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How I (almost) broke my friends

December 26, 2018 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
Met up with one my high school teammates and best friends John Biersteker and his girlfriend/my college teammate Julie Macnamera for a little mourning jaunt. Julie has been injured for like 2 years so when they arrived I asked what she was up for and she replied "Anything! I can run!" Fateful last words. I didn't bother to ask John what he wanted, reasoning that he's had more than enough time to recover from his PR-setting marathon 5 weeks ago. Also a faulty assumption. We headed down Rittenhouse into Rock Creek Park and began frolicking on the trails. We took the Western Ridge Trail up past the stables to the Military Road, made a loop around Ft. DeRussy, and then headed down the dirt trail into the park from whence we picked up the trail that hugs the creek on the west side. From time to time we'd reach an intersection or bridge and John would by default start off toward the creek-crossing, but I ignored this and pushed ahead, not ready to loop back, taking us ever farther from home. Eventually, we did cross and then found ourselves up at Carter Baron having overshot the Valley Trail. After tooling around the frost-covered golf course looking for a way down, I eventually had us bushwhack 30 meters back to the trail. I wisely managed to have us finally cross back over the creek at Wise Road. That's when John really started to lag. Julie, however, looked stronger and stronger, no doubt due to years of running up mountains at Williams (though like me, this was a decade ago). Maybe its cause she was raised in the Adirondacks. In any case, John, who was raised in Chevy Chase and went to Harvard had no such deep-rooted muscle memory. Plus, unlike Julie, he actually knew where we were and that we still had several hills ahead and several miles to go. We fought our way up Western Avenue and then back up 33rd street to my house, John lagging again on the final hill. "Wow, Julie. You really look strong," I remarked. "Yeah! This is how I usually get injured!" she replied beaming. "Coming back too fast from rehab and going on really long trail runs." According to my GDS teammate David Orellano, whom I had lunch with the following day, both of them went running with him the next morning and seemed fine, though they insisted on keeping the run to four miles...