Brrr-lingame 15K

Brrr, the Brrr-lingame 15K was a cold run on a day that never reached freezing.  Went for a warm up on the first 2 miles of the course with Greg, Jonny, Muddy, and Steve.

Finishing lap 1

Lap 1:   The start was through a field in the campground before entering the woods.  I saw Justin just ahead of me entering the woods, and then never saw him again until after the race.  Jonny, on the other hand, passed me upon entering the woods, and we were in close proximity back and forth for much of the race.  Jonny set the pace, which I thought was quite fast, but I tried to keep just behind him, including passing the several runners that he overtook along the way.  At one point I passed he and another runner as they missed a sharp left turn and I yelled out to Jonny to catch back up to me, which I was happy he did as we ran together along some double track.  I was feeling pretty good at that point and took the lead briefly as we went through the bridge section.  By the time I wound back to the campground, I was starting to fatigue.  1st lap in 31:19.

Finishing race

Lap 2:  Boj passed me in the open field section and we briefly commiserated on having to run this thing yet one more time!  Jonny passed me as we re-entered the woods, and we ran in a tight pack of 4 (Boj, Jonny, myself, and Aaron behind as I could hear his sandals) for a couple of miles until Aaron passed all 3 of us WTAC'ers.  Jonny passed Boj and then took off faster, as at the next ridge, he put a lot of distance between Boj and me.  I tried to at least keep Boj in my sights, and I did so up through entering the bridge section.  This was painful the 2nd time.  Steve later told me he counted 19 bridges!  Coming out of the bridges, I was surprised to see Jonny again ahead of me, and Boj just in front of him now.  We were getting close to the campground and I picked up the pace to try to narrow the distance between me and Jonny and 3rd runner that he was now even with.  I thought I was crossing just leaves, but it turns out the leaves were filling up a ditch and I went down hard.  I cut up my knees pretty good.  Damn it hurt!  I laid on the ground disoriented for what seemed like minutes but had to be mere seconds.  I looked up and everyone was gone.  I got myself up, and finished the race in 1:03:16, 20 seconds behind Jonny and 22 seconds behind Boj.
Fun, but exhausting and very cold afterward.  Came home with battered knees and blood splattered clothes again.  Another huge win for team WTAC!