Go, you chicken fat, go away!

I was a fool to ever leave your side.  Me minus you is such a lonely ride.  Okay, that's all of the song I'm gonna recite because it starts to get mushy.  But it was good to be reunited with Marathon Dreamer.  Dreamer had run 8 miles already before I got there.  She was going for 20 so I ran the next 12 with her.  She did awesome.  The miles seemed to fly by, but I'm going to feel it in the morning.

Time - 1:48:07 (avg. pace 9:01)

Splits - 9:16, 9:01, 9:06, 8:59, 9:16, 8:51, 8:35, 9:09, 9:01, 8:53, 8:38, 9:23

Ringing in the New Year with a casual little run up the Hualapai Mountains.  Actually, it was anything but casual.  In fact, I would compare the level of difficulty to that of the marathons I've run.  I saw a post on Facebook that the Kingman Running Club would be doing a group run from the Gas n' Grub to the Ranger Station.  Since I was going to be in town, I decided to join them.

(To be continued.  My nagging wife wants us to go :P.  But just wait.  It's gonna be a good one.)

 Okay.  I'm back.  Anyway.  I had a feeling fellow blogger Kerry would be there.  He was, along with local speedy Chris Brady, a guy named Cody, and a gal named Cari who I found out is also a Fast Running Blogger but has never blogged.  (She told me she's going to start the Slow Jogging Blog.)  ((Cari just commented on my blog and entered her first blog entry.  Give her a warm welcome.  BTW, she's super cute and looks like Danielle Fishel.)

Twice before I've run this route.  But both times were in the opposite direction, downhill.  I'm not sure which hurts worse, uphill or downhill.  Downhill I think.  But uphill is harder.  We started at 9:30am.  It was chilly.  I was allllll bundled up.  We ran in a group for the first couple of miles.  Then something amazing happened.  I found a $20 bill!  Now everyone's eyes were open, but nobody had quite the eagle eyes of Chris who next found $100 bones!  10 seconds later he found another $100!  Then another $100!  Then a $1!  I questioned why he'd even bother with the $1.  But it was crazy! 

After a while Chris, Kerry, and Cody took off.  Cari and I ran together up until mile 7.  It was really neat running up the mountain and seeing the patches of snow ever increasing as we climbed.  Then Kerry's wife Denise drove by and offered to take our gloves.   After that, Cari starting putting some distance between us.  At mile 8 I was 100 feet behind her.  At mile 9 about 300 feet.  Then I bonked.  I've never had my legs sieze up like that, but it was d-i-f-f-i-c-u-l-t! 

I kept going, but had to take some walking breaks.  Finally I made it to the top and Denise had some hot chocolate waiting for us.  Here's some pictures.

Mile	Time	Elevation	Elevation Gain	Total Elevation Gain
0	0	3555
1	10:08	3668	113	113
2	9:53	3818	150	263
3	10:36	4068	250	513
4	10:54	4321	253	766
5	10:38	4567	246	1012
6	11:29	4863	296	1308
7	10:16	5002	139	1447
8	11:16	5201	199	1646
9	12:57	5546	345	1991
10	15:41	6174	628	2619
11	20:30	6500	326	2945
11.17	2:24	6502	2	2947