Back Blast: Odyssey

14 men greeted this hot, muggy morning with a 7 mile jaunt through the hills of Huntersville.

Warm-o-Rama: None

The Thang: Yesterday I pre-blasted 3 pace ranges and start times. The Pax seemed to like this approach, and based on our finishing times it worked out well. The final group came in right at 5:15 and nearly caught the group ahead of them.

8 men took off with the 5:05 crew (including one lost sheep, Tweetsie, who missed a turn in Melbourne and spent the next hour trying to find his way back to the start – sorry, brother; it won’t happen again!) 2 more set off at 5:10, and the final 4 at 5:15.

The route I came up with had more twists and turns than an M. Night Shyamalan movie, and of course I thought it was brilliant. The rest of the Pax, it seems, did not. And although some were self-sufficient (@Dallas scribbled the directions on a business card), most took to Slack to berate YHC, prompting him to channel his inner Banksy and lay down some white directional arrows. F3 now has a marked 7 mile route for the next 43 years.

I continue to be amazed with this group’s progress. The times, distances and paces I’m seeing the Isotope Pax run this year are light years ahead of where we were last year. Way to push yourselves! Way to push each other!