The Stars Align

What a great week of running! Saturday I went out with the Evergreen Runner's Circle at Flying J and brought the wife and little man. It was a good run, with a decent turnout. Mary was back for the first time in a while, Joanne, John, and Norm all joined in as well. John's gearing up for Leadville next weekend, good luck man! It was a fun run, did a couple loops with Xavier in the jogging stroller and capped it off with a run by myself in the opposite direction.

Sunday saw Gunner and I heading off to do Evergreen Mtn. from the Dedisse lot. It was a great 16 mile loop run with some great climbing and moderately technical descent. Weather was perfect, nice and cool with a slight breeze and we didn't have to use the headlamps too much because of all the stars. On the way down we decided to take a loop around the lake because we'd cut the trail up in Alderfer by a few miles and it was a wonderful decision.

Coming around the south side of Evergreen Lake, just past the boarwalk, it was starting to get pretty dark but as we passed this man I just caught a glimpse of a man and I knew it had to be. It was Rusty, a great member of the ERC who's been gone for quite a while. He'd had some trouble landing a teaching during the end of last school year, but went up to direct his summer camp, so no one had seen him for a few months.

Turns out, he had just gotten back into town and landed a sweet teaching job in Golden, CO. This makes me super happy for a number of reasons, mostly because Rusty is one of those guys who just GETS IT. Running, life, and everything else. He's bursting with passion and is as nice a person as you'll ever meet. We ended up catching up and talking for about half an hour before we decided to head back home.

On a side note: Rusty makes the best pancakes ever. EVER. Seriously. If you told me there were better pancakes, I would tell you that you were a liar. Because that's what you would be.

My week in full:
Monday: Off
Tuesday: 7 mi @ Cherry Creek Res
Wednesday: 8.5 mi @ Matthew Winters Park
Thursday: 7.5 mi @ Green Mountain
Friday: Off
Saturday: 9 mi @ Flying J Ranch
Sunday: 16 mi @ Dedisse/Alderfer

Total: 48 (all on trail!)