Rock Creek Park, Washington, D.C. From the north end of the parkting lot, north of Military Rd., to the hiker-biker trail paralleling Military Rd., along Military Rd. to Nebraska Rd. to 41st. St. NW, to Van Ness St. to the Glover Archbold Trail, to the Capital Crescent Trail, to Water St. on the new trail paralleling Water St. to the Rock Creek Trail, to Beach Dr. to the parking lot where I started. I used to run this route in the 1990s with some regularity and I called it
Northwest D.C. in my online guide book since it crossed much of that quadrant of DC. I'm confident of the distance despite the GPS coming-up a bit short; when I had put it in my guide book I'd hand wheeled the trails where I couldn't bicycle and I had calibrated my bicycle for accuracy for better than one hundredth of a mile accuracy on other parts.
Taking off, I moved well up the initial climb out of the Rock Creek valley. Going across the rolling and mostly climbing streets to Glover Archbold on the pavement, I was steady. I had some time off the watch at traffic intersections. I was 25 minutes at the top of Glover Archbold. Going downhill on the steeper hills stressed my right knee but I kept a good pace. At the bottom, I was 48:00 at 6 miles for a flat 8:00 minute mile pace. I felt pretty good with that given the climbs but wondered if I went out too fast. I was tempted to run through the new water fountain in Georgetown but I wasn't really hot enough--the temperatures were around 70 F. Tons of people were in the waterfront park in Georgetown and in the parks all over. I took a break (off clock) on the Rock Creek Trail at the C&O Canal Towpath intersection for a Gu and some Gatorade that I'd carried. Feeling good after that, I made my way up the valley pretty well, even feeling stronger up to the climb before the zoo. On Beach Dr., after 13 miles, a guy I was passing did a double-look at me and told me that I looked like I'd gone a long way. I guess it was the dried salt on me. I didn't think I was feeling that bad and was slightly disappointed that I didn't look better too. The overall pace over the distance and hills was pretty good compared to what I've been doing and my knees held-up okay.