9+ miles @ ~12 min/mi

A teacup-sized bunny darts across Mary's toes during our hill climb at mile 8 and gives her a burst of adrenaline. It's already a warm, sunny morning in northern Virginia at 6:30am as I pick up Mary at her home and follow her directions to the parking area near mile marker 29.5 of the Washington & Old Dominion Trail. We take the parallel crushed-bluestone horse path most of the way, with a few side excursions. I tease Mary mercilessly about her overuse of the "S" word (she says "Sorry!" too often, quite unnecessarily) as I garble Shakespeare and Gerard Manley Hopkins in attempts to recite poetic passages from memory. My GPS says we've gone 9.4 miles total distance at a pace of 11.3 min/mi during our running segments. We take 59 minutes outbound and 57 minutes for the return journey. Our overall average pace, including 10 minutes of not-running (potty and water breaks) is about 12.4 min/mi. As we approach the end of our run a cool wind blesses us for the final 30 seconds. Would that it has arisen sooner! Mary avers that two young girls distract me and almost make me miss the path at one turn. I honestly don't remember either girls or turn, and counter-claim that studly dudes on the trail draw Mary's gaze, as does the $5k bicycle that one hunk rides. Meanwhile, I collect coordinates at the mileposts we notice, missing a few where the horse trail takes us aside.

(correlates: SlipAway, 2004-11-10 - WOD Luncheon, TransfiniteMeaning, ...)