Allen’s recap of PTC’s 1st Brick of 2018.

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Hey PTC,

We had a great showing yesterday, ~22 people showed.  I gave a brief course description and told the A group that the B group would only do two laps around the bowl while they did three.  The challenge was whether they would catch us before Descanso.  Michel said no way…until he saw Bjoern and Sven so up, then he said possibly.  A couple peeps arrived late (Bob and Kirk and ?).  The group rode well around the bowl, particularly because we had so many.  The key is to control the pace (too fast, people drop of the back, too slow we bunch up and ride brakes, etc), if you’re a pace setter, please remember to look behind you and make sure you’re not dropping us and to keep the pace 15-16 mph on lap 1 and 17-18 mph on lap two on the eastside.

After the warm up, the pace got hot and it looked like 5-6x people took off (Bjoern, Sven, Peter D, Michel, Charles and ?).  The rest of us settled into a pace and worked our way up Salvia Canyon.  Not too far after, Alvin pull off with a pain in his leg (I hope you’re good) and Joe and Lynda tended to him.  That left me in 2nd place, behind Evan.  As I was 80% up to Descanso, I saw Evan returning.  I made it to DG and flipped it, not more 30 seconds after flipping it was Bjoern charging up with Sven closely behind.  They were close but the B group held off the A group before Descanso Gardens, barely!

After getting back to the parking lot (thanks to Bjoern and Sven for pulling me all the way back) most did a run.  Lynda, Amy and myself ran to Rosemont and back.  Many others did a lap around the bowl.  Great workout and great participation.  Looking forward to next week.

Allen

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For me, I had an early day (early into work/ early out of work). So, I actually got my run done before the Brick. I took the trails along the Arroyo Seco and Rose Bowl. It was warm, but cooling off. Then, I joined the Brick ride. Great Turn out for the 1st brick.

PS. Julie brought 2 new friends too.

PPS. I forgot about the Race Number on my helmet. oops.