Start time: 10/12/2015, 5:40 am
Location: National Mall, Capitol Hill, SW Waterfront
Distance: 10.1 miles
Average pace: 9:32 min/mile
Total Miles For October: 29 miles
Total Miles For 2015: 631 miles
Current Shoes: 324 miles

I missed out on a couple of runs, so I made up for it with a Columbus Day 10-miler (since I didn’t have to go into the office and also didn’t have to worry about the parking meters turning on). Originally was going to run part of it with members of the group but it was a surprise solo run; well, unless you count Ira Glass and company in my ears for two episodes of This American Life.

Very, very pleased with this run.

Start time: 9/27/2015, 7:00 am
Location: National Mall, East Capitol Street, Anacostia Riverwalk, Navy Yard
Distance: 10.05 miles
Average pace: 10:35 min/mile
Total Miles For September: 69 miles
Total Miles For 2015: 616 miles
Current Shoes: 289 miles

Avoiding East Potomac Park and that area of the Mall due to a concert, so we hoofed it down to RFK and back via the Anacostia Riverwalk. Isolated but still pretty nice. (Also considering between Sunday and the previous Monday’s run I came down with a cold, getting in 10 miles was a huge victory.)

Start time: 9/19/2015, 7:10 am
Location: National Mall, Georgetown Waterfront, Capital Crescent Trail
Distance: 10.2 miles
Average pace: 10:45 min/mile
Total Miles For September: 52 miles
Total Miles For 2015: 599 miles
Current Shoes: 272 miles

It’d been ages since we just ran up the Cap Crescent Trail and back; what used to be the old standard had become the exception! Lots of “marathon panic” runners out there, all trying to make up the training distance they’d skipped over the summer…

Start time: 9/12/2015, 7:00 am
Location: National Mall, Mt. Vernon Trail, LBJ Park
Distance: 10 miles
Average pace: 10:46 min/mile
Total Miles For September: 28 miles
Total Miles For 2015: 575 miles
Current Shoes: 248 miles

A nice 10 miler (despite a tiny bit of drizzle), and we got to look in on a bit of the setup for Nations Tri (the next morning) as we came back over the 14th St Bridge and up Ohio Drive through West Potomac Park. Now that school’s over, I’d like to eventually add in more biking and swimming and tackle another tri.

Start time: 8/15/2015, 7:00 am
Location: National Mall, Navy Yard, Anacostia Riverwalk, Capitol Hill
Distance: 10.09 miles
Average pace: 10:41 min/mile
Total Miles For August: 54 miles
Total Miles For 2015: 519 miles
Current Shoes: 192 miles

We’ve had a lot of unsuccessful “backwards” runs where we’ve reversed our course and it was semi-disastrous. It was nice for one to work out well for a change! Ran a little bit down to WWII and then headed from there for the Navy Yard/Anacostia Riverwalk/RFK/East Capitol St route.

Start time: 7/25/2015, 7:00 am
Location: National Mall, Rock Creek Park, National Zoo, Dupont Circle, Farragut
Distance: 10.11 miles
Average pace: 10:18 min/mile
Total Miles For July: 73 miles
Total Miles For 2015: 459 miles
Current Shoes: 132 miles

We had a bonus visitor today; Armand’s brother Jason was in town and he was gamely up for a run with us turkeys. We did the National Zoo route, since it would show off a bunch of the city in one fell swoop.

We did have one moment of panic, though. Right after going through Dupont Circle, we saw a dog (italian greyhound?) run down the center of Connecticut Ave, with someone in running gear heading after it, clearly trying to catch it. I ran down our side of the street all the way to M Street, trying to get ahead of the dog so that I could then head in and try to corral it. And while I was making up some good distance on the dog, unfortunately at M Street the traffic was against me crossing and I wasn’t willing to get killed to try and save the dog.

Fortunately, there is a happy ending. When we got the Lafayette Square in front of the White House, we saw that the Secret Service officers there had managed to grab the dog. Phew! Crisis averted.

Start time: 7/11/2015, 6:00 am
Location: National Mall, 7th St, Howard University, Capitol Hill, H Street
Distance: 10.26 miles
Average pace: 10:35 min/mile
Total Miles For July: 38 miles
Total Miles For 2015: 424 miles
Current Shoes: 97 miles

Ran two miles w/ Armand, then we looped around and picked up Ben for the back 8. We took a detour onto H Street on the way back from our Howard route, which worked well, although we did have a close call with a car flying down Maryland Ave. I saw it and shouted out, and Armand managed to grab Ben to keep him from hurtling forward. Excitement!

Start time: 6/20/2015, 6:06 am
Location: National Mall, Howard University, LeDroit Park, Capitol Hill, Navy Yard
Distance: 10 miles
Average pace: 10:22 min/mile
Total Miles For June: 58 miles
Total Miles For 2015: 357 miles
Current Shoes: 31 miles

Learning from our mistake the previous week, we went with a 6am start-time this Saturday. We had a few drop-offs along the route, but for the majority of us, we actually ran the full 10 miles this time through instead of everyone throwing in the towel early. So that’s a real victory.

Start time: 5/16/2015, 6:37 am
Location: National Mall, Hains Point
Distance: 10.22 miles
Average pace: 10:00 min/mile
Total Miles For May: 47 miles
Total Miles For 2015: 253 miles
Current Shoes: 347 miles

The plan was pretty simple: run 4 miles with Armand, then 6 more with Armand and Jerry. It all was going according to plan until near the end; I needed to stop to use one of the bathrooms on Hains Point and I told Armand and Jerry that they didn’t need to wait for me (since they’d already had to do so once before) and which turn to take to get back.

…Except I told them the wrong one. By the time I realized my error there was no way I could have caught them. So in the end, the guys ended up running an extra 1.5 miles. *sigh*

When they showed up, I said, “Is there a German word for when you try to be helpful but instead just cause a huge problem? Because I feel like there needs to be one, so I can use it right now.” Bad, bad, bad Greg.

Start time: 2/7/2015, 7:00am
Location: National Zoo, National Mall, Rock Creek Park, Connecticut Ave
Distance: 10 miles
Average pace: 10:31 min/mile
Total Miles For February: 14 miles
Total Miles For 2015: 61 miles
Current Shoes: 156 miles

Boy, that climb up the zoo was not a pretty one. Out. Of. Practice.