17 miles @ 11+ min/mi

Venus shines like a brilliant-cut diamond as I leave home shortly before dawn. Sirius twinkles low in the southeast sky, presaging the flooding of the Nile (see DogStarRising). My hope is to walk the first mile but after five minutes my will weakens and I start jogging. In spite of further slow sauntering, mile 1 takes less than 13 minutes. A 20 oz. bottle of Gatorade lasts until downtown Bethesda.

I follow the Georgetown Branch / Capital Crescent Trail through the Dalecarlia Tunnel and arrive at Milepost 6.5 about 7:15am. A colleague training for her first marathon had tentatively planned to meet me there, but there's no sign of her. I do three out-and-back miles, nibbling on a lemon poppyseed Clif Bar as I ping-pong between mile markers 7 and 6. No comrade materializes by 7:50am, so I commence the return journey to Che^z. The slow start (first-half pace 11:30) leaves me with a good energy level and I blast (!) out the final four at 10:35/mile, including a top-speed 9:36 for mile 15.