tweetup trail run

About a month ago, Mark sent a tweet to several people saying that he would be in the area at the end of May and suggested that we get together for a tweetup run on Memorial Day. Sounded good to me, and several others, so the date was set. Last night tweets flew back and forth about what people would be wearing so we could easily identify each other; none of us had met before. Javi would be wearing a Get Guts shirt; I said I would be wearing a skirt and blue top; and Tim said he was considering wearing a skirt, but probably wouldn't (HA HA HA).

I left home in plenty of time to arrive early, but guess what... I was about half-way between home and Stone Mountain and realized I was still wearing flip flops! My dirty trail shoes were still sitting on my kitchen floor, in a bag, by the door. So I tweeted that I was running a few minutes late and returned home to get my trail shoes.

I arrived a few minutes after 7 a.m. and found the guys easily. The group consisted of Mark (@bamarunner on Twitter), Javier (@aReyoUiN), Ron (@losttrailrunner), Tim (@virtual4now) and me (@SamanthaUF). After introductions, Javi led us on what he said would be a 5 to 6 mile trail run. I've run trails at Stone Mountain a few times, but this one (or at least sections of it) was new for me. I was totally excited to learn a new route!

Within the first mile I slipped on a rock and crashed. I scraped my right leg and palm, but the worse part was breaking my Garmin 405 wristband! The watch/GPS seemed to still be functioning so I was greatful for that! I was the slowest in the group. Ron hung with me for the most part, then Mark traded off with Ron to stay with me for the last half of the run. I've run part of the trail segments before so I had a sense of approximately where I was for portions of it, but doubt I could repeat the path. I didn't realize there were so many trail intersections in the loop around the mountain. Unfortunately, Ron tripped over a root and fell too. At least I wasn't the only one with a momento from the run.

At the end of the run, we chatted in the parking lot for a while. Oddly, each of our GPS units had different mileages. Mine was 5.37, someone else had 5.5, another had 5.7, and another was 6 miles. I wonder which is accurate? We ran under heavy canopy and the sky was one giant cloud. Guess Javi was right when he said the distance would be between 5 and 6 miles.

I'm really glad that Mark suggested a tweetup run, and most importantly that I participated. I learned a new trail route and got to meet a few runners that I've been chatting with on Twitter for the past several months. Despite the scream in the shower as the water hit my boo boo, I can't think of a better way to have spent this morning. Trails ROCK; running with others is AWESOME; life is GREAT; run for FUN!