7 Minutes to Spare

We finished the Summit Challenge with 7 minutes to spare. It was a long day, but I had a great time. The day started when my alarm beeped at 4:45 AM. I headed to REI to meet Meredith and Brandy. We started a Papago at 6 AM. Brandy hiked with us for about 30 seconds. She couldn't stand it anymore...she took off jogging up the mountain. What the... Papago was no problem, a good warm up. From there we headed to the dreaded Camelback, which was not too bad since our legs were still fresh. Jack and Lauren joined us there and stay with us for the rest of the day. Next was South Mountain. It was 7 miles round trip. About half-way up the mountain I realized how much I was enjoying my day. The weather was perfect, I was with great friends, I felt good...it was just a great day. Lauren and I stuck together behind Merdith and Jack as they debated theology. Those guys are pretty smart. It got kinda heated though. I could see Meredith making a fist at one point. I just knew she was going to punch Jack in the nose if he mentioned John Eldredge one more time. Lauren and I had fifty bucks on who would draw blood first. Just to stir things up it was always fun for us to hollar things like "I'd like to debate that", and "I completely disagree" just to rile them up.
Piestewa (Squaw) peak was next. It was rough. Every step was an effort. It was definately my low point of the day, as expected. Lookout Mountain was the shortest of the day, it took Jack something like 15 minutes round trip. As we were going down North Mountain we saw Brandy running up the mountain...she was done, a full mountain ahead of us. Shaw Butte was long. 5 miles roundtrip. We tried to run the flats. Jeff C, Mandy, and Rhys joined us for encouragement...thanks guys.