About a year ago, Hermes led the PAX on a now-legendary Q down a narrow dirtbike trail that runs parallel to Highway 1. Hermes took the group all the way south to the Dairy Queen on Ten Ten. I got to thinking: what happens if you headed north on that trail instead? I saw the Q slot was open for Kryptonite, so I grabbed it.
I ran the route twice over the weekend. I was reasonably confident I could keep everyone from plummeting into the ravines.
I realized at 5:20 that it was too dark to hit the trail first, so I switched up my plans.
Lots of EC runners this morning, but they were back right on time. Launch at 5:30, disclaimer, pledge, mosey to Symphony Lake, warm up.
Thing 1: Run. Run to the bridge for alternating partner merkins (someone – Pierogi? – posted this on Twitter recently and I stole the idea), run to Dude Solutions parking lot for jump squats, run to Bluewater’s office building for another round of partner merkins.
Thing 2: Trail. Good visibility now. Encouraged folks to stay together and watch out for the steep drops. I’ve never been a trail runner, so this was new to me, but it’s a blast. Made it through the 3/4 mile trail without issue, and we’re spit back out at Koka Booth. This part was a real joy.
Thing 3: Calamitous Failure. Because of the schedule flip-flop (that’s singular), I wasn’t where I needed to be for the planned third act. Real-talk: I don’t Q a lot. Riptide would have flawlessly generated a 10-minute bolt-on and no one would have been the wiser. I…did not. I gave some vague directions and sent everyone scattering to the wind. The less said about this the better.
Thing 4: Mary/COT. We were running ahead of time due to the Calamitous Failure, but my voice was giving out, and we’d well exceeded the Kryptonite Minimum Mileage Requirement, so I called it. I hoped COT might run long. Nope. No announcements. No praises. Prayers for Mufasa’s M for her health and Frey Daddy’s family on their loss. I took us out… a full 5 minutes early. Thankfully Oofta had trunk coffee, and the Beige Bros had folding chairs, and folks didn’t seem to mind. After all, we got the mileage in.
NMS:
This wound up being a cluster, but the first 2/3 went exactly like I wanted, so I’ll focus on that.