Start time: 2/24/07, 8:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 9 miles
Run:Walk Ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 11:00min/mile

Continuing my comeback from the injury, the plan was to run 10 miles with my old pace group. Their 11:00min/mile pace would be perfect for me to pick the distance back up again, and then in theory I’ll be set for giving the old college try at the National Half Marathon four weeks from now. Well, DC is still in parts covered in ice and snow. Specifically, running trails, as it turned out. I headed out with Ali, Carla, MJ, and Randy out by the Vienna Community Center. VCC is halfway between the 11 and 11.5 markers on the trail, so we walked to 11.5 and began our journey. Everything went great until somewhere around ~14.75 on the trail, at which point the path was completely covered in a never-ending sheet of ice and snow. Crap.

So, we turned around and decided we’d head back to the VCC, then go back out the other direction. This was a slight mistake (we should’ve just stuck with the portion of the trail that we knew was clear) but hindsight is always 20-20. It seemed like a good idea at the time, so we made it back to the VCC, dropped off Randy, and had just 3.5 more miles to go. So I figured we’d keep running and hit marker 11 and that would be 7 miles. Then we could turn around at marker 10, go back to 11, and be done, right?

Did I mention that it is bitterly cold out with nasty freezing winds? My only excuse is that my brain had frozen because that is clearly 9 miles, not 10. As it turned out we really needed to turn around at marker 10 anyway because another huge sheet of ice and snow was further along the trail. (Yeesh.) Between markers 11.5 and 10 it was primarily tiny little trails in huge icefields that caused us to slow down a bit, so it’s really just as well that I can’t count.

Still, a very good and enjoyable time despite the freeze, and since Carla’s knee was starting to hurt towards the end it’s really just as well that “math is hard”. Even better, no pain once again, and I felt most of the time like I could’ve sped up a great deal. Hopefully next weekend will have good enough weather that I can knock out a 10-12 miler and pick up the pace a bit. I don’t think I’m going to get my sub-2:00 at this point, but we’ll see. Fingers crossed!

Start time: 12/3/05, 8:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 9 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 10:45min/mile

Oops… I completely forgot to post this back on Saturday. Went out for a run with some people from the old running group, finally. The run itself went well; I had to metro over because I wasn’t getting my loaner car until the afternoon but getting there was pretty easy, if perhaps a bit more of a prelude to the general “it’s cold out” weather.

Afterwards, five of us decided to go to get some breakfast. This is where things get a little amusing. Mark and I hadn’t driven over, so Chanty was going to give me a lift, and John would give Mark a lift. Ali was going to drop her car off at Meineke, which she said was “on the way there” and John & Mark would pick her up as well. Except Ali promptly took off in her car before anyone else was in theirs. Chanty and I got to the restaurant first and couldn’t help but note that we hadn’t seen a Meineke at all on the way there. John & Mark eventually made it there… without Ali. No idea where the Meineke was, and they drove additional distance down the road just to be sure.

We finally called information and got ahold of the Meineke in Falls Church and it was not really that near at all. More importantly, no sign of Ali there. About twenty minutes later, Ali made it there; she couldn’t find the Meineke and was walking around the parking lot looking for John’s car to see if he was there or was still on the road somewhere trying to find Meineke. Reunited, we all ate.

Then, Chanty said she’d give me a ride back to the East Falls Church metro, but I asked if anyone was going down 66 so they could drop me off in Vienna (where my parents are) so I could get my loaner car. John and Chanty both live in that direction, but Chanty wasn’t heading home initially so I said, “Let me grab my bag and then I can hitch a ride from John.” I ran over, got my bag, came back… no John. Turns out he thought I was still getting a ride from Chanty and left. *sigh* I managed to call Mark on his cell phone (now getting a ride back to the metro with Ali) and they turned around and came back to get me.

It seems we can run long distances at the drop of a hat, but simply getting from point A to B in a car? Totally out of our depth.