1 mile @ ~8 min/mi & 4.5+ miles @ ~15 min/mi

"I sure wish I had her body!" Mary says quietly, after we pass a bikini-clad photographer's model on the south shore of Lake Fairfax. "Nah," I reply. "She's sleek but she couldn't run this far!"

Half an hour earlier Mary & I meet at the Michael Faraday Dr ice rink parking lot. I arrive early and to pass the time run a foolishly-fast 8:02 mile along the W&OD Trail, mileposts 16.5 to 16 and back. So exhaustion and dehydration loom for me in spite of the cool dry weather and comfortable breezes. Mary kindly gives me a Succeed! electrolyte capsule before we start, and it helps; so does the lanolin she brings to deter chafing in certain delicate places.

Then Mary leads the way: she challenges the hills of Lake Fairfax Trail and wins, although she claims that she's only able to do 5 km or so at speed nowadays. She's just back today from a rock concert in Philadelphia last night, but the long drive with her Andy doesn't seem to have lowered her energy as she leads us on a new-to-me loop. We branch left before the first soccer fields and proceed northwest along a small stream feeding into the lake, through a narrow path among the weeds. Overall we spend 39 min outbound to the park restroom where I refill my water bottles, then 30 minutes back to the cars along our usual path, including a pause for me to take a stick out of my shoe plus a few minutes of getting lost at a camping area while Mary seeks the trail continuation.

Black and orange butterflies orbit us under the trees. Several fast mountain bikers blast past as we labor up the final hills; last in the group is a policeman. I've only had a Clif Bar for lunch today. Perhaps some of my fatigue is partly low blood sugar?

^z - 2008-08-26

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