Pre-Blast the night before offers up an ‘easy’ run for Sunday’s edition of AGS. YHC sends out early knowing that Bender Street is in play Saturday night at Bombshell. Midget SC’s and YHC knows what’s up. There will be some Billy Jean choreography playing on FB before the night is over…and yes- no Midget come 6am.  The thing is, YHC sends these pre-blasts for a reason. They may not resonate with all PAX, but they have meaning to what the workout will be the next day. The picture depicts a solitary sad clown flying a kite. For YHC it has meaning. This was the last picture taken before making the decision to hit the reset button… A do-over of sorts.

Every time I roll into that parking lot at Womble, I hit the reset button. I reset what happened the week before and I prepare for what is coming at me in the week ahead. The intent is always to advance forward. When I roll in, I know I’m getting at least 6mi as Redenbacher is parked. No signs of life, but I know he is there somewhere getting 3-4. Plant flag and Boy George Rolls in. He already has scheduled run. Unaware, he has 10 miles lined up and asks if I’m considering Soul Crusher. I reply with an unfortunate no. The rain from the prior days cancelled out that option and we’d be taking it to the streets for hill work. Just as I finish up that dialogue, DawgPound quickly inquires, “Are we really doing Soul Crusher? …because if we are, I’m getting in my car and leaving.” I’ll admit, I don’t know everything about running, but I do know that muddy trails make for injuries and with 2 weeks to BRR, none will happen on my watch. With that, YHC already had an alternate plan. Unfortunately, this may very well be the 4th week in a row we couldn’t put the lake in play due to rain, but given the upcoming BRR, hills would be the perfect formula for this morning’s run. UTI and Oboe quickly join and Cupid rolls in with Backstroke (canine 2.0), who does a perfect Lipstick impersonation 2 minutes before the start. Now its a Sunday as Maybelline and Nemo emerge.

6 o’clock hits and we were off with the following warm up….

Warm Up: Light jog around the Womble lot. Circle up for exaggerated prison squats (2 count on the down 1 count on the up) X10, Good Mornings X10, Imperial Walkers X10, Hillbillies X10, Mountain Cljmbers X10, Frankensteins to the far end of the lot with alternating Butt Kickers. Carioca to the starting point. Squat Hold to explain the route.

The Workout: With Cupid and Backstroke the only ones to Ruck this morning, YHC provided the running route for the 7 PAX looking for miles. This morning’s route would offer 3, 4, and 6 mile routes as they would be Hill segments on Library Hill, Cemetery Hill, and Bass Lake. All 7 PAX opted for the 6 mi option so were ALL IN on the 3 segments. With a sly look and shades of sarcasm, UTI opens up and says “nice to see you are original and repeating what you did last week.” SHOTS FIRED…It must be told that UTI is an avid reader of YHC’s backblasts. While a reader, he wasn’t yet a do’er so today he’d be in it for the long haul. He later proclaimed that his comments were meant to somehow talk me out of the intended route. One thing about YHC is that he is stubborn and when its layed out in the circle, it gets executed. Route would start at Womble Tennis lot and continue through the baseball fields. As we made our way out of the fields, we would advance right onto Grigsby, then Raleigh and eventually onto Main St., where we would detour to the Library. At Library Hill we would continue on the down slope all the way to the speed bump warning. With all PAX at the speed bump line, we’d all ascend at a strong pace to the top.

This is where it got interesting, as Oboe, as if shot out of a cannon, set the ‘standard’ on that segment along with strong efforts by all PAX. YHC then directed PAX to drop off their library books and advance the long way around the lot to the drop off and back up toward the DTT AO meeting spot onto Earp. As we approach Earp, we proceeded left to the Cemetery. At this point, we had Nemo, UTI, Maybelline, and Oboe ahead with YHC, DawgPound, and Redenbacher at the crossroads of really? and yep- let’s do this… Nemo came back to pick up the six and now it was on… Strong push up the hill with Redenbacher finding another gear to the top. As we all stood triumphant at the top, we looked ahead and realized… WTF.. this thing is a damn half pipe. Rolling with it, we descended and climbed to the the stop sign at Main St. Continued up Earp and then a right on Bass Lake. At that point, YHC knew his perfect 2 month streak of 1 hour 5-5+ mi AO’s was in jeopardy. With Bass Lake left, I inform UTI and Maybelline that we may be over if we make it all the way to the Bass Lake lot. We had 17 min left at that point, so we’d be cutting it close with 2 and change left. PAX continued on Earp, circled back for the 6 and then proceeded down Bass Lake. As we made our way down, DawgPound made a detour down Stinson, with remaining PAX moving forward. Told UTI, who was ahead, we’d stop at Salem Ridge and then head back, leaving us 200 yrds short of what YHC had planned. All PAX made it to Salem Ridge and extended beyond to the lot before proceeding back up Bass Lake.

At this point, I’m not sure what happened, but the push from the remaining PAX was incredible. Maybe it was the right song in a play list, maybe PAX wanted to get back to the lot before 7:15, but somehow we found a groove in that last segment and pushed each other to an 8:43 pace before hitting Stinson. Finished the route to the flag, some getting a 10K, others 7 and 9 with EC.

Overall- just flat out strong efforts.

Mary: Stretches OYO
Announcements: ShamWoW has PC tomorrow.
T-Claps (Recognition): All PAX getting miles in on a Sunday. Maybelline 2 weeks in a row putting in some quality hill work post-rehab
Prayer: Noah’s Ark and his M, Michelle. Continued prayers for health and healing. Those on IR. YHC took us out.