Sad news from the doctor today: my 18-month reprieve is over — it's back onto the hypertension meds for ^z — wonder if ACE inhibitors will disqualify me from the Olympics? (^_^) Or perhaps I just have to avoid playing draw poker?

But good news: after the unhappy doctor's app't., a fun run on a new route: ~9 miles (~101 minutes) beginning at the Rec Center on Sligo Creek Parkway just north of Dennis Ave. ... upstream along the banks of bounteous Sligo to Wheaton Regional Park ... then down Northwest Branch, on a real trail (albeit a relatively tame one) with mud, boulders, fallen trees, gulleys, hills, puddles, and great woodsy scenery ... and, at the turnoff to Lockwood Drive (just short of Colesville Road) I vector back to Dennis and follow the streets to my starting point.

I take a wrong turn, as I usually do, on the winding paths in Wheaton Regional — but fortunately a cute young pony-tailed runner coming the other way is kind enough to set me straight. I follow her along the horse path for a mile until she slows, then pass by and swing onto the Northwest Branch trail across Kemp Mill Road. Four deer take flight at my fearsome approach; they flash their white tails as they bound across a ridge. Signs announce the Rachel Carson Greenway Celebration on Saturday 20 March "...to re-name and extend the Northwest Branch Trail ..." eventually to the Patuxent River — see http://montgomerytrails.org for more news.

The miles go great along the rocky streamside ... maybe my fantasies to do the 50km HAT Run at the end of the month, or the JFK 50 miler in November, aren't as far-fetched as I have feared ...

(correlates: MetaForestry, MoneyOlympics, HappyTrails, ...)