~18.6 miles @ ~11.8 min/mi

"Good morning, Mr. Zimmermann!" Adeline Ntam greets me at dawn on the Capital Crescent Trail, just after I've paused to inspect the giant hole in the ground at Connecticut Av where a broken water main spilled 60,000,000 gallons down the Coquelin stream tributary of Rock Creek. I'm on my way to Bethesda to meet friends. Supposedly we'll all be at the Barnes & Noble bookstore at 7:30am. Ten minutes early nobody else is visible there, so I continue on to finish mile #4 and then hook back to text the missing parties. Sara Crum is there early too, and then Gayatri Datta arrives. Rather than wait, Gayatri heads down the CCT with Michele Price and her crew while Sara fumes and waits with me. Soon Jennifer Wieland is there, then Ken Swab, and then Rebecca Rosenberg followed by Emaad Burki. Perhaps we need a fallback plan to avoid unnecessary delays? I suggest to Sara an out-and-back eastward next time.

Southward on the CCT we go, with traditional bawdy banter between Emaad and Sara and sporadic footnotes from the rest. At the water fountain just past the Dalecarlia tunnel we find Gayatri and Co. I fall in with them for a few miles and talk with Gayatri about electrolytes and her experience during and after last week's B&A Marathon. Rebecca's injuries from her fall during that race are healing nicely.

After the group's 10 mile out-and-back (my mile 14+) everybody else is heading for home, but Sara Crum wants some extra distance and I need to get back to my starting point, so I volunteer to trot along with her. Rebecca kindly volunteers to drive me if I prefer, but I turn her down and explain that I need the extra hoof time to prepare for the Bull Run 50 and the C&O Canal 100 next month.

Runkeeper estimates 19.16 miles but the new Garmin 910XT says 18.63 and the old Garmin 205 is stingier yet at 17.99 — all probably divergent because of GPS lossage at multiple tunnels along the way. Rough mile splits based on the new wrist GPS: 10:34 + 9:21 + 9:52 + 10:25 + 25:27 (including ~15 minute break to wait for latecomers to arrive) + 10:07 + 10:23 + 10:15 + 10:43 + 12:20 + 10:29 + 10:57 + 10:33 + 10:45 + 18:04 (another break in downtown Bethesda to regroup) + 10:09 + 11:20 + 10:20 and a final fraction at ~10 min/mi pace.

^z - 2013-04-08