~15 miles @ ~11 min/mi

At 7:30am a woman in black is doing a runner's stretch against the rear bumper of a mini-van in the downtown Bethesda parking lot by the Capital Crescent Trail. As I drive by I wave tentatively, and tentatively she waves back. Is it Sara Crum? Park, gear up, trek back, and discover that yes, indeed it's Sara — and she wasn't sure of my identity since she didn't expect to ever see me arrive via automobile. A few minutes later Rebecca Rosenberg runs up to join us, having leapt out of her friend An's car at the nearby traffic light. Out and back ~2 miles we trot, enjoying the freezing morning temperatures. Gayatri Datta appears heading the other way, with Mary Laux. They started running ~7am. We return, do an out-and-back again with Gayatri and Mary, then join Ken Swab, Barry Smith, Emaad Burki, and some other friends of Emaad's. One of them, Alyssa Smith, admires a passing hunk and whispers that she's going to rush home to surprise her husband with her enthusiasm.

"I'm de-layering," Rebecca says, as the morning warms and we rejoin the trail after a break at Fletchers Boathouse. During final miles good conversation ensues with Barry and Rebecca about books and movies including The Right Stuff, Lost Moon, and excessive gung-ho risk-taking that gets people into trouble when conditions become tough. I note intermittent feelings of weakness in my right quad about mile 13. Is it nerves, or electrolyte imbalance, or ...? The GPS trackfile claims 15.25 miles at ~10.5 min/mi pace, but since I stopped it for the rendezvous at 8am and again when we took a porta-john break the actual overall pace is rather slower.

^z - 2012-02-08