Dang, that course does have some hills. In fact, the first three miles are all uphill (about 600 ft of elev gain). Here's a map:
http://tinyurl.com/yga7tdt
I started out pretty hard running 6:50 up a steep-ass hill. Then just wanted to stay with green guy. Tried to stay steady up until the climbing stopped at mile three. I wasn't anticipating such a rapid decent. Opened up the stride (and saw my form get a little sloppy) and let gravity pull me down those hills. That 5:27 may be the fastest mile I've timed myself run.
Caught up with red-guy at mile six. We ran together for the last couple miles, trading the lead. He kicked by me hard on the last 0.34, but thankfully wasn't in my AG.
I had a really fun time today. Red-guy turned out to be Mark, who is super cool. We realized we know a lot of the same people, and he ended up treating a bunch of us to mimosas (tailgate style). Mark introduced me to a bunch of guys our age, many of whom run a speed work-out once a week, and I'm going to really try to make it out there soon.
Green-guy, Joel, also seems really cool, and I hope to get to run with him sometime too. Not knowing the age of any of these people, I was trying to keep up with him on the first few hills. I should note that he had to stop to tie his shoe *three* times. He was about 30 secs behind me in the end, and I can't help to wonder how things would have turned out otherwise. This also probably pissed him off something fierce.
A great day out there, lot's of the Saturday morning crew was there. Always great to run with them, and added bonus that they saw me win my AG. Ed dropped by too, not running as he's injured. I was pretty happy that he remembered me (even if it was 'cause I look like a celeb. and not due to by kick-ass running skills).