~17 miles @ ~11.6 min/mi

Leaving home at 0715 for an 0800 meet-up at Ken-Gar there's slack in the schedule. Climbing the Mormon Temple hill as the sun creeps above the horizon, when the pink glow starts to hit the golden angel Moroni a must-pause moment looms. As colleague Martin Hyatt says, "This is a building that is hard to go wrong," æsthetically-photographically.

So divert into the parking lot, pull iPhone out of plastic bag, open camera, and start snapping. Friendly church-goers smile and nod understandingly as they enter for services.

The paved path around the LDS Temple is quiet and offers multiple opportunities to capture different angles. A crescent moon and the contrail of a passing jet line up with the spires. By the time I've circumnavigated the monumental building the ruby glow has transformed into alabaster.

Then onward and upward along Stoneybrook Dr to Kent St, across Connecticut Av and through the Ken-Gar neighborhood to the park, mile 7 of Rock Creek Trail.

Today's trek along Rock Creek with Barry Smith, Ken Swab, and Rebecca Rosenberg has a mission: we're in search of RR's lost pink cap. Alas, no luck in that quest. Temps are sub-freezing the water fountains are unexpectedly shut down, and I'm not carrying a bottle. Many thanks to Rebecca for kindly sharing her Accelerade!

Ken and Rebecca tell a detective story. During their Marathon du Médoc last September, they saw several runners dressed up in chicken-like costumes and carrying UFO-flying-saucer-like props. When asked what they represented, the runners replied, "Super Shoe!" — or something that sounded like that to non-Francophones. After considerable research, Ken reported, finally he solved the mystery: they were saying"soupe aux choux" and referring to the 1981 French comic movie La Soupe aux Choux which means "Cabbage Soup".

We run treading on our shadows outbound, four shapes dancing tall on the trail in front of us, as we head toward the new Rock Creek Trail bridge over Veirs Mill Rd. After the turnaround the light pressure is against us and makes the going harder. Or maybe we're getting tired, and it's just uphill there!

As we jog along Rebecca asks the rest of us whether we keep records of our runs. Ken does, on paper; Barry has a digital log; and Rebecca already knows about the ZhurnalyWiki's Running Logbook. She remembers incidents when I discover past instances of our conversations in the records. I mention the 1988 "Peewee's Playhouse" Christmas Special, with multiple guest stars including the memorable Grace Jones, who is 65 years old this year.

Runtastic and Garmin include the pauses to take photos and to meet up with Barry, Ken, and Rebecca. After we part ways I add a short local ramble to get both the GPS's past 17 miles.

^z - 2014-01-20