~8 miles @ ~9.6 min/mi

"Holy Mary Mother of God!" Cara Marie Manlandro pants, bent over to catch her breath at the end of our run this morning.

"Are you Catholic?" I ask, as I help her refill her bottle at the water fountain on Rock Creek Trail near East-West Hwy.

"I am today!" CM replies.

The GPS trackfile gives our splits: 10:03 + 9:54 + 9:56 + 9:51 + 10:35 (at the turnaround where CM takes a hit from her asthma inhaler and I suck down a GU energy gel) + 9:33 + 9:28 + 9:04 — the last two quite stressful to CM, who's getting back into shape after significant illness in November and earlier this month. Lots of other runners are out today, training along Rock Creek in the early morning. We start and finish at Ray's Meadow. I wear tights for the first time this season; a chill breeze makes my eyes water. CM has lost her cool sunglasses and hopes that her husband George takes the hint and gets her a new pair for Christmas. (He does.) I remind her that the trail segment at our start/finish is where she first ran a mile in under 8 minutes (see 2008-11-26 - CM's Mile PR).

^z - 2011-12-27