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Misery loves the company of Sarah and Katherine

June 6, 2020 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
It’s the time of year with my desire to sleep in comes into direct conflict with the weather. I bravely suggested we run 8:45, literally the crack of dawn by summer Saturday standards, but Sarah Pillard opted for 9:00 and then showed up at Katherine Treanor’s house at 9:10. The consequences were exactly what you would predict. To be fair, it probably would not have been much better unless we’d been willing to run at an Anthony time of day (which we are decidedly not!). The temperature and the humidity were in the 80s from the get-go, and we were NOT prepared. Did I eat or drink anything before I left? Hmmmm...

We started down Leland Street so I could show Katherine how to get to the trails of Rock Creek from her house, then turned right at Candy Cane City and headed up the Western Ridge Trail into the DC part of Rock Creek Park. The run started to get challenging around mile two but it was when we were six miles from home that doing a long run really started to seem like a questionable decision to have made. Luckily, unlike last time, I remembered to ask Katherine and Sarah before we started how long they want to run, so that when we all started to feel miserable we could share the blame equally!

We had some great conversations about Brown‘s decision to eliminate its varsity men’s cross country and track program, Sarah‘s participation in Black Lives Matter protests in the past week, the amazingness of senior week that current GDS seniors are missing out on, title IX, racial justice, my own boneheaded Facebook posts, the college experience in other countries versus the US, TikTok, living with parents during corona, the Augur Bit, Sarah’s successful push to institute caps and gowns at GDS graduation three years ago, what makes our alma mater unique and special, various teachers we’d had in common 12 years apart, tetherball, swimming pools, how nice rock creek feels but oh crap I’m about to be swept away, why haven’t our clothes dried yet, water fountains, the fountain in Chevy Chase Circle which sadly is turned off right now, where there might be another water fountain within a reasonable distance of us, whether it was worth drinking out of that muddy puddle, whether my parents could come meet us with water bottles RIGHT NOW...

I don’t think I was dangerously dehydrated (never felt any of the symptoms besides thirst at least), but just felt sapped of strength by the humidity and heat. I don’t know how I would have completed this run without Sarah and Katherine. You guys are the best!

Also, the Treanors have a full size flag pole in their yard. Like taller than their house. Very weird. Were the previous homeowners planning to operate a school or car dealership on this property? We discussed whether it could be used for tetherball pole as we (okay, me) gulped water directly out of the Treanors’ hose (Sarah and Katherine who are far more civilized than I used it to fill their cups).