Day 11 - Mt. Holly to Concord

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Total Mileage : 26 miles

Starting the day today, I had no idea how enormous it was going to be, meeting with Ted, two groups of my F3 Brothers and finishing with a group of our neighbors, kids running in front of me. To be honest, I was a little bit nervous, once again fearing my ability to complete the day.  Ted, my long-time running buddy from over 20 years and countless races has seen me bonk before and I just didn't want to go to that place again. But even here on day 11, I'm still plagued by self-doubt and uncertainty as to whether I can meet the expectations of those supporting me. 

Those inexorable demons aside, the day started out beautifully,  meeting Ted and the the group from F3 at the Mount Holly River Park. Cheryl was crewing for me today and as usual, calmed me down and off we went.  

We ran 8 miles together...Ted, Spud, Catfish, Homeland, Tombstone, and Total Package. It what is really a great run, temperatures are perfect, although we spent a good amount of time dodging traffic. After we said goodbye, Cheryl took Ted and I to Latta Plantation Park where ran another 8 Miles, without any traffic and in a beautiful shaded environment. 
We then moved on to our next stop and we're joined by two other F3 brothers, Hop Hunter and Big Blue. From this point we ran through Concord down Poplar Tent into Dorton Park. Again there was a fair amount of car dodging, but it was really a lot of fun getting to know these guys better, sharing stories and making our way to the park down the road. At about 3:30, it was time to work our way back to the neighborhood because Cheryl had planned a little neighborhood running event where the kids could join in. It was so awesome having both my kids and the neighbors kids run down the road together but the parents trailing behind.
An amazing, rewarding day with high mileage to boot.  What more could anyone possibly want in this journey?

Godspeed,

Richard 


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