Missed running yesterday due to work and family demands, so I was determined to run today. Last week was pretty good and I needed to build on that. So, I decided to run about 6mi and I headed out the river trail. Nice day today, not too humid or hot. I had brought clothes in yesterday to run, but since I didn't, I left them at work. The only problem was that I was only planning on doing 3mi max yesterday and so the heavy cotton t-shirt and cotton socks weren't ideal for today's run. Splits: 8:22, 8:18, 8:35, 8:45, 8:51, 9:13, 10:50, 8:51 (.16mi)
I wanted to average about 8:50-9:00 and just keep it easy. I headed out the river trail to the 40th street bridge, which is the 3mi turn around. I knew the trail ended about there (based on looking at Google Maps), but as I got to the bridge, I noticed a biker coming out of a woody area about 200m further up. I decided to investigate since a longer trail would be cool. I ran for another .5mi or so before the trail ended at the access road that runs beside the train tracks. I decided that 7mi was more than enough today and so I left the access road to be explored another day. There was construction on the trail where they had some temporary fencing to keep us runners/bikers from coming into their construction zone. They're so possessive! The crane and the heavy equipment was really cool, but I had to keep going. I guess my doorag didn't pass for a hard hat. After I got past the construction area around the 31st St bridge, I run past the Crew storage/arena/offices/whatever as they were pulling a dragon boat out. That was pretty cool, but the little high school kids there were little _____ and as I was running past they pushed another kid into me. Obviously not from MY kid's school district. I think I held my tongue, but I may have let something slip. Anyways, I kept going. On the way back, the jerks were gone and as I got to the construction area, I continued to press on. After about 150m, I looked up and started wondering why the crane was in the trail. That's when it dawned on me that I was supposed to go between the orange jersey barriers, not into the area marked "construction zone - keep out." I'm slow like that. So I had to stop the watch, jog back around the jersey barriers, and down the trail starting the watch where I had my awakening. I ran until 6.2mi then I took a little walking break (blister had set in) and chatted with a fellow Highmark employee. He was a bit older and was kinda walk/running. After a little bit, I said adios and jogged it back in. It was a good run, aside from the blisters. Those will heal though and I'll live to run another day. :-) I think I've got my daughter on board for running the 5k on Friday night. I've been kind of wishy-washy about it since it's a tough(er) course and although it will be a PR, I had hoped to set a respectable PR on my first 5k. If I finish under 28:00 I'll be happy. lol Since I had an awakening today, I don't know if anyone has ever been to "The Awakening" statue in Washington DC. It's killer! They've actually moved it from where it was in DC to Maryland, but it's still cool. More cool in DC... Here's a few pictures of it from our last trip in 2009 to the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC. 
Yep, that's me sitting on the dude's head.  The family chillin' on the hand. It's hard to get a full picture of the whole sculpture, so you'll have to piece it together in your mind. :-)
 This one is a good one of the upper body. 
Me sitting on the knee. It's actually quite a little challenge to get up there. You gotta run and climb up the side of the lower leg, then claw your way to the top. 
And finally, my big dude sitting on top of the big toe. That gives you pictures of all the pieces of the sculpture. Have fun piecing them together. :-) If you ever get to DC or the Maryland suburbs, you've got to go see this thing. It's awesome!
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