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Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo

December 22, 2018 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
Did a CRAZY run with Julia Ernst and, for the middle 6-8 miles, David Begreen. Started off at Fletcher's Boat House, ran across town on Reservoir Road to meet David at the Q Street Bridge, ventured down a steep embankment into the park and then up towards the zoo tunnel. When we got to the zoo David said he hadn't been in years and it was mutually agreed upon (okay, Julia claims it was my idea) to run through the zoo and look at the animals as we passed. The upshot was that we spent the next 45 minutes going into every exhibit from the Monkey House the Amazonia, making faces at the sea lions and orangutans, taking selfies with the panda and Chinese Alligators. We exited at the top on Connecticut Ave and headed downtown. After the Duke Ellington Bridge, we said goodbye to David in Adams Morgan and then ran back to Fletcher's Boat House along a route I've longed to take but rarely found myself in the right place to venture on: all the cross-town parks! That's right! I successfully managed to string together Normanstone Park, Dumbarton Oaks, the Whitehaven Trail, and Melvin-Hazen till we finally popped out in Battery Kemple at the exact instant that Ilana Zeilinger was running by! We joined her for a mile and then when she turned back at MacAurther we struggled to find a way down to the canal, eventually ending up on the old trolley trail. Julia, noting that this was her longest run ever (breaking a record she and I had set last spring), briefly considered adding on four more miles for an even 20 but then decided she and I could put that off till Wednesday (given how tired my legs were I doubted this would come to pass but I kept my thoughts to myself). We stretched and said goodbye after which I drove home and spent the rest of the day feeling tired, though not so tired that I couldn't meet up with two college friends and Washington Post friend of ours at the U.S. Botanical Garden to look at the model trains. Model trains and the zoo in one day! Sounds like a good way to spend winter break.