Pekingese Puppy Palace?

We are currently on the way to the 3rd van exchange. We had a nice soup and sandwich dinner at the Cheese factory after leg 12. The wind has been blowing pretty good since somewhere during Monks leg. The Gnome has been traveling and people are now requesting to get pictures with him. He has obtained celebrity status!

Leg 8 was great and I ran it a little faster than my projected 7:30 pace, I can really feel the elevation difference. So when we were driving to the 8th exchange, we saw Dean for the first time, it was great. Since then we have seen him at every exchange as he leaped frogged us. His father actually ran the first part of leg 8, but some runners took a wrong turn and ended up going a wrong direction. It was great to see dean and his support team.

The first 3 miles of leg 3 wove through the vineyards, very scenic, there was a pretty quick and steep hill about a mile in. About 2 miles in I passed a house with a lot of yapping little dogs. It sounded like what a Peruvian Pekingese Puppy Place would sound like. The vineyards were great, but I didn't hear any harps and there weren't any grapes to taste. The vines were small and not the high walled and mazes that I had envisioned that the vineyard run would be. The markings were well displayed that showed which direction to take. Within the vineyards I only passed 2 people.

Then I went out onto the freeway and onward I went. I soon saw many chances to rack up Road Kill points, and I tell you, it was almost a Primal feeling, seeing a runner coming up and knowing that I would get some roadkill points. Very motivational to run hard & Fast.

Before I knew it the leg was over, 7.4 miles in 54 minutes. A pretty good pace and time was had. I saw wondermom and readied the baton, there was another roadkill possibility, but he was too far ahead!

Wondermom's son met us after her leg, and Alex was off on the longest and hardest leg of the race, and the wind was blowing hard. As we waited for Alex we captured some more Gnome shots and van photos. We chatted with Dean's Dad, and he told us his story of Leg 8 and how he got off track. A very nice guy!

So, all in all, the adventure is going well and I will release the laptop to the next person to fill you in.

1Mile out for now!