What a Good Idea!

To bike to VA yesterday morning.


I accidentally erased my long post about this. So you will be spared. (ACTUALLY, NO YOU WON'T. I found it. It is the first of this name! Two overly-long meanderings for the price of one!!!! aren't you lucky?!)

But, hopefully, you will see the image I say when I ran over the distance I had planned, on the excuse that I should go to the water stop before turning around, to stay hydrated. The real reason: I hate leaving the other runners, especially when I am having a good run and when I'm actually meeting some of them.

Plus, my new running boyfriend was ahead of me.

But I turned around after Weenie Beenie, and headed back with another guy who was 'going short'.

Sigh. 'Going short'. Just like how they announced it to all the other runners at the beginning of the run.

I'm not sure I like being that person.

The guy I was with was really struggling, so we took it slow. I mean, really slow. Including doing some walking. "I've got to drink some water" was the classic save-face excuse he used. Fair enough: we've all been there. It's not like I am training for anything!

Second-favorite sight, after Weenie Beenie: Under a bridge, before we got back to the Four-MIle Trail, the airport and the Mt. Vernon trail, were spiders. Masses of them, weaving webs between metal bars on the fence that separated the running path from the water.

Hard to see except the glints of the webs in the grey half-light. Wow.

At the very end, after getting lost, we were near enough to the memorial that I took off again. He walked.

Exchanged some words with some cute boys and then jumped on my bike to ride home.

Just in time for some rain. Nice.

after getting home, I realized why bikers tend to wear black bike shorts: my orange skirt had a huge black stripe going up the back, thanks to my too-old bike seat on my ancient custom (original!) Stump Jumper.

It happened on the way back. At least, I hope it did!

14-something run, 8-something bike. Ah.