It’s hard to wake up before 6am on a Saturday. It’s hot and you gotta beat the heat. Eighteen miles covers a lot of ground and you get a real feel for the city when you run through it while it sleeps. From Rosslyn, VA we ran across Key Bridge towards Georgetown University. It’s graduation weekend and a few rebels are hurrying home with looks of glee. A right on M street and you’re heading for Pennsylvania Ave, the mainline to the White House. You quickly enter Washington Circle, Foggy Bottom and the GWU campus. The streets are empty.
The Renwick Gallery appears in the distance standing guard over the pedestrian walkway that crosses the iconic North Lawn of the White House. We stop (I’m ashamed to say) to take a selfie in front of the White House. We run past Zaytinya (great drinks, atmosphere and warm bubble bread) on our way to the Capitol, the Supreme Court, Lincoln Park and Eastern Market. On the return, we take Independence Avenue past the Library of Congress towards the National Mall, passing three more Smithsonian Museums before darting up to touch the base of the Washington Monument.
From the Washington monument we run the Reflecting Pool to the Lincoln Memorial then head South to the bottom of Hains Point. At the end we make our last turn and head for home/the car. We’ve been running for over two hours, my legs are tired and we still have four miles to go. A bike passes as close and fast as possible and I spend 5 minutes brooding over how inconsiderate he was. Across Memorial Bridge, past Arlington Cemetery then up the hill to Iwo and the most glorious water fountain ever. I would fight tooth and nail in a County Board meeting for that fountain. I ran 18 miles before 10am on a Saturday. I ran through the city I grew up in and pushed myself to get better. Two weeks until my next race and I hope to cya at the finish line!
Points if you found the Gatsby 🙂
