14+ miles @ ~12 min/mi

Brother Keith sends a package of goodies for my birthday, including a squeeze pouch of exotic orange "Enervitine" energy drink. Early Saturday morning I suck down a dose after jogging from home 2+ miles to Candy Cane City. Does it help? Hard to say, but for whatever reason it's a great day to run, cool and crisp, fog over Ray's Meadow, dew on the grass by the ballfields. Ken Swab appears and we wait a while, then phone CM who turns out not to be joining us this morning. So Ken and I trot 1.5 miles along Rock Creek Trail, upstream to the high trestle and back.

It's now 8am and the MCRRC Saturday morning trail run led by Jane Godfrey is about to start. The group's normal speed is significantly faster than my training pace, but folks pause at intervals for Ken and me to catch up. We take the Western Ridge Trail to the Rock Creek Park Nature Center, then cross the hill to Beach Drive and return to our start via the Valley Trail plus side branches for extra climb/descent. Conversation tends toward current politics. Total distance ~7.5 miles.

Today's theme song playing inside my head is "Take the Long Way Home". Instead of proceeding directly back to my house I continue up Rock Creek, again passing the trestle. At Winkler's Meadow are two lost souls, one with a video camera, looking for "a playground near a swamp". After some head-scratching I figure out what they want and direct them northward. Near the side-trail to the Audubon Society, suddenly Mark McKennett and Michele Price materialize, blasting along as they train for the tough Mountain Masochist 50 miler coming in three weeks. I take Ireland Dr to the unofficial Woodstock Rd trail and jog from there back to my starting point, hoping that the GPS I carry will record 15 miles. It's a wee bit short.

(correlates: 2008-07-12 - Candy Cane Trail Run, CountrySightsAndSounds, SmallIdeas, ...)