Start time: 08/13/06, 7:00am
Location: Downtown Washington DC
Distance: 12 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 9:30min/mile

What a beautiful, beautiful day to run. Nice cool temperatures (in August? In DC???) and the hint of a breeze. Ahhhhhhh. There was no Stephanie again today, but I ran with our AIDS Marathon site rep Emma, which was a lot of fun. We kept each other very much on pace, and a lot of our miles were actually in the 9-to-9:15 range. Once you add in three water stops and stopping to talk to poufsouffle (and her two adorable dogs!), our average was a 9:30 for the day, but we were actually moving at quite a clip. It was great to get to just talk with Emma and get to know her.

Even better, hitting the 12-mile part of the route meant that I finally got to bridge the gap in my knowledge of the course; I know it all the way up to Thompson’s Boathouse, and from Key Bridge on up the Capital Crescent Trail, but not in-between. Running along the Georgetown Waterfront was just beautiful, a real way to rouse one’s spirits. (Although running under the Whitehurst Freeway stinks a tiny bit only because it’s hard to get a GPS signal with all the concrete above us and all. At least it’s just a small stretch.) I’d had a long day on Saturday and then not gotten nearly enough sleep, so it felt great to not only really hit the course moving good, but our last four miles were 9:27, 9:47 (with a water stop), 9:12, and 9:10. Ahhhhhhhhhhh. Excellent.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=361201

EDITED TO ADD: I almost forgot… the last couple times I went running I ended up with a slight stitch in my side. When this cropped up back in 2005, I found that eating a little more oatmeal for breakfast (two packets instead of one) solved the problem. This morning, I only had one packet because I’d forgotten to add it to the grocery list and that was all that remained. And while running… no stitch! Hmmmm. Maybe now I need less food in the tummy instead of more? Or should I just stick with my original plan of starting back up crunches to strengthen those muscles? (Well, I should do that anyway.) Maybe it was the magical power of eating some Sports Beans (from Jelly Belly, they taste like crystalized Gatorade and are delicious) instead? Clearly this requires more research.