~6 miles @ ~9.6 min/mi

The mega-hill climb at the Beltway (northern) end of Northwest Branch Trail — gravel surface, 150' up in a quarter mile at ~11% grade — gets done twice. There's a HUGE error by the iPhone Runkeeper GPS, which perhaps is lured off-course by neighborhood WiFi signals and instead of the out-and-back shows a jump during the return trip onto neighborhood streets, for 7.21 miles and an impossible pace during miles 5, 6, and 7 of 5:01, 6:45, and 5:50 respectively. The Garmin GPS is more reasonable, with 6.15 miles and hard-trotting splits of 8:38 + 8:43 + 10:38 (hill!) + 11:34 (hill!!) + 9:03 + 8:52 and final fraction in 73 seconds (8:15 min/mi pace). Two deer peer at passing runners, then dash across the stream. One sports scary-big velvet-covered antlers. Latina girls walk the hill and smile. Fishermen toss lines in the water under the New Hampshire Av bridge. A dripping wet fellow in shorts and singlet ambles along the bikepath.

^z - 2014-06-29