One more longish run before next weekend's marathon. Went to Starkey park this morning, arriving right at 6:00. Keith and Dixie and a few others were there. I had told Raj about 6:00 arrival and start at 6:15. The other guys took off at 6:10. I said I'd wait a few more minutes. Waited almost until 6:15 before deciding he wasn't going to show up this morning (he hadn't said definitely that he would or wouldn't show up). I got moving at a slow pace to get warmed up. After almost a mile, I heard someone behind me. It was Raj. He had shown up at about 6:15 on the dot and must have run about a 7:00 pace to catch up to me. So, we ran together, stopped briefly at 4 miles, kept on going. Saw Dixie coming back from a 5 mile turn around, next up was Jorge and Victoria a little later, then finally Keith and his friend David from his church. We turned around .4 miles later after doing about 6 miles. Had one more brief stop where I kept the clock running then started picking up speed. Held onto a good pace for the last 5 miles, averaging a little bit under 7:00 pace. Average pace: 7:52 There were even more people this morning at social hour. Lots of new faces, younger people and older people, all sorts of abilities. David (the original David) has done a great job getting more people to show up.
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