17.99

Spencer was in town for a family event.  I begged off Saturday morning to recover from a fast-moving head-cold and joined him at 24th and M this morning at 6:40.  Traditional runningprofs runs seem to be 8-10 miles and casual.  Spencer is 5 weeks out from the Chicago marathon, however, so his plan was 18.  With a long run of 10 for 2014, and that several weeks past, I gulped . . . and agreed. 

We circled north and east to 21st and N, Spencer's old digs from long ago, and then headed further north to P to get into Rock Creek Park.  South to the river and southeast to Memorial Bridge, from where we saw the start of the Nation's tri -- er, du -- athlon.  (When water quality is bad they cancel the swim.  That apparently happened today after last-night's storms.)

Across Memorial Bridge and south along the Mt. Vernon Trail, enjoying the breeze coming off the Potomac.  We passed National Airport and circled Daingerfield Island (the restaurant used to be called Potomac Landing; it has a new name, but I last ate there more than a decade hence), continuing on to the northern edge of Alexandria.

And back.  Returning we skipped the island and crossed into DC at the 14th Street bridge, dodging racers in a few course-crossings before we found our way to the Mall at the hidden DC WWI memorial.  Past the Korean War memorial and around the Lincoln, where we once again found the bike trail by the river, passed Thomson's Boat House and ran past Washington Harbor underneath K Street.  At 33d we climbed the hill to M Street, following it to Pennsylvania and back east to 25th.  And a block or two north until Spencer's iPhone app said 18 miles -- the day's goal.

The return went through DC, but my mapping program makes that inconvenient to depict.

When the computer-generated voice read off the stats, it turned out we had covered a mere 17.99 miles!  Good news, however; Spencer had at least 1/100 mile to go to get back to the hotel.