Fire Flies Everywhere

It was time for the 2nd annual night run to Orillia and back. It was looking like it would be a wet run, with heavy drizzle coming down when I went to pick up Rick downtown after dropping his car off. Rick was going to run with me and Joan from our house to downtown, Joan would then head back home to get in about 10k and Rick and myself would carry on with Brendan who would meet us down there. We tried to keep a nice easy pace, but kept noticing our pace getting quicker, so we'd slow down again. The goal was to maintain about a 7 minute k over the entire run. I no longer had a Garmin so I was winging it or relying on the others for input. Once we met up with Brendan dropped Ricks car keys with Roger and said goodbye to Joan, it was off we go. I was wondering how Brendan would make out trying to run slow. While almost always being slightly ahead of us, he never pushed the pace and if anything was able to keep us in line.
Catherine was to run down from her house at 6 to get a head start, meet Chris B. downtown to keep her company on the way out and have Bill for support. Bill would run back with her. apparently things didn't quite go as planned.
Even for our run, Theo was a last minute drop out, due to work commitments.
So the long journey began and it was rather uneventful on the way out. The rain was holding off, but it was very humid. Not long after we started I had found myself getting hungry already. So I stopped and had one of the almond butter and jam wraps that I had made, it went down well. With the overcast sky I figured it would get darker sooner and at about 9 to 9:30 we got our lights ready, I was going to try a waist light and a head lamp. But after trying the headlamp on it felt cumbersome and Rick's light was more than enough to light up the trail, so I stuck with the waist light only. Brendan had his head lamp to so we were well lit up.
We started with trying 20 minutes of running and 5 walking to see how that would work, and it seemed to be good, but switched to 15 minuted of running later. After crossing the 7th line we could se a light up a head and figured it was Catherine and Chris, but as we ran on we just didnt seem to be gaining any ground on them. When we crossed the 12th we knew we went far behind "them". THats when Bill texted us to say the "girls"(??) had just crossed the 14th. I thought ha had made a type on both Girls and 14th. coming up to the 14th we caught the individual, yes one runner and it was Chris!! Where was Catherine? She was ahead with Joan VH, who had come out to run with her. Chris had missed them at the start, because Catherines start had got delayed, there was a mix up in the times and he never did see them. He had run all that way by himself. So now he tucked in with us as we headed into Orillia. Through out the run and particularly as we approached Orillia fire flies were to be seen everywhere. It was like something magical. I didn't remember it being like this last year. We summized different environmental conditions had mad it much better for them.
Now with Chris running with us it was a matter of tracking down the girls, but as we got closer to the finish we figured it wasn't going to happen and they would get there first. A great run by them considering they hadn't started much earlier thean we had. Another twist was that Joan VH had to switch with Bill at 32k as she had injury issues.
We got to Home Hardware and the turn around at 11:50, about right on time. Roger and Steen were there too, Steen just showed for support. About as soon as we arrived, Catherine and Bill started back. I decided to change my shirt for a long sleeve (a mistake) and put on a pair of road shoes and thicker socks (both mistakes), refilled my camelback had a Glucerna and off we went, now with Roger. Roger had done this last year with me and was very keen on the whole run.
We hadn't been going long when I realized the mistakes I had made in changing. the shoes and socks especially were very uncomfortable. My feet felt like they were on fire. This was the start of a low point for me, I was struggling and by the time we go to the 11th line I had the sweats, was weak and just overall down. We walked from here for a while and soon were running again, not long after I seemed to get my second wind and was feeling much better. By the time we go to the 5th line we got word that Cath had called it a day, she was having ankle problems. She had managed to get about 52k in and was running well up to that point.
Once we crossed the 4th onto the other side of the road, we felt like we had crossed a milestone as we on familiar territory and close to Barrie. after the 3rd we saw alight on the trail ahead and assumed it was Bill stopping to offer support at the 2nd line, turned out to be Chris again. He had gone home after the run to Orillia, got cleaned up and changed refueled and ran back to meet us. He is crazier than me!!!
This did pick up our spirits adn we ran back into Barrie. On the rail trail we took a couple of breaks, but ran the marked kilometre and found we did a 5:20 k, after 73k of running. hmmm, not bad I'd say.
We finished at Hooters and said goodbye and thanks to Chris, who was still going to run home. Roger drove me home.
I had done 75k in 8:39:47, about 20 minutes faster than last year, although that wasn't important. Averaging just under a 7 min k. Right about on target.
Many thanks to all those who helped out and ran with us.