AM - 25 miles. Drove down to JulieC's house w/ Andrea, Allie, and Fritz... we were on time despite sleeping through our alarm and waking up 45 seconds before it was time to leave. Met up with the big group... probably two dozen or so... and we were off! First couple miles were colder than expected (my toes were numb) and then it started to warm up once the sun came over the mountains. I really liked running down in this area - you are surrounded by amazing views of Lone Peak, Box Elder, and Timp the whole time. Its really a stunning place if you love the mountains. Our group of a dozen or so guys slowly got whittled down as the run went on. Started easy and built into it. Averaged just over 6:45 pace for the first 14 miles, then we (Fritz, Scott, and Walter) got moving a bit faster on the gradual downhill back to Julie's house. Every mile got a little faster, peaking with the 20th mile in 4:52. Then Scott, Fritz, and I backed it off and went out for a "cool down" loop which ended up being 5 hilly miles at ~6:00 pace for me... everything feels easier after you've run a sub 5 mile. The average pace for the last 11 miles was 5:52. Total time was 2:39 for 25 miles. I felt stronger as the run went on, and might have kept going past 25 if Andrea hadn't yelled "stop running!" at me :-) Thanks Julie for setting this all up today... and thanks for the yummy breakfast afterwards! Great to see all of you - and thanks for the push, guys. Its so much easier to get these quality long runs in with a group like this. A lot of bloggers are going to be running fantastic races this spring - its awesome to see everyone running so strong! PM - 4 miles shakeout around the neighborhood. As usual, no watch... feeling very good.
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