For most of the last school year I would pick up Emily from school on Fridays. Now that she's in junior high, I haven't done it at all. But she wanted me to yesterday, so I finally did. We would mostly always go to Taco Bell. That's where we went yesterday.
I texted the team to see who was running today. It would just be me, Vickie, and Mike. Mike said he would pick us up at 5am. I set my alarm for 4:02am. But then I didn't get up when it went off. I thought I would be safe to sleep in a little longer. I should know by now that I need at least an hour for my bowels to wake up properly.
I managed to get some out before Mike got there and thought I was good. But guess what? I had Taco Bell yesterday! Remember? So by the time we got to Usery, I asked Mike if he had any TP. Luckily he had two rolls under the seat. I went off in the desert behind a bush and popped a squat. So gross. Vickie had already left and Mike hollered at me that he was leaving. He wanted to know if he could lock the truck up. I told him I had all my stuff, so he was good. Mike left and I finished up. I placed the roll of TP on his dashboard and finished putting on my gear.
According to Strava, Vickie had a three quarter mile head start on me by the time I started running. Mike was right behind her. Mike runs much faster than I do, so I only saw him as he was coming down. When I got to the intersection, I saw pylons in the middle of the road. They looked like they went at least a half a mile up the road where the road bends. I hoped that was all the further they went because cars were driving on the shoulder and I had to get off the road every time a car came by. Well, I got to the first half mile and could see that they went to the next half mile. I felt like texting the group to see how long they go, but I didn't want to wake up those that didn't run today. I got to mile one and could see that they kept going. That's when I knew in my heart they went all the way to the top! Now, I usually get off the road whenever a cyclist comes by, so it's not that big of a deal, but there are much more cars than cyclists, so it was like every five minutes! And there were places that the dirt is more like sand, or rocks, or sloping. So it was no fun.
Speaking of cyclists, there was not a single one until I got to 0.15 miles from the top. I thought that was smart of them to avoid riding here because you can't get off the road on a road bike. But I saw a lot more cyclists making their way up the hill and some going downhill while I was running down.
After a while of running I was starting to get worried that I hadn't seen my wife yet. I was hoping that she's just getting faster, not that she had been plowed over by a vehicle and thrown in a ditch somewhere. I saw Mike coming down at the 3 and a quarter mile mark, which means he was a mile ahead of me. I was going to ask him if he had seen Vickie, but just then I saw her behind him. It was still dark out so I couldn't tell if she was going uphill or downhill, but she was on the other side of the road. She needs to start wearing a blinkly light. I was like, "Did she beat me to the top?" But I realized that she was still going up and I finally caught her a quarter of a mile before the top. She said that she was sick of getting forced off the road all the time, so she switched sides. I actually did that twice, but both times I was too nervous that I wouldn't see the vehicle behind me and would get hit, so I went back to the regular side, against traffic.
I ran back down. My back seems to be back to normal, but my pace was a little slower than it has been in the weeks leading up to Ragnar. But, it was decent. I'll take it. Mike finished a mile and a half ahead of me. I finished 0.9 miles ahead of Vickie. We waited for her to finish this time. She's getting stronger and stronger.
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