Exorcising
I've always enjoyed running in DC. Have a pretty much unlimited number of great options, from totally urban to some surprisingly un-urban trails right smack in the middle of all the chaos.
Being assigned elsewhere, it's been about 4 years since I did any real running here; in the last couple months I've started getting back out there again. Did one of my staple runs today, with a bit of a twist.
Felt pretty crummy this morning, haven't been sleeping all that well for a few nights. But the two Army guys in my office, a Staff Sergeant and a Major, were heading out to run to Lincoln Memorial and do a few repeats on the stairs just above the Potomac. So I dragged myself along. We did 6-8 stair repeats, then the Major and I decided to continue on toward Georgetown and the Key Bridge; along the way, he asked if I wanted to run the stairs from the Exorcist movie- he'd seen them but never run them. It'd been a while, so I thought, why not?
Things have changed a bit along the river, mostly for the better with new sidewalks/trails and better access- but the road crossings are still like Frogger with consequences...
We ambled over toward Georgetown along the river, which is still running higher than I remember in 11 years. I peeked into the Washington Canoe Club, where I'm a member but haven't been inside for three years after being away, and thumped up the wooden staircase to the C&O canal, right into the canal boat being towed by two horses for tourists and historians. Good thing the railroad won that race...
We crossed over and found the staircase, the long one from the movie, and skipped up to the top. It's probably about a 70-80 foot vertical, maybe a hundred feet, but pretty steep, in three pitches. Mark commented that he thought someone wrote the speed records on the steps somewhere, so of course we had to look around...
At the top are three numbers... #758, #750, #743 if memory serves. 7.50 seconds? We had to do a test and see if it's possible - we figured it took about 20 seconds for us to get up there... so Mark went to the bottom and I timed him half-way - about 6.5 seconds, and he was moving pretty fast... so could someone actually do the climb under 7.5 seconds? I'd like to see that.
The rest of the run was relaxed, back over the Key Bridge and along the south side of the Potomac, past Roosevelt Island and to the Pentagon. A quick set of upper-body calisthenics, a little socializing, and back to work... I think it was about 6.5 miles.
But who really cares when it's that nice outside? Sometimes you just need to enjoy the ride... or run...
Being assigned elsewhere, it's been about 4 years since I did any real running here; in the last couple months I've started getting back out there again. Did one of my staple runs today, with a bit of a twist.
Felt pretty crummy this morning, haven't been sleeping all that well for a few nights. But the two Army guys in my office, a Staff Sergeant and a Major, were heading out to run to Lincoln Memorial and do a few repeats on the stairs just above the Potomac. So I dragged myself along. We did 6-8 stair repeats, then the Major and I decided to continue on toward Georgetown and the Key Bridge; along the way, he asked if I wanted to run the stairs from the Exorcist movie- he'd seen them but never run them. It'd been a while, so I thought, why not?
Things have changed a bit along the river, mostly for the better with new sidewalks/trails and better access- but the road crossings are still like Frogger with consequences...
We ambled over toward Georgetown along the river, which is still running higher than I remember in 11 years. I peeked into the Washington Canoe Club, where I'm a member but haven't been inside for three years after being away, and thumped up the wooden staircase to the C&O canal, right into the canal boat being towed by two horses for tourists and historians. Good thing the railroad won that race...
We crossed over and found the staircase, the long one from the movie, and skipped up to the top. It's probably about a 70-80 foot vertical, maybe a hundred feet, but pretty steep, in three pitches. Mark commented that he thought someone wrote the speed records on the steps somewhere, so of course we had to look around...
At the top are three numbers... #758, #750, #743 if memory serves. 7.50 seconds? We had to do a test and see if it's possible - we figured it took about 20 seconds for us to get up there... so Mark went to the bottom and I timed him half-way - about 6.5 seconds, and he was moving pretty fast... so could someone actually do the climb under 7.5 seconds? I'd like to see that.
The rest of the run was relaxed, back over the Key Bridge and along the south side of the Potomac, past Roosevelt Island and to the Pentagon. A quick set of upper-body calisthenics, a little socializing, and back to work... I think it was about 6.5 miles.
But who really cares when it's that nice outside? Sometimes you just need to enjoy the ride... or run...
posted by d2g at
11:52 AM
2 Comments:
Wleome back. I almost gave up on your blog and removed it from my "Interesting Blogs" folder.
Thanks Mitch - my plan is to incorporate what I'm doing and learning about training and other random things along the way - helps that I have access at work which I lacked on the ship.
Stay tuned!
Hope your training is going great!
My 'New' long-distance training heart rate strategy. Average HR goal = 180 - age.
More to follow on why... ;-)
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