The difference between my last two runs really couldn’t be any bigger, the more I think about it.

Tuesday I decided I’d finally give the infamous Mount Vernon Trail a whirl. I’ve seen it many a time as it snakes along the Potomac River, and thought to myself how nice it looks. The reality? Well, the view is outstanding as you run down the river, looking into DC at sights like Georgetown, the Washington Monument, and Memorial Bridge. I know that if you go further you eventually pass by the airport, Old Town Alexandria, Mount Vernon itself… a pity that at least the section I went on, it’s a pretty lousy trail. It’s incredibly narrow to the point of danger; I was running so far to the right that I was practically falling off the trail and still almost getting clipped by bicycles. The part where the trail goes under Memorial Bridge, it goes down to a single “lane” and it’s a miracle more people don’t collide and die there. In general, the people on the trail were pretty rude, both runners and cyclists; very little warning of people passing, some trail hogs, and all in all I was utterly unimpressed. I will give the people on the trail points for looking pretty darn hot, but this is ultimately a trail where the view is great but nothing else is.

On Wednesday I met up with Julie to run down the W&OD Trail… where we promptly ran into Katie about to go running as well. Julie and I adjusted our ratio so we could run with Katie, and were about to get going… and then butchinson zipped by on his bike. Why did no one tell me that it was “familiar faces” day on the trail? Sure enough, a mile and a half out, we saw Noel from our run site going in the other direction. Julie and I eventually bid goodbye to Katie once she needed to slow the pace down a bit, and switched back to our old ratio and pace for the remainder. All of this reminded me more than anything else about what I like about the W&OD Trail: all the familiar and friendly faces. It’s got mostly polite people, a lot of genuinely cool acquaintances that I run into here, and it’s just a generally well-maintained and cared for trail system. It might not be as glamorous or well known, but it’s pretty great. (And then after all of that, right as we were finishing up we ran back into butchinson, whose bicycle had lost a pedal. Julie promptly offered him a ride back to his car since she’s got the SUV, so that worked out really well.)

It’s a shame that the Mount Vernon Trail stinks; it does have the great view(s) and it’s really near my new place. But on a regular basis? No thanks. I’ll stick with the W&OD and try some others like Custis. For now, though, I’m good.