It is SO on

At long last, we are back in DC today after yesterday's evening arrival. We (me, John, and BOTH dogs) are houseguests at my friend Amelia's just outside the city. Last night we enjoyed a delicious feast of her fab chili and David's apple pie whilst exhanging festivus treats. We all awoke this morning to a leisurely breakfast and then Amelia, Tilley, Pazzo and I made a beeline for my favorite locale - Rock Creek Park - to meet up with JoMarie and Rich. David, Oleander, and Laika stayed home. John headed to Bethesda to meet up with his pal Ed, and once we hit the Park, Rich was off on a ride so the girls (and Pazzo!) were left to our own devices.


Before Rich left however, he was entertained with the free peep show....me changing tights in the parking lot from the thin ones I was wearing to the thicker ones Jome had just scored for me half off at Spokes. Amelia did a fabulous job of creating the standard makeshift dressing room, but also had me laughing so hard I am sure I was mooning the @$&* out of the trail runners on the other side of the road. Good times.

We started out -- at about 43 degrees and with laden skies -- at the lot just north of the police station and ran north on Beach Drive, with the goal of getting in a little road time before hitting the trails. Tilley was beside herself with excitement to be running, much less to be running in my Rock Creek, about which she has heard me prattle on ad nauseum.

It was fantastic. There are runs that are tough, runs that just are, good runs, and great runs.



This was a great run.

The trail itself was easy, and we only had to be careful along one or two stretches where it was either on a slick bank, or where it had a bog crossing with boards (Tilley preferred the slog-directly-in method of crossing). By the time we got off the trail and back on to Beach Drive, Tilley and Pazzo had settled into a rhythm, and the three of us girls were deep in conversation, per the tradition. We kept a nice pace and made it up and over the first gated hill in good time, so we pressed up towards the stables to the second gate.


Just as we turned around, it started to rain a bit.



And then it REALLY rained. We had a fun run on the way back with all the rain - and the cold - and the mud - and it was weird; I felt like I could have run for days and days and days. Once we got back into the woods we let the dogs off leash and Tilley had a BLAST. For most of the run back, it was runner-dog-runner-dog-runner, and Tilley kept looking back to check on me. She's a good dog.


After a few pics (and me picking up a rock to add to the loosely self-defined 'memorable natural items' collection on my desk at work which so far includes a coaster John made out of a Live Oak branch that fell on SSI, pieces of driftwood from SSI, The Chattahoochee, and a run back in May with Jess on Haines Point, and a piece of moss on a rock from Mark and Randy's cabin in July), we got back to the car to find one wet Rich. We were all SOAKED, and Tilley had half the silt from Rock Creek stuck under her belly in oddly tidy stalagtites. I took her down to the creek for a quick dip n' rinse, which she lamented was "not nearly as warm as the Chattahoochee!" After the run I felt fantastic...that's two 5 mile runs in 4 days...it is so on :).


As if that wasn't enough, there was more. :) After a quick change and dropoff of the dogs, Amelia and I met Jome at the Mothership for Amelia to get an iPod Nano so we can all track our runs online together. I also upgraded to an armband at Jome's recommendation since my nano-in-the-pocket approach was suboptimal. We then went to Lululemon Athletics where I tried on about $500 worth of swank athleticwear...and then was very good and only got out with one on sale jacket and adorable pink run skirt for under $80 all told. After a quick stop in the wine shop we headed to Tandoori Nights for an early dinner and belated run refueling and had an AMAZING meal...The chat papri was sublime and had a secret ingredient of a touch of mint...the Raj Kachori was a new treat and stellar...there were other fine specialties but writing more details will just make me hungry again :). Let's see....what fun can we cook up for tomorrow morning???