Hello Saturday Long Runners!
Incredibly fitting route for this week considering the forecast for tomorrow! Get out your rain jackets and be prepared to be covered in falling cherry blossom leaves, which will hopefully still be on the trees for a little while once we get to the title basin. Now let's get into it:
The Route: As is tradition during peak bloom (or in our case 6-days-past-peak-bloom), tomorrow we'll be running the Water Route (strava, gps, pdf). We'll head down through Georgetown and over to Hains Point where we'll be treated to some rainfall that may get mistaken for snow with all the cherry blossom leaves blowing around. From here we'll head around the tidal basin and across the 14th Street Bridge to return to North Meade Park.
Want Something Shorter? Abandoning the tidal basin will cut off a little over a mile, skipping Hains will cut another three, so if you do both you'll be down to 8 (but you will miss all the cherry trees). The Smithsonian Metro stop is close by if you want to avoid running up the hill at the cemetery.
Need a Longer Route? Adding extra loops around Hains makes for some great speedwork opportunities and some extra time with the cherry trees. Adding on a loop of the Mall, an out and back on the Mount Vernon Trail, or an extra loop around the tidal basin will also get you a few more miles!
Thirsty? Thanks to Jerry for pre and post run drinks tomorrow! As the weather gets warmer, we're going to need more drink volunteers both during and after our runs, consider helping out and getting those Snowball Series volunteer credits. Despite its name, the water fountains along this route haven't been turned on as of this week (however we could get lucky)! Bring water for tomorrow!
Need a bathroom? Lincoln, Jefferson, and Washington (Monuments) all have bathrooms that should be open in the morning when we get there. There are also a plethora around Hains point, some of which will certainly be closed when you need them the most.
Brackets Already Busted? Well we've got the solution for you! Starting today and running until the end of March Madness, we'll be doing the first annual SLR Madness competition. 32 Routes split out by location (Northwest, Northeast, Southwest, Southeast), but only one route can be named champion. Look for polls across our social media (Instagram, Facebook) over the coming days and vote for which route is your favorite! I've been trying for a while to think of a good way to measure what sort of routes people enjoy the most in a way that isn't "take this list and rank them", so the information from here will also be used to help inform future SLR route choices (but don't worry, I know the regions are a little top heavy in some cases and we'll certainly be running all of these routes in the future). Make your predictions, argue why your favorite route shouldn't have been a seventh seed, and wait for that Oakland-Kentucky (or in our case Cathedral Clintons over the Big Loop) upset!
Happy Running!
Anna
