11+ miles @ ~11.5 min/mi

High noon, an hour into the Bethesda Loop, and as I'm jogging north along Old Georgetown Road it's time to make a tough decision: take off the shirt, or not? In favor of keeping it on: I'm trying to get acclimated to the heat before summer arrives; it's a "Tussey Mountainback" ultra shirt which might impress some random passer-by; and baring my manly chest likely will terrify the natives and cause car accidents. (cf. the Rainer Maria Rilke poem "Archaic Torso of Apollo", e.g., "... And yet his torso / is still suffused with brilliance from inside, / like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low, / gleams in all its power. ...") But on the other hand I'm starting to feel some abrasion on certain delicate male decorations (cf. ManaBurn) and it would be a shame to get a pair of bloodstains on this nice t-shirt. So off it comes.

The jog today, a week after the HAT Run, feels comfortable with one-minute walk breaks every half mile. I'm trying a new brand of sunscreen (which doesn't run into my eyes, thank goodness) and a new fanny pack (an Ultimate Direction mini-thing) wherein I've replaced the little gel bottle with my cellphone. As I approach the end of the journey, climbing the Ireland Drive bike path in Walter Reed Annex, I find the top of the trail is blocked by construction fences (a developer is building condos; your tax dollars at work, more or less). But a brief scramble through the woods just outside the barrier soon leads me to Woodstock Court and thence home via the always-inspirational Triple Mermaid Fountain ... all three of whose horses are now headless.