~17 miles @ ~11.2 min/mi

Starting at 5:41am to make a 7am rendezvous in downtown Bethesda, I decide to attempt to take Rock Creek upstream to the Bethesda Trolley Trail. That works out well — I arrive within a minute of the planned time to find Sandra "Sam" Yerkes waiting by the Barnes & Noble bookstore fountain, Ken Swab just arriving, and shortly behind him Rebecca Rosenberg and Gayatri Datta.

But that smooth arrival hides some frantic sprinting and a couple of sub-9 minute miles along the BTT. A fireman returns my wave as he guiltily takes a smoke just outside the NIH security fence. An SUV almost bumps me when the driver apparently thinks about running a stop sign, but fortunately doesn't. One big deer eyes me near Connecticut Av, and a pair of rabbits flees into front yard bushes on Leland St. I hang with Gayatri Datta and learn about her Yellowstone Park and Bighorn Marathon experiences — all good — as the others trot ahead and do some extra mileage down Beach Dr.

Returning to Leland I turn Gayatri over to Sam and dash some more fast final miles homeward, with a pause to photograph the ever-lovely Mermaid Fountain at National Park Seminary on the way. RunKeeper awards a bonus ~0.2 miles, mainly from the Wisconsin Av tunnel GPS glitch, compared to the Garmin wrist unit.

Garmin splits: 10:28 + 10:19 + 10:50 + 9:42 + 10:46 + 9:34 + 8:47 + 8:32 + 14:56 + 13:23 + 13:10 + 12:37 + 15:29 + 12:44 + 9:24 + 8:46 + 12:22 and a final fraction at 8:50 min/mi pace.

^z - 2013-07-17