54 and Sunny

9 stars emerged from the fartsack to post at Spider Run.

The Thang:

Six Milers: Out back side of lake, up the hill, up Boatright, right on 3 Chopt, left on Grove, right on Oak, to the end of oak across Cary to Hillcrest, one loop around hillcrest and then back.  Five Milers: turn around at end of Oak, Four Milers: Turn around at Tuckahoe.  Lug nut: as always, do whatever the F you want.

NMM:

Swirly is on a mission.  He pumped in two laps around the lake to begin with and then another one at the end.  He was recovering from the first two loops, turned around and we were gone.  Fortunately, YHC had told Swirly what the route was the night before, so he was able to find us out on the road.  The turn on the Oak is always confusing.  The road sign is just hard to see.  Most, except maybe Swirly, caught the turn the first time around.

On the way back to the lake, YHC saw Bleeder and Lugnut at the end of Grove. I was closing fast and caught them both at the turn.  I passed Lugnut at the turn and pulled even with Bleeder.  Upon seeing YHC, Bleeder turned on the after burners.  He put about 20 yards on me on the flats. but I started to catch him on the downhills.  I was never quite able to catch him, despite my best efforts.  As I have said in the past, Bleeder is easy to catch, but impossible to pass.  Man that boy is competitive.

Sippy seems back to his usual form, almost.  He starts slow, then passes all the four and five milers within the first mile.  Then he reels in the six milers at some point. By the finish, he is even with the fastest of the runners.  Just to cool down he runs a mile or two backwards, at a pace faster than my forward run.