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!!!!! Conquer the storm !!!!!

August 12, 2014 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
I'm sitting here, picking little pieces of grass from my watch and scrubbing off some serious mud and feeling exhilarated from my run. I met up with Matt S. at Arizona and Macarthur. From there, we ran to Loughborough, onto the CCT, to Bethesda, through the tunnel, back on Wisconsin to Western to Wetherhill Rd.
Here's where stuff got really crazy. I forgot to mention, the entire run it had been POURING rain nonstop. We ran down Wetherhill to Westwood then found 2 ft of a gravel trail that led to a swamp (that had once, perhaps, been a trail) which took us to a fence right along the dalecarlia resevoir (which was beautiful! I'd never seen it before like that). From there, we bushwhacked a bit, considered jumping over a barbed wire fence, did some crazy loops around a neighborhood, and eventually found our way to the Little Falls Trail. But really, it was the little falls river at this point. We got to the little bridge and the water was mere inches from the bridge. On the other side, the trail descended a bit and Matt and I enjoyed swimming along the trail for a bit. Finally, we joined back up with the CCT, made our way to Potomac ave to enjoy a gorgeous view of the river, then made it back to our meet-up point. Matt, being matt, dropped me off at my car then continued on his way, running back home.

Whewh. I felt so awesome basically the entire run. The rainstorm, the crazy explorations, and the great company on this run resulted in my feeling like the entire run was just one exhilarating adventure. And though there were certain moments where I felt tired, or worried about my stomach hurting, or doubted if I could run all the way home, all these fleeting thoughts and concerns were quickly replaced by excitement and glee at finding another gem on this run. As a result, we kept an honest pace the whole time, minus perhaps wading through the swamps and swimming. My advice: whenever there's a rainstorm, find a friend and go for a long run!

I had a really hard time plotting some of the run, but I think this is basically it: http://www.runningmap.com/?id=772382