Better late than never: Eagle Run!!

This is weeks late, but I wanted to post something about this fun run! It was the last year for VHTRC's Eagle Run, and boy am I glad I made it!!

First, I carpooled with some cool ultra peeps and hung out in a parking lot, happy to see so many people that I haven't seen since Grindstone. We all drove to Gary Knipling's house, where he had a fire ready for us, beer set out, snacks, and I even saw a birthday cake. (Score!)

Brian, me, and Martha

After a brief intro we all set out for different distances. I planned to go short and just enjoy being at another event. I haven't done a group run in a long time!

At the Eagle run, you're on the lookout for Eagles (duh) and I didn't see any. I'm just bad at finding that small dot on the ice across the bay that other people can. I chatted with people (who were still asking me about Grindstone), found a WUSer to run with, and... got lost.

My little group took a wrong turn, but eventually made it back on the trail. We ran to Gunstor Hall (home of George Mason) and instead of adding a 2-3 mile loop, I stayed back to lay off the IT band. We got a tour of the house (which was warm! it was below 20 degrees outside) and it was a ton of fun.

We started our run back to the house, which was unfortunately on a lot of roads. My IT Band started to feel a little tight, so I walked the last mile or so. The whole run was pretty slow, with walk breaks, but I wasn't exactly trying hard. My only fear was that my beer was freezing and worse yet, gone.

Warming up with some liquor

 After the run, we all ate pizza and dessert, stood around the fire, drank beer and whiskey, and had philosophical discussions about things like what-makes-a-100-miler-hard?, will-that-beer-stain-come-out-of-martha's-jacket?, the-@vhtrc-twitter-account, and then I caught up with Jeff Reed who I worked with at my first VHTRC event. It was way fun. Thanks to Gary for hosting!

On the way back into DC, as we were passing over the Memorial Bridge, a bald eagle flew over the vehicle. At least I saw one!

** All pictures from Bobby or Quatro, found here: http://www.vhtrc.org/news/node/517