I am in the middle of exams right now and had to squeeze my long run in from school. School is right near the National Mall, which I have run around roughly ten million times, so I decided to try out a slightly new route. Down the mall, around the Lincoln and then hang a right and head out through FDR park to East Potamac Park, looping around and heading past the Jefferson*, back to the mall and then back to school. East Potamac Park is amazing and I am sad I have never been out this way before. Within fifteen minutes of getting off the Mall, you leave all the tourists behind and the place turns into a real community park full of the Black, Latino and Asian families that make up most of the population of the city. There is a boardwalk of sorts that runs along the edge of the water with great views of the Potomac and which provided a much-needed breeze off the water on such a warm day. Of course because this park apparently serves Washingtonians more than it serves tourists and senators, the board walk is in awful repair, part of it were so slanted I could barely run on it. But, seeing all the families out for picnics and men fishing off the boardwalk made me appreciate the real city that D.C. can be when you get away from the monuments. I’ll definitely be using this route again.

Now, for the quality of the run itself – it was awful. Yesterday we pushed 90 degrees in D.C. and when I started my run at five o’clock I think the temp was in the high eighties. The fact that I wasn’t really ready for that kind of heat coupled with the awful allergies I have been having the last couple of days meant that by the time I got to around mile eight of the run my stomach was a mess. I had to walk the last half mile for fear that I was going to blow chunks all over the National Mall. Not a pretty scene. I have to figure out a way to get my hydration in order for these long runs cause it isn’t going to get any cooler in D.C. this summer.

The PF I have been fighting bothered me for maybe the first mile of the run and then disappeared, I iced it and massaged it last night and its feeling fine right now. Hopefully I nipped this in the bud and it won’t become a full-fledged injury.

* Walking to the Jefferson is a running joke in my family because of a trip we took to D.C. when I was a child. My mother insisted we walk from the Washington Monument to the Jefferson. Lazy children that we were, we protested. Mom, that’s only ¾ of a mile. I’m sorry I was lazy.