~10 miles @ ~11.7 min/mi

Two rabbits seen this morning. David leads Amber, Kerry, Kristin, and me on a new route, down Great Falls St 3+ miles to the W&OD Trail. We begin at the loading dock before dawn, a last-quarter moon high overhead, Sirius low in the east. At Mile 1 we pause, and by flashlight Kerry points out the ridge in the sidewalk that tripped her when last we came this way (2014-09-03 - McLean Dawn Trek). Sidewalks are intermittent after Haycock Rd, so we zigzag across the street to avoid cars. On the W&OD Trail bicycles with brilliant headlights zoom past and other small packs of runners trot ahead. A pink sunrise begins behind us.

We find a water fountain just before the wide "Citizens' Bridge" over Route 7. Testing the tap for the dog water bowl on the side, I trigger a pressure wave that blasts Kerry in the face as she's trying to get a drink. A pair of women run by, training for the Waterman half-Iron triathlon that David did last year. On Broad St we see a concrete statue of a man feeding pigs next to a Don Beyer car dealership. Kerry says, "There's a story associated with that!" I'm reminded of the movie Snatch, in which a murderous character warns "Never trust a man who keeps pigs" and offers a formula for how many pigs are needed to dispose of a body in a given interval of time.

After crossing I-66 on/off ramps and safely back to neighborhood streets, David leads us at Mile 6 on a woodsy natural-surface meander via Lemon Road Park. It's a connector path that he found when off-road biking. Kristin and David take spiderwebs in the face for those who follow. We curve through Olney Park and, back at Magarity Rd, non-members of the Compulsive Clan branch off with 8+ miles. To get our GPS readings past 10, however, Kristin and I do a lap and a half at the McLean HS track, which we have all to ourselves. Long shadows run in front of us at the western end of the oval. Runkeeper records route.

^z - 2014-10-02