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The Winter Sun run had great weather for the 2006 running, with clear skies and temperatures in the mid 20's. The Pine Belt Pacers were again very poorly represented, despite the fact that it's an easy 3 day drive to Moab Utah, and also considering that an anymouse donor had ponied up a cash prize for the first PBP finisher in the 60-69 age group with a last name starting with a B. Here's RB's account: Started out running with my neighbor Rich who was planning an 12 minute pace. We accidentally started DFL (dead flat last) when Running Bear discovered he had put his shirt on backwards. (Several other runners showed up with a 10/22/06 Other Half shirt and they all had it on right. RB had not run the OH but had bribed the RD into selling him a shirt. You know your running career is going downhill when a lot of your newer shirts are for races you have not actually run). So he was partially disrobed about the time the gun went off. It's a nice course, going gradually uphill for a mile to warm you up, and then is generally downhill into town (it's a one way course) except for a wickedly steep half mile uphill right after mile 2. We ran the first couple miles in 10:00 flat (Rich was way ahead of his goal at that point), and walked the bad hill, passed by literally dozens of runners who were probably so inexperienced they didn't realize it was OK to walk some in a 10K. After that it was time to cruise and I lost track of Rich. Once again cruising ended up some short of my one hour goal, but 2 minutes closer than last year (54.27 last year, see the 2005 gruesome details). But still a new 10K PR, and 141st place of the 268 finishers (over 300 entered). Rich finished in 1:02:40, faster than his goal time. They did not have chips this year so this raw time includes some shirt changing time and the sprint to the starting line. Amazingly RB got third in his age group (His motto: if you can't outrun them, outlive them).
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