Gone Somewhere

This morning was the 2009 Hot 2 Trot 8 hour run, in Decatur, GA. It’s put on by the good folk at GUTS. (Along with a number of sponsors.)  As the name implies, it’s generally hot and humid out, as is usual during a Georgia summer.

So, to say it out front, I didn’t run this.

David suggested I come out and take pictures, which I took as a good idea, so that’s what I did.

Showing up to a GUTS events is always fun, since I actually know people now, so can greet and wave and feel like I’m in the party.  (Yeah, it’s hokey, but hey, the first time I showed up to an event, I didn’t know anyone so it wasn’t the same.)  Said hi to all the usuals; David, Sarah, Christian, Team Beth, and plenty others. I met JojaRunner, who just started trail running back in February. (Coincidently, the last race I photographed.)

Pretty soon, the race started and they were off.  I got some pictures of the start, then hung out waiting for people to get closer to finishing the first lap.  The course is a 1.2 mile loop, which I (incorrectly) guessed would be done in about 6 minutes by the leader.  They paced themselves for the day, and it was closer to 8 minutes.

Soon they came, and I headed out in the opposite direction to take pictures.  Joining me was my friend Patrick, whom I hadn’t seen since the ING marathon in March. We caught up, and had a good time poking around. I think we almost set a speed record by completing that lap in about an hour and 10 minutes.

It was pretty cool, but a couple hours later when I headed out for the next lap, it had definitely picked up a bit. And the humidity was definitely setting in, as everyone was drenched in sweat.

My second lap was much faster, and I ended up with about 980 pictures and the battery starting to wear down.

On my third lap, I switched to using Davids camera for a while, but then found a nice perch and switched back to mine.  I decided to go into sports mode, and took about another 800 pictures with the goal of putting everything together into a stop-motion movie. (Always fun to do.)

And then, it was time to go home and watch my boy. Another great day.

The pictures can be found over at my photo site, photos.gonesomewhere.com.  Usual rules apply: feel free to take and use as you want. If you want a copy of the higher resolution version, send me a message along with the name of the picture. Wanna pay? How about making a donation to charity instead. (I’m currently partial to JDCH, but feel free to choose your own.)

As is typical, it took me a hour to get the focus working halfway decently. I really need to figure out how to get sports focus better. (Although I notice that most the slower people come in fine.)  But I hope I got at least one good one of everyone…I’ll let you sort through them to decide.