Busy day today-- I have a ton of reading to do, and also I have a race in a couple of hours. Not a big race, it's more of a "fun run" to raise money for the Hurricane; I'm doing it with a friend who doesn't want to run fast so it will be a nice run. Yesterday I did the monument loop - that's nearly 5 miles; I've been doing every Saturday for weeks now so you should all be quite proud of me. It's not a bad one, because you have all sorts of different surfaces to run on and different things to see. You cross over the Potomac on the Key Bridge and go onto this bike/run path, which at some points turns into long wooden bridge-trails; then you're running on pavement through wooded areas and then it opens up and you're right next to the Potomac until you get to the Memorial Bridge which connects Arlington cemetary to the Lincoln monument. You run over the Potomac again, which is pretty, and right in front of the Lincoln and across the top of these fancy stone steps up to the monument from the Potomac. Then you curve down and run on the bike path again, on the opposite side of the Potomac and past the Kennedy Center, through part of the GW campus, and onto the waterfront. Then I run up the hill past Erin's apartment in the Papermill (if she's home this is a good time to stop and chat for a minute; the run's almost over anyway), otherwise up the stairs and over the canal bridge, then up more stairs and past the brick walkway by Dean & Deluca's. Straight up to Prospect and over to the Car Barn, and there I am; get to walk the next 2 blocks home. The whole thing takes me about 50 minutes on average, so roughly 10-minute miles. Which I think is pretty darn good for me, for running 5 miles without any rests (except for a couple of stoplights in the first 10 minutes and one at M street by Dean & Deluca's at the very end.

On my 30-40 minute days I have left the canal and have begun to run on Teddy Roosevelt Island. This starts out the same path as the Monument loop, but you turn off after about a mile or so (little more) onto the Roosevelt bridge. The island is really nice for running, because it's mostly a dirt trail in the woods all the way around, but when you hit the marshy part (for about half the island, I guess), there is a fun wooden trail you run on that holds you above the marsh, and it's kinda bouncy and fun to run on. There is lots of scenery on this island too. So now that I have more interesting runs I don't mind doing them as much, cause it gives me something else to concentrate on other than the running itself. I still find it very hard to motivate myself to get out an do it, but I am more and more surprised about how much less difficult it is than I talk myself into. And it seems to be done a lot faster, even though I am running for more time.