~7.5 miles @ ~13 min/mi

Friday afternoon's office picnic is held at Lake Barcroft in northern Virginia. Organizer Chris Buehler tells me of Holmes Run Trail that follows the stream that the lake drains into. Run op! I leap off the boat at the southern end of the lake, cross Columbia Pike, and run downhill to find the origin of the trail. It zig-zags across the creek repeatedly on round concrete stepping-stones, and at the first crossing there's a massive deadfall that requires stopping and crawling through branches and between limbs. Hope no poison ivy there!

Heavy rains last night and this morning raise the water level to the point that some of the stepping stones are covered, but only by an inch or two. Big puddles decorate the path, and a spooky muddy tunnel at one point is flooded to ankle depth. I get briefly .lost on neighborhood streets, zig-zag, and backtrack. A sketchy-looking fellow is smoking something under the Duke St overpass, so instead of venturing further on the overgrown creek bank, I follow Duke St to the Metro station at King St and take the subway home. As I exit the train I try to dry the small puddle under me on the seat.

Runkeeper on the iPhone shuts down with a quarter mile to go, when I stop to take photos of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial. The Garmin GPS shows the entire path.

^z - 2013-07-27