After the boys of summer have gone

Things are coming to an end at Thursday Night at the Races. Here in SF, school has started again. Last night the fast redhead was gone, her cross country practice has probably started again (or she has 15 AP classes to study for). The HS boy's team was no there either. It's just back to the grown ups. There's 1 week of racing left.
There was, however, a new character. Rubber Band Man. He's an older gentleman. He was wearing earbud headphones, and to keep them in place, he has a rubber band wrapped around his head. I can not make this stuff up. Runners are total freaks.
I finally got to see WHO the faster woman in my AG was. I started behind her and she was clearly taking it easy since she wasn't very far ahead of me for most of the race. Flowy shorts was also there.
As we started I knew I just didn't feel like running very hard to I started off easy. I let fast chick go, I didn't try to stay with shorts.
Since this was my 9th week running here, I've gotten to know the course in both directions pretty well. This week was the direction I like, I think it's faster.
Just before mile 3. a guy passed me. A real macho guy. He was in board shorts and a cotton tank top. His arms were covered to the wrist with tattoos and I could see they covered most of his back and chest. I caught him and he would not let me pass, to the point of stepping over so I couldn't pass. I was like, ok, whatever dude and just stayed with him. Right before my garmin hit 4 miles, I did pass him. I knew when I did it would be for good. With a half mile to go I picked up the pace. I didn't want him out sprinting me just on principle. I looked down at my garmin. As I've noted before, I'm old school. Races I care about, the garmin stays at home and I run with a watch. It's just easier for my brain to deal with just the time and hitting lap. For these runs, I wear my garmin, mostly because there are no mile markers, though by now I have a good sense of the course and where I am. I knew that the best I had run this course was the first week, 7:24 pace. My garmin was telling me that's what I was averaging. I didn't know my exact time off the top of my head from that first week. I hit STOP at 33:16. When I got home and looked up my time from week 1, it was 33:15. So close. We'll see what the official time was in a few days.
Tattoo man came in behind me and I gave him a high five. He told me he wanted to stay with me at the end but just couldn't. Mwahahaha.
After the race, I actually talked to flowy shorts and speedy woman. Funny, big legs has not been there for the last 2 weeks.
I'm surprised by my time last night, I did not expect or plan to run as well as I did. This is a good sign, things are coming along. I'm happy about that, I thought I was just stagnating for a while but this seems to be a mini break.
On the first week, I was given #17, I've reused the same number every week. Man, I wish it was 4 since I think I've come in 4th woman more than any other place.
1 more week to go. I'm still leading my age group. This has been a fun series.