Snakes on Country Roads

My right leg was very sore during/after my run on Friday, which was strange because on Thursday (the day after my workout) I felt fine. I think it was a result of over doing it on the stretches Thursday night. Either way, it’s a constant reminder that I need to keep an eye on the leg(s).

I only ran 7 on Saturday as a result of how I felt on Friday. I hit up TR Island with PMurphy before finishing up on the towpath. My leg felt okay; not great, but not bad either.

On Sunday Karl and I met Benedict Sloane out at Edward’s Ferry. Initially, Karl and I wanted to get in a hard 20 miler, but it would have been foolish for me to run 20, let a lone a hard 20, after feeling the way I did on Friday. Additionally, Karl was beat from a few nights of poor sleep and hard days, so twenty, whether slow or hard, was out. Still, we got in a great run. We ran one loop of the “Duel (sic) Ferries” circuit and during the River Road section we encountered two black snakes warming themselves along the road’s edge. Fearing the tires of a dilapidated Ford pick-up truck ending its life, I tried to usher the first snake off the road…only to be greeted by a quick head-turn and a hiss. I didn’t want to help that bad. The second snake we spied was even larger, but Sloane was getting tired of our antics and yelled, “Do we need to stop every time we see a snake?” Soon we were back on our way. Our pace, naturally, quickened on our way back to the parking lot and when we got there we decided to U-turn and head back two miles in the other direction down River. We were humming along quite quickly during the last 5 miles of the run, getting down to 5:20 pace near the end.

The weather was damn near perfect for long run and the surrounding countryside is breathtaking this time of year. I think this area (Riley’s Lock included) is my favorite spot to run in all of greater-DC, even better than Rock Creek Park. I could run here everyday. This coming weekend I’m going to go back and try a NEW LOOP Sloane turned me on to.