~7.5 miles @ ~11.9 min/mi

"Does he think we need a ride?" Kerry, Kristin, and I speculate when the school bus turns on its flashing lights and pulls to a stop beside us. "Or maybe he's trying to protect us?" Great Falls St has no shoulder here, so we retreat into a driveway. "Perhaps he's afraid we're irate moms waiting to curse him for missing their kids?"

Kerry is a wee bit sore after Saturday's 21+ miles along Bull Run Trail, and Kristin is still ramping up from hip flexor/psoas injury plus recovering from a bad cough. So of course we overachieve and do a mile more than planned. But it's a lovely brisk December morning, the company is good, and we enjoy the dawn together.

A big dog with glowing green eyes on the W&OD Trail wears a light around his neck. No cyclists zip by us, for a change, and cars are uniformly polite. Kristin runs most of the hills and pulls the rest of us along, except when Kerry takes the lead. I learn some new fox-hunting terminology and we share movie recommendations. Runkeeper records route.

^z - 2015-01-03