The Reservoir

"It's not so far. Plus, we can stop and get coffee on the way back."

With that, I persuaded the Vivacious Redhead to go on a run to Lake Montebello, even with the grim Baltimore run of last year bright in her conciousness.

After a great first pass at Artscape the night before, we got up early and forced ourselves to eat a mini Zone bar.

"Ugh. I still feel dinner pushing against my belly!"

But we got them down, filled up my water bottles and strapped on our shoes.

Oh, and we made sure to start before the sun really got up high in the sky. 7:30am is much better than 9:00am in Baltimore in July.

Off we went. Hills, hills hills.

"Oh, Baltimore is flat!" my dad has exclaimed. "Only 500 feet total elevation gain."

That's why you should always look at the actual elevation chart for a race. Kona had only 200 feet total elevation gain, yet was a series of short, sharp brutal hills.

And downtown Baltimore is not too far off of that.

Though hilly, the run uptown was MUCH better than last year's effort. With one major annoyance: the hordes of runners going the other direction.

Now, I'm all for runners. So I'm conflicted about saying this. But there were a lot of them.

At first, Ami and I thought it was one of the largest running clubs we'd ever seen.

"Wow. They sure have a great turnout! And, boy, are those ladies fast!"

But then they just kept coming. And coming. In pockets. Finally, we asked one man huffing by whether this was a charity run.

"No, it's a long run for the Baltimore Marathon."

Interesting. The marathon isn't until October. And we saw some runners coming from the Reservoir. So it was a rather long training run for most people, this early.

Bu that's all information/positives. Here was the problem: people in Baltimore aren't used to seeing a other runners. Especially not going the other direction. And they aren't used to sharing the sidewalk with others, whether runners or walkers. So the personal space bubble is larger. So they run further away from each other. AND WHEN THEY ARE TWO AND THREE ABREAST ON A NARROW SIDEWALK ON A BUSY STREET, THEY DON'T MOVE FOR RUNNERS GOING THE OTHER DIRECTION!

Sorry. Had to get that out. I felt as if I was doing the Gauntlet on American Gladiators. It got to the point where the perienially cheery - and safety-concious - Vivacious Redhead actually said, in an exasperated tone, "Isn't there a bike lane?! No? Let's just run in the parked cars lane."

Once we huffed up the hills to 33rd street, we turned towards the reservoir.

Not the best neighborhood off of Greenmount but, I figured, I do it myself all the time and it's early Saturday morning!

It was fine. And the trees arched over the sidewalk most of the way. Lovely leafy dappled pee-free concrete.

Definitely some things I won't miss about NYC!

Around the reservoir. A beautiful sight: blue waters and flowers. Worth the sun and asphalt.

And, best part of all: after we got back to Charles Street, it was basically downhill until the Starbucks before the Washington Monument. Whee!!!!!!!

We walked the rest of the way. It was a bit over 2 1/2 miles walking and 10 1/2 miles running.

And then more than eight miles additional walking that day. Sunburns and tired calves all around.

Fun.