~10.7 miles @ ~11 min/mi

Father's Day is the day for Father to do the family chores, right? After grocery shopping and mowing the lawn of the New Place it's time to head out to Rockville and deliver the 2013-04-13 - Bull Run Run 2013 "Team Rocket" biggest loser awards, monogrammed blankets, to teammates Jennifer Wieland and Mike Edwards. Jennifer is digging a trench in the back yard of her new place with a roto-tiller, back from South Dakota with a new puppy. I leave Mike's blankie with her. Since she has no other local trail suggestions I revisit the Carl Henn Millennium Trail that circles the town. Parking at mile marker 5 gets me started counter-clockwise. At 2pm the temperature is in the mid-80°F zone, and humidity is high. Intermittent breezes, and showers so light that I barely know they're there, help — but not enough.

Splits tell the sad tale: 9:40 + 10:27 + 9:59 + 11:25 + 11:01 + 12:45 (water stop at rec center) + 10:56 + 10:33 + 11:22 + 11:23 + 10:35 (final fraction min/mi). The first few miles are optimistically too fast, and then reality and walk breaks set in. Garmin and Runkeeper agree to within 2%. One water bottle isn't nearly enough. A blitz (relatively speaking) for the last half mile keeps the total average pace safely under 11 min/mi. Few others are foolish enough to be out today, but the heat acclimation should help in the long term. At Taco Bell afterwards a couple of glasses of Diet Pepsi and another cup of unsweetened tea fail to fully restore hydration.

(cf. 2011-08-17 - Rockville Millennium Trail, 2011-12-26 - Rockville Millennium Trail Loop, ...) - ^z - 2013-07-10