Back to Punxsutawney!

My work schedule got all changed around for this week, meaning I'm picking up an extra day of work but now I do not have to work this Saturday.  For some reason, I woke up  this morning, thinking about that, then realized-I could now go run the Groundhog 50K!

The Groundhog 50K, in Punxsutawney, PA, is one of my favorite 50K races.  I've run it three times, in 2006, 2007, and 2009.  My times were 6.45, 8.17, and 8.03.

Me and Phil-the Groundhog 2006

The 50K is very runnable, jeep road not single track.  The hills are named, with banners:

It's very runnable, except for the hills.  But I haven't been on these hills since going to Virginia, and hitting up some hills with slightly higher elevation (ie Signal Knob, 2106 feet.) and some little climbs out West!  So this will be interesting to see how I fare for it.

It appears that the course has not changed at all, so that is great, I remember most of it.

Goals?  1) Finish the Race (always)  2) Beat my 6.45 time from 2006.  Can I?   If I don't dawdle? 3) Finish sub 7 hours 4) Finish sub 8

I am super psyched to get back to Punxsutawney!  I will miss the pre-race dinner Friday night, so no new picture with Phil, but maybe some new race pics of the hills there!