3+ miles @ ~11 min/mi and 7+ miles @ ~14 min/mi

Blistering pace! CM Manlandro is wearing new shoes, and they (or her feet) still need some time to adapt. We start in front of my home at 0530 and follow neighborhood streets to the Capital Crescent Trail. After the high trestle, however, CM pauses to adjust a sock by the light of my flashlight and detects a blister forming. We turn back, take a side excursion toward Grubb Rd but decide to abandon it, and end up retracing our way home again in 38 minutes. Perhaps CM's feet were stressed out by her run yesterday in the rain, and that plus the new type of shoes (her old favorite model was discontinued) caused the problem?

I do the dishes, and when Barry Smith picks me up we proceed into Virginia, where we park at Difficult Run and Georgetown Pike just before 8am. Sara Crum appears moments later, and through the mud we go downstream on Difficult Run Trail (the Fairfax Cross County Connector Trail). The Great Falls Park trail map shows most of our route: we take the Ridge Trail to the Old Carriage Road Trail to the park visitor center. After a restroom break we continue up the Potomac River on the Pawtomack Canal Trail where we see two pairs of mallard ducks and one pair of deer. We turn back after ~53 minutes just inside Riverbend Park and retrace our path, pausing occasionally for Barry to take photos with his cellphone, and are back at the cars another 53 minutes later.

^z - 2010-01-25