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A second run with a second Julia

July 18, 2019 (Night)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
As I wallowed exhaustedly around the house in the wake of my 3-hour running-bouldering-swimming adventure with Julia Gunther this morning, my parents tried to convince me that I shouldn't feel guilty for having to cancel my plans to run with Julia Ernst this evening. You're already run 12 miles, you're sore, and you're tired they told me. However, I really don't like it when friends cancel plans on me, and I've long since resolved to not be that sort of friend to anyone else. So it was that while I considered calling up Jernst and proposing we just go for ice cream instead, I figured that she'd already put off running this morning in order to run with me and was counting on going for a run, so when the time came I ignored my soreness and chaffing, gritted my teeth, and headed out on tired legs for another bout of punishment. Well, it's hard to really call it punishment when you're running with a good friend, but let's just say my body was not exactly thrilled with the situation.

After practically tackle-hugging me off my feet in the Bethesda Hyatt parking lot (an easy feat given how weak my legs were), Julia warned me that she hadn't been training as consistently as she had would have liked and thus would be a good deal slower than I expected. Moments later, with that same burst of energy that had propelled her to nearly bulldoze me out of my own shoes, she bounded off down Wisconsin Ave at what my hamstrings swore was a 6:30 pace (it was, in fact, at 8:30 pace, but this just goes to show how tired I was). I suggested we set off down the Capital Crescent Trail since this was likely to be relatively free of obstacles and with safe footing even at night. I also, it seems, had it stuck in my head that the woods would always be cooler than running on a busy avenue. Sadly, that logic is not merely irrelevant after sundown but the effects are reversed--the nighttime respiration from the trees adds to the humidity, making the air even more stifling. On Wisconsin, you at least get a fume-filled breeze from a passing SUV now and then. I should add that the CCT was almost pitch black in some places and we had no lights. Fortunately, the bikers coming rapidly toward us did, though we had to watch out for the occasional pedestrians who were as unprepared for the sun's daily absence as we were. I don't think I actually saw Julia's face the entire run.

The way out wasn't so bad since it was mildly downhill. The trail got darker and darker as we ran, but I was feeling better the more distracted I got talking about my final month in Bosnia and hearing about the last few weeks of her Fulbright in Columbia and her new job consulting at BCG in Boston. We finally turned around after 32 minutes shortly before the bridge over the canal and began the long painful slog back up to Bethesda Row. For much of it was I was silently calculating how much farther we had to go and whether I'd be able to sustain that pace we'd egged other on into. The last portion was pretty nice since I had yet to run on the redesigned detour from the water fountain by Bethesda Bagels up toward Wisconsin Ave.

Because I'm me, I figured that as long as I was going to do a run I might as well make it 7.5 miles so I could say I ran 20 for the day. And Julia being Julia, when we got back to the car and saw we'd run 7.8, there was no choice but to run down the Firehouse corner and back to make it a full 8 miles (8.1 is what her watch ultimately read). After walking Julia back to her hotel, I stumbled off to my parents' car in a dazed stupor and drove home, unable to think of anything except water. I drank about 6 glasses in the first 20 minutes I was home. Later, as I was stretching with my foot perched up on the granite kitchen counter, my toenail fell off.

Now it's past midnight and though the of running 15 miles with Jacob Gaba on Saturday morning is somewhat distressing, I feel happy and incredibly satisfied. We ran good today - me and both Julias.