Hello Saturday Long Runners!
It's Nate, your faithful ersatz SLR leader, writing again to you this week...I am here for one more week as Anna is returning from Montreal (please, have some poutine and Moosehead for me before you leave)
The weather is not going to be as awful as it was last week, but I still want to retiterate my mantra of "don't be stupid" when it comes to heat! As I wrote last week, listen to your ol' meatbag! If something feels off or you're just not having fun anymore, there is nothing wrong with calling it a morning. No sense making yourself sick or worse just to hit an arbitrary number of miles!
Where Are We Going This Time? It's time for Chain Bridge (strava, gps, pdf)! We'll head west out of Rosslyn, over to Lorcom Lane and north along Nelly Custis Drive. We'll climb the several Military Road hills, the last of which will lead us to the corner of Old Glebe Road, where we'll take a right then a left onto North Randolph Street and a right down the bike path and the big hill to the Chain Bridge. From here we'll enjoy a gradual downhill back to Georgetown and across the bridge to Rosslyn.
Want Less? You know my favorite way to shorten is Metro, but that's not an option today! You can always do an out-and-back on Military. But thar be dragons hills. There are a couple of decent loop options: instead of turning onto Nelly Custis, continue straight on Lorcom to Military (7 miles) or all the way to Glebe (8 miles), then turn left until you hit the Custis trail and return that way. Both of these involve crossing Langston Boulevard, so be careful there! Do note that below Langston, Military becomes North Quincy and Lorcom becomes North Woodstock, because Arlington really likes making its allegedly logical street name system as illogical as possible. (Ever thought about why we start on North Meade, even though it's south of US 50?)
I measured out if you followed the Marymount route but turned left on Glebe to return to Custis -- that is ever so slightly shorter than the full route (~9.5 miles), so probably not worth doing unless you really like those switchbacks. So once you turn onto Nelly Custis, you're committed!
Want More? If you're feeling okay in the heat, you can return via Memorial Bridge (12 miles) or the 14th Street bridges (14 miles -- and fun fact, the one you run on is actually named after George Mason...). Add a mile to each if you choose to return via the full length of the MVT instead of through the cemetery. If you want or need any longer than that, head to Hains and you know what you're doing, I think!
Parched? Speaking of DC features named after inconsequential politicians (see last week's email), there is a water fountain at the entrance to Zachary Taylor Park at the bottom of the first Military hill (~3.5 miles). Fletcher's Cove also has water. Not much else, so I definitely recommend carrying if you weren't going to already.
Swimming Eyeballs? There is a port-a-pot at the entrance to the Gulf Branch Nature Center (~4.3 miles, bottom of the second Military hill). Of course, we will pass Ol' Reliable -- the Fletcher's Cove restrooms -- at around 7 miles!
Happy Running, and have a blast!
-Nate
