16 mile adventure

Saturday’s run was the first run in a few weeks with the sun out.  It was a nice change from all the cloudy dreariness.  The run, however, turned out to be much more of an obstacle course than I was mentally prepared for. 

We ran on the Mt. Vernon trail starting at Roosevelt Island running to Old Town Alexandria and back.  First the hills…I’ve run on this trail before, but not as far and there were way more rolling hills than I thought there would be.  Then the turns…This trail gets pretty windy in places, including some nice switchbacks.  All the rain last week meant lots of puddles and mud to try and dodge.  Once we got down by the river, the trail is unpaved for a bit and that part was definitely a bit worse off from all the rain.  There was lots of “puddle jump!”  Somewhere around 12 miles I was ready to be done.  Somewhere around 14 miles the Aussie cursing came out when we got to yet another lovely rolling hill.  I was so completely ready to stop running when we hit mile 16.

But, all and all, it was a 16 mile adventure which we still managed to complete in 2:50.  Not bad!