Go, you chicken fat, go away!

I woke up around 2:30am.  I couldn't get back to sleep.  I was sitting on the toilet when my alarm went off at 3:32am.  I was still sitting on the toilet when Mike got to my house at 3:50am. Luckily I had just finished up, so all I had to do was throw my clothes on.  And grab my lights.  And grab a towel.  And grab some water.  He brought Brian Stradling with him today.  Brian has run a handful of Ragnars with us.  It was his first time running Usery with us.  His brother, Tyler, had run with us a few times.  But Tyler lives in Texas now.  Their parents have also been on some of our teams.  In fact, they've got another brother and a sister who were on our Vegas team one year.  Their father has accepted the invitation to be on next year's team.  But Brian has not as of yet.  I think he will.  Why else would he go running with us? 

Brian is a pretty good runner.  But he was worried because he hasn't been running regularly.  I told him he'd do fine.  I started before both of them.  I was in the lead for about 0.4 miles.  Then Mike passed me.  I asked myself, "Where's Brian?"  I took a quick glance back and he was right behind me.  Not making a sound.  No footsteps.  No heavy breathing.  Just very relaxed and quiet, unlike Mike and myself.  He soon passed both me and Mike.  Knowing how competitive Mike is, I wondered if he'd pick up the pace.  Of course, he did.  This was my fastest time of the year.  I'm getting dangerously close to breaking that 10:00 min. pace. 

There was very little traffic this week, and zero runners.  I can remember only seeing two cyclists.  I wonder if it's because it's cooling down a little, so people aren't coming out quite as early to beat the sun.  I felt good running up.  I could see Brian coming back down the hill when I was about a quarter of a mile from the top.  Maybe more.  I finally saw Mike with about a tenth of a mile to go.  I found at later he stopped at the top to catch his breath.  I figured he must've.  Then he was off to the chase.  His goal was to catch Brian.  He caught him right before the bottom.  About a half mile from the bottom I saw Brian coming back up.  It was still dark out, but I recognized his reflective vest.  Looks like he wanted some extra mileage.  Mike and I weren't sure if we were supposed to wait for him or go get him.  We decided to get him.  Oh, I also saw the other Brian right at the bottom where we always see him.  He tends to take a break there before climbing the hill.  He runs a 20 mile loop.  I said, "Good morning, Brian!", and totally scared him.  He was on one of my Ragnar teams once, too.