Crazies, dwarves, and ninjas

Not in the mood to write a verbose post from my Saturday run with The Spot...but a few things are worth noting:

- you couldn't really tell who anyone in the group was because they either had a) hoods over their faces (ninjas) or b) goofy head socks (dwarves)

- it was 9 degrees with a windchill of negative 6 - and windy

- clenching your fists for 10 miles to stay warm = sore arms for the rest of the day

- putting Body Glide on your face helps control the windburn...sort of

- as we were running down gilbert, some random dude in loafers and khakis came chasing after us yelling "Shannon! (i think that was her name?) Heyyyy!". (picture the Friends episode where Chandler's chasing Cathy through the streets of New York) when he finally caught her he was like, "How are you, do you need a Gatorade, great job," etc. The rest of us thought it was so cute that her dad (?) was coming to check on her during her run.

Dude eventually left and she was like, "yeah, i don't really know that guy, i met him at the gym and we've talked once". Yikes. She was kind of freaked out...

- by the time we got to Mt. Adams (around mile 5) it was really, really freezing, we were sick of hills, and i was getting a little surly...then we passed a coffee shop with a chalkboard sign that said "Go Running Spot!" awwww. i felt very warm and fuzzy.

- it started...precipitating...somewhere in eden park. not snow per se, because it was bouncing off of us and making the sidewalks slick. hail? who knows but by that point (mile 7) it was kind of funny. bring it on mother nature!

- we ran the overlook at the edge of eden park even though it wasn't on the route. the coaches ALWAYS include the overlook on our routes and we were like Pavlov's dogs, unable to skip it because we've spent the past year being conditioned to like it (or at least tolerate it).

- in walnut hills, my running buddy reminded me that i was planning to do a negative split, so i decided it would be a good idea to sprint the last 1.5 miles. (stupid. and really, a neg split doesn't mean you drag @ss for 8.5 miles and sprint the last few to make up for it.)

- in the hallway of my apartment building, i discovered that one of my neighbors (i have 5 neighbors mind you) is also training with the Running Spot. awesome!

- i averaged a 9:11 pace. eh.