Start time: 10/18/2014, 7:04am
Location: National Mall, Georgetown, Foxhall Drive, Massachusetts Ave, Rock Creek Park
Distance: 14 miles
Average pace: 10:35 min/mile
Total Miles For October: 39 miles
Total Miles For 2014: 645 miles
Current Shoes: 202 miles

I’m not sure how I get talked into running up Foxhall Drive, (which climbs and climbs and climbs for two solid miles) but there we go. On the bright(?) side it was distinctly better this time around, a good 20 seconds per mile faster. So yay us, right?

Start time: 7/13/2013, 6:00am
Location: National Mall, Georgetown, Foxhall Rd, Mass Ave, Capitol Hill
Distance: 14.07 miles
Average pace: 10:54min/mile
Total Miles For July: 45 miles
Total Miles For 2013: 386 miles
Current Shoes: 285 miles

Oh Foxhall Rd, how I hate your 400 foot climb over the course of two miles… so very, very much… I truly do hate you.

On the plus side: special guest star in the form of John’s brother Jamie, who gamely ran 11 miles with us despite not having more than a few under his belt.

Start time: 10/27/12, 7:00am
Location: Takoma, Takoma Park, Shepherd Park, Sligo Creek Park, Manor Park
Distance: 14.04 miles
Average pace: 10:54min/mile
Total Miles For October: 86 miles
Total Miles For 2012: 489 miles
Current Shoes: 29 miles

Got most of the running group (Ben, John, Stephanie, Steve) to come up to my neck of the woods and we did a run all around my stomping grounds. The first four were with just Ben, John, and Steve, and we ran along the bottom edge of the old Walter Reed Medical Center, up 16th St to the border with Maryland, then down Eastern Ave and Blair Rd back home. Picked up Stephanie and ran 8 miles through Takoma Park and Sligo Creek Park and back; dropped off John and did two final miles down into Manor Park and back. Stephanie’s running the NYC Marathon next weekend and John’s recovering from an injury, so we had all sorts of different mileages and a bit of a taper going on, but it was all good. Lovely weather, good scenery, fantastic company.

Start time: 2/12/12, 7:00am
Location: National Mall, Capitol Hill, Navy Yard, Hains Point
Distance: 14.07 miles
Average pace: 10:45min/mile
Total Miles For February: 52 miles
Total Miles For 2012: 136 miles
Current Shoes: 169 miles

Just me, John, and Ben; a subdued but pleasant run.

Start time: 8/6/11, 6:00am
Location: National Mall, Hains Point, Shaw, Logan Circle, Dupont Circle, Washington Circle
Distance: 13.94 miles
Average pace: 10:27min/mile
Total Miles For August: 23 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 453 miles

The last of the two months of entries I’m just getting around the posting! (To spare everyone, I “backdated” all of the entries after the triathlon, to try and avoid flooding LiveJournal feeds. In theory they shouldn’t have shown up.)

This was two 7-milers; the first with Ben, Jim, and Michael; the second one adding on John, Stephanie, and Rich. This was actually not a good run for several reasons. First, my knee started bugging me again at the end of the run, along with my ankle. A very unpleasant final two miles.

And second, at the start of the second 7-miler, we had some of the group make it through a light but other people didn’t. The people in the lead tried to keep pushing on… but it was a new route that only I knew, and I made us wait for them so they weren’t lost half a mile into the course. If it was a course everyone knew I would’ve been “well, we’re all adults” but it didn’t feel right to abandon them. There were definitely some grouchy feelings from a few people for the rest of the run. Oh well.

Anyway, after this run I ended up taking a week off of running to let things rest and hopefully heal…

Start time: 3/6/10, 7:30am & 10:30am
Location: Hains Point, West Potomac Park, National Mall; North Arlington
Distance: 10 miles & 4 miles
Average pace: 9:59min/mile & 9:14min/mile
Total Miles For March: 22 miles
Total Miles For 2010: 141 miles

Went running with my group today for 10 miles, which is always a real pleasure. Even with walk breaks we picked up the pace a bit the last four or so miles, which was a nice feeling. I’d originally planned on running 12 miles (and tacking on two more at the end) but everyone else was heading to Starbucks and I decided that sounded like much more fun. (My old Garmin GPS is continuing to glitch, but fortunately Michael was leading the pack and his much newer one seemed to be hitting the right marks. Mine slid about a tenth of a mile halfway through and it was rather obvious; suddenly we’d magically tacked on an extra minute for no good reason according to mine, but Michael’s had us at the usual pace and was beeping at the .9 mile points. Argh. Time to replace it soon.)

Except afterwards I felt guilty from my chai latte and piece of coffee cake, so when I got home I changed my shirt and then ran my old 4-mile loop, which aside from two small sections is now finally snow-free. (I just have to run on the opposite side of the street for the start and end of the loop.) I had a stitch in my side for that (probably from the coffee cake) but I pushed through anyway. Mission accomplished!

(for the 4-miler: 9:17, 9:06, 9:18, 9:13)

Start time: 7/18/09, 6:30am
Location: All over DC
Distance: 14 miles
Average pace: 10:06min/mile
Total Miles For July: 45 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 424 miles

Phew! Been a while since I had a 6:30am start… and did quite so many hills. The run started out well; we went from the SW Waterfront to Hains Point, then over the 14th St Bridge into Virginia where we ran up the Mt. Vernon Trail along the Potomac all the way to where it ends at the Key Bridge. That wasn’t so bad, but then once we went over Key Bridge we started heading up 34th Street… and up… and up… and up… yeeeeaaah. Hills and I don’t get along so much these days, especially since they are where I injure myself. But I survived, thankfully, and after we went around the Naval Observatory and down Mass Ave it wasn’t so bad. From there it was pretty simple (P St to Connecticut to Lafayette Square to the Mall) and aside from missing a light at the very end and suddenly ending up half a block behind everyone else (oops), pretty enjoyable.

More importantly it sure does feel good to have burnt off about 1600 calories. I swear, at times this is why I still run. My waistline demands it!

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3015563

Start Time: 7/19/08, 6:30am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 14 miles
Average Pace: 9:16min/mile
Total Miles For July: 59.5 miles

It was going to be a hot day today, so our running coach had said he was cutting our planned 14-miler short a bit, suggesting everyone break it up into two 7-milers. Did I do that? Bah! Instead, my plan was to get up early and go to the run site about an hour early and knock out 6-7 miles before they got there (and the heat got bad), then run the other 7 with them and all would be good.

Weeeelll, except that I got a late start and instead of having an hour beforehand, only had half an hour. Still, I knocked out 4 miles on my own, then got back just as they were about to begin. So, I ran 7 miles with Laura and Donna, then pushed through another 3 miles on my own. Victory! It wasn’t too bad, aside from the fact that the last three miles had no shade whatsoever. I could really feel my strength sapping, especially in mile 12, which was the worst of it. Oof! Uphill and in the hot sun! But all done now, so hurrah for that.

(9:19, 8:54, 9:04, 8:55, 9:09, 9:13, 8:58, 9:17, 9:07, 9:16, 9:28, 9:52, 9:26, 9:19)

Start time: 7/8/07, 7:00am
Location: C&O Canal Towpath & Cap Crescent Trail
Distance: 14 miles
Average pace: 9:37min/mile

The DC area is a little warm right now. High of 98 degrees, which is needless to say not the most pleasant weather in which to run. Before we even began, it was stressed to us that we weren’t concentrating on time today; just focus on getting the distance done. After our speed demons zipped off, it was just four of us: Aaron, Laura, and Paul. We stuck together for about 9.5 miles, and while we were starting to slow down we were still doing well. As we hit another water stop, I noticed that Laura had refilled quickly and zoomed off. The guys wanted to walk for a minute and I decided that sounded good, so we watched Laura turn into a dot on the horizon. After about a mile and a half, though, Aaron and Paul were slowing down more and more, and then took another walk break that seemed to never end. Finally, I decided to keep running because I just couldn’t bear to be moving that slowly. (Also, I had a breakfast brunch to attend for my friend Britt.)

So, running along, I finally saw the next water stop ahead around the 12.5 mile mark, and Laura refilling as well. (Plus Julie, who unfortunately having some knee problems. Boo.) It turned out she knew that when we were back in the sun, she would start fading, so she headed off at the previous stop so she could get caught by us instead of behind us at the end. Laura and I crossed over onto the Capital Crescent Trail (shade! shade! shade!) and we finished together and strong. It was a really hard run, but at the same time it was also pretty rewarding to have finished. Phew!