~7 miles @ ~9.2 min/mi

"Perfect pace — thank you!" I say to the young lady in the chartreuse outfit who pulls me along Sligo Creek Trail for almost two miles. She smiles back. A dozen minutes earlier she dashed across Colesville Rd just ahead of me, at my mile 2. Her steady ~8.5 min/mi trek upstream kept me going faster than planned, dodging bikes and weaving around strollers on the paved path by the stream. Good tempo trot, even though at one point I overlook a major puddle and splatter my legs with mud. Oops!

Saturday begins with service as a volunteer course marshall for the MCRRC 5k woman-only "Run for Roses" race in Wheaton Regional Park, near the New Place. I cheer runners, direct them around a corner onto a cross-country segment, and when done there go to the finish line to take photos of the fastest. Then it's time to pick up the CSA box at the Silver Spring Farmers Market, deliver it to home, load the car with bookcases and framed art prints, and change into running clothes. DW & DD are driving to New Place from Old, via violin lesson that DD is teaching a student, so I smell a point-to-point opportunity.

The route today is a bit circuitous, beginning with a long pause at the light to cross Georgia Av traffic. Faster pace makes up time along Dale Dr, past a crew pushing tree limbs into a wood chipper on the way to Colesville Rd. After my lithe pacer turns back I continue up Sligo Creek a bit slower, stopping to drink at a couple of water fountains. At University Blvd a walk break permits texting DW & DD to report progress. In Wheaton Regional Park at Orebaugh Av I blitz down the steep grass hill by the ballfields, cut through the woods to the path where a few hours earlier the Run for Roses racers reached their Mile 1, but then take a wrong turn and am startled to find myself back at the athletic center and dog park. Bonus mile! Via Pine Lake and the miniature train I get to Henderson Av and New Place well before DW & DD, help unload the car, and ride back home.

Garmin and Runkeeper agree closely with splits of about 10:23 + 8:13 + 8:27 + 9:10 + 9:09 + 9:33 + 9:10 + 9:30.

^z - 2013-07-07