~9 miles @ ~14 min/mi

As we run Stephanie Fonda mentions that she was listening to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony yesterday. I launch into an impromptu rendition of the final movement's Ode to Joy. "Freude, schöner Göterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium" is as far as I get before mercifully stopping. Later, I tell Stephanie that I wear my belt in opposite directions around my pants, depending on whether the day of the month is odd or even. What further revelations are in store? How about my Memory Palace attempt to learn the US States in alphabetical order, and their capital cities, each associated with quarter-mile points along Rock Creek Trail? Yep, I'm boringly normal.

Hopes of running through a blizzard are disappointed when the day dawns cool, slightly above freezing, and dry. Starting at 7:15am we do ~10 km briskly from near Stephanie's home and proceeding via the Garrett Park train station to join Rock Creek Trail in the upstream direction. Then feet start to ache, a knee gets iffy, and after experimenting with taking inserts out of shoes we decide to call it a day and walk along Avery to Norbeck to Baltimore Rd to the Rockville Metro station for a ride back to close the loop. During the hike I pick up a battered cent and a golf ball. Chill rain begins during the final miles. My ITB-right-hip is getting better, but now a pain develops in the right foot on the outside top where a small bone seems to be sticking up oddly. This has happened sporadically in the past. Hmmmm! Dislocation? Bone spur? Stress fracture? Subluxation? Dysplasia? Tuberosity? Deformity of a metatarsal, cuboid, calcareous, or something else? Garmin GPS and Runkeeper app are reasonably in accord as to distance and pace.

^z - 2013-01-09