Pigtails - the short version...

I decided that since I need an 18-20 mile run this weekend, I'd just run two loops of the Pigtails 50K to give me a total of 19.2 miles. After talking to Abi last weekend, we decided to do it together. We drove together part of the way and arrived just in time to grab a few things, get our numbers and toe the line. Well, I had time. Seems that Abi needed a little extra time and when the call came to start I got swept with the crowd and Abi was nowhere in sight. The race is a short spur from the parking lot to the perimeter path around Lake Youngs. If you go right at the trail juncture, you go down a steep incline. That was the direction the arrows pointed and although Van didn't really care which direction you went, to 'win' the bacon, you had to go right. I turned right with the vast majority of the crowd. After reaching the bottom, the trail smoothes out and I kept turning to look for Abi. Finally, I walked a bit and after a few minutes I saw her approaching. Good - now our adventure would begin. We ran, we talked, we got tired, we decided to walk the hills (well, the big ones). We decided that we'd reverse directions after we finished the first loop. We dawdled at the parking-lot-check-in-stock-up-on-calories station. We decided the clockwise direction was more to our liking and continued to expound on how much more we enjoyed it the farther we went. We felt like we ran much, much more of the route in this direction. Going in the opposite direction meant that we'd have to tackle the last, extremely steep hill head on. We planned on walking it but Abi joked that she'd cheer me on as I ran it if I so chose. Not! We crossed the finish line together. That felt good. Ate a little and talked a little and then realized that I had lost my hat somewhere on the trail. We asked one of the 50K runners who had a short out-and-back to do, to look for it if possible. Abi and I ended up walking down the steep hill to look - and of course walking back up said incline. Ended up the 50K guy found it - someone had put it on a post. Nice!! Watched most of the runners come in but got a sudden chill and we both decided to go. Too bad - we missed congratulating Jessica on her first 50K and Michelle on another job well-done.