Long run and a long damn day

This morning was the group T3 long run. We meet at the rock at a little before 8:00, I go over the routes and mileage for whatever everyone is training for and then off we go. Today was a bit different because of a bit of food poisoning for about 10 of our athletes. It seems that the chicken and/or beef at a charity ride yesterday wasn't all that "good" and a lot of people spent most of the wee hours of the morning catching up on their favorite reading materials in the bathroom. I was happy to see them make it out and I had no idea how long they would last.
So.... today was a 17 mile run for all of us training for IMCDA. We were to do 2 7 mile loops and then a 3 mile loop. At the start I was up front with the faster guys and I felt pretty good considering yesterday. At mile 4 Charles and I pulled away for a bit and then mother nature called me and said it was time to check out the bathrooms at the tennis courts. A quick pit stop and I was back out on the trail but the group I was running with was long gone. I ended up hunting down Booher, Sapp and Lapuente and caught up to them in less than a mile. Running with them was a smart idea for me. It slowed me down a bit and I was sure at that time I would need it for the second 1/2 of the run. It worked out pretty well. After the second 7 mile loop things started to get interesting and it wasn't about me. We stopped at the rock for water and Lapuente was struggling a bit. Her voice was soft and quivering and she made it clear to me that she wanted to cry. Well..... I don't do so well with the crying so I did what I do best...... I run. I told her that we needed to get going so she wouldn't cry and like the trooper she is she started running with me. We only had 3 miles left and dammit we were going to finish those 3 freaking miles. There were some times where she grunted something and I would get a little worried but she kept punching it out. Hell... we were running sub 8:30's!!! I told her with about a mile to go that I will no longer say that "Sammy McGlone is doing this so I better be" but instead I will now be saying that "Lapuente is doing this so I better be." She loved hearing that. We finished strong and felt darn good but pretty tired. A few fist pumps were passed around and all was good and there was no crying. Good day on the trail.
...... ok. I just checked my gps watch and all my data is gone. So this is what I think I had.
First 7 miles: 7:55 pace
Second 7 miles: 8:05 pace
Last 3 miles: 8:21 pace
Total time: 2:17ish
Total pace per mile: 8:07

After the run I stretched and went home to to take an ice bath. I relaxed for about 15 minutes and the off to the PTC for the T3 Open House. I was there talking with people for about 3 hours and I had a great time. T3 kicks soooo much ass.
After the that was done I headed home and washed 3 bikes. 2 of them were absolutely disgusting so it took some time to get them clean. People need to take more care of their bikes. If you want to go faster on the bike the easiest way to do that is to clean the damn thing. Seriously.... if it's clean everything works more smoothly.

Last thought of the day...... Guice made cookies for the open house. They kicked ass as usual.