When I made it back to the parking lot another tri friend was there on his bike. About a mile out from the parking lot we started at I spotted two my tri friends, and they joined our running group. When we reached the portapotty at mile 3.5 we both made a quick pit stop, and then made the final 1 mile loop before turning back. There was tall grass surrounding most of the trail, which was covered in frost and and sparkling in the rising sun. It was a pretty cold start, around 35 degrees, but there was lots of sun and hardly any wind. It was my first time seeing Thomas since September, so it was nice to catch up. Once he found the right parking lot and got everything together (and once I got my Garmin live tracking working), we took off. He got lost on the way there, and I thought I was going to be running the first loop solo, but fortunately he called right before I was about to take off. I ran this with my runner friend, Thomas. I had several friends run and bike with me, which made most of the miles fly by, and it was a great way to celebrate my birthday.

And to keep this tl dr I finished in 5:14:11 including refueling and restroom stops. I also liked this plan because it gave me a chance to celebrate with friends in a more covid-friendly way (i.e. My birthday is two days after Halloween, so the run became 31 miles on the 31st for my 30th birthday. Then figured that I might as well add the extra 1.1 to make it a 50K. I thought going for a new distance seemed doable though, so I eventually decided I could try to run 30 miles for my 30th birthday. Doing something like a solo marathon or half did not sound appealing - I need a race setting to distract myself from the pain.

Obviously neither of those were going to be possible this year, so this Summer I started to think about other fun ways to celebrate my birthday and do something that would give me a sense of accomplishment similar to a big race.

A year ago I was looking forward to this Fall for a few different reasons: Fall racing (which is always my favorite), and my 30th birthday, which is a great excuse to go on a fun trip.

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