Mt Ashland - random notes from the trip

Random notes:
Stayed at the Econolodge in Ashland – Decent price and very friendly staff. They remembered me from the Lithia Loop. The son of the owner runs as does the owner. She was so sweet, worried about my injury and offered to pick me up if I had to drop out. She gave me her cell number “just in case”. Mom’s are the same all over, even if they aren’t your Mom.

25 minutes from the start and there still couldn’t have been more than 30 people warming up or milling around the start. Would not have guessed that a big race was soon to start.

Seemed like a lot of people were caught standing at the start as the RD didn’t fire a gun or say “go” or anything like that. I’m pretty sure he said something like “okay you’re off” and people sort of assumed the race was under way and off they went.

We went to a fancy restaurant to celebrate Richard’s birthday and the waiter raised his eyebrows when I ordered the Filet Mignon “Well Done”. I called him out on it, told him I saw the raised eyebrow thing and (nicely) said “I know what I like”. The steak was one of the tastiest I’ve ever had. It was perfectly well done…not overdone. When he delivered my meal Richard ask him if I could get Ketchup. That was good for a laugh.

We got a lot of laughs watching the Kia Soul commercial with the hamsters. They are so right…”you can go with this or you can go with that”.

Tivo had a heck of a race, especially since it was his longest race “ever”. He seems to have dialed in the proper amount of food to fuel him for 2 hours of running.

Richard, Tivo and I all compared how swollen our hands were at the finish. I guess it has something to do with the altitude and the effort. All of us had “fat sausage” fingers. Of the three of us I come from the lowest altitude (30’).