~5.7 miles @ ~13.7 min/mi

The #5 county Ride-On bus drops me off a block early — I yank the cord prematurely — so at 0645 I jog a block to get to Stephanie Fonda's home on time. We ride to Gayatri Datta's neighborhood but I can't remember her house number and tell Stephanie to park in the wrong driveway. Fortunately Gayatri spots us and waves from her front yard. At Watkins Mill High School the snafus continue: the three of us attempt to follow the Stone Mill 50 Miler course, in rehearsal for next week's race, but halfway around the building encounter a construction barrier that blocks our progress. We backtrack to the start and then try to find the cross-country trail down to Seneca Creek, with only partial success. Stephanie spies a path that leads us upstream under the Watkins Mill Rd bridge, so we take that and finally join the blue-blazed Greenway Trail proper. Along we trek, Gayatri and I offering advice to trail virgin Stephanie about picking up feet, avoiding stumbles and ankle rolls, etc. We try to slow down to race pace of ~15 min/mi but without success. Stephanie leads us back from the turnaround at Huntmaster Rd at ~12 min/mi for the middle of the journey. We cross Watkins Mill Rd and take the sidewalk back up the hill to the school, and then head home. Garmin GPS and Runkeeper app roughly concur on distance and pace.

^z - 2012-12-03