Saturday, June 2nd - 7 miles - I had one of those "what am I doing moments?" this morning. Well, to be honest, that's not quite right. It was about 5:45 am. The sun was up but barely and the moment was more "what am I doing up?" Oh yeah, I'm the nut whose going to bike a mile over to the Waterside Mall and run 7 miles.

This week I took the little camera:

When we arrive in the mornings, we get the news of the day from coach Matt.

And out we go . . . .

JUST ONE MORE MILE!!!!

I'm sure that sign started out beautiful.

Here's the group! And the inside of the metro because that's how you get home when your bike tire goes flat.

Saturday, June 9th - 8 miles - Oh, it was soo hot. I kept hoping for rain but all I got was sweat. That was a hard run. I have been fighting a cold all week and wasn't up for even our pace this morning. Luckily one of the group was willing to run slow with me. I plugged through. Bike tire was flat again, grrrr.

Saturday, June 16th - 10 miles - Our first, 2 mile jump. I felt much better than the 9th. We ran all the way to Georgetown this week. EEK. I am afraid we are going up the crescent trail all the way to Bethesda. EEK EEK. At least that's not for a few weeks.

When we set out it was a fine morning. By mile 5 we had a light drizzle. By mile 7 it was a deluge. I discovered that the red thread in my water bottle pouch leaks. By the end of the run, my legs, my socks, my shoes and the back of my pants were all hot pink. Oh, well. At least I wasn't hot.

Tuesday, June 25th - 12.7 miles - We were at a wedding in New Hampshire on Saturday when the crew was running in DC. I planned to run 12 miles through the Talcott Mountain Reservoir in West Hartford by myself on Tuesday. Amazingly, Mac got up at 5:45 to come with me. He met me at checkpoints with water.

Good thing for morale too because running on bumpy, hilly trails in CT is tougher than smooth gravel paths in DC. I had referenced my father-in-law's USGS topographical map and tried to pick out the flattest parts but apparently there is a lot of variation within 100 feet of elevation. I was ready to quit at 8.25 miles but my running conscience, Mac (he shoves me out of bed on running mornings too), said "but you haven't run 12 miles yet". So on I went. I was circling reservoir 6 at the very end and it turned out to be a little longer than I expected. However, compared to the piece of trail I was on before, it was smooth as glass and was the easiest segment of the run.