First post from the other runner

Brad here.  I've been meaning to get a blog post up here for a while now and thanks to help (aka convincing) from Annie, here I am.  I'm not too sure what to write besides, uh, I like running.  Cool.  K, Bye.

Just kidding.

Anyway it's September now which means less than 7 weeks until MCM.  September is my favorite month of the year for a lot of reasons which are all related to the awesome weather.  It's the month that we reunite with football, Punkin Ale, good friends, and awesome running weather.  I've always told Annie that when you start training for a fall marathon in July you won't believe how great it feels once you hit the road for a COOL long run in September.  Battling 90+ degree heat & DC humidity will all be worth it when the weather breaks in September.  

Well this week we welcomed the fall weather with an early morning 16 mile run from Grovesnor metro to the Lincoln Memorial.  The weather was a perfect 55 degrees and the sun was shining.  We started off running a section of the Parks Half Marathon in Rock Creek Park bandit style (aka without a bib).  This is the second year I've done this race bandit and it's a hoot.  Competitive instincts kicked in and I started racing, running way too fast, as soon as we got on the course (leaving Annie behind).  Eventually Annie let me go, opting to stick back at her comfortable long run pace while I got it out of my system.  Smart move!  

We left the Parks course at the split of Capital Cresent and Rock Creek Park and continued down to Foggy Bottom.  Annie did a great job keeping a comfortable pace and we enjoyed the beautiful day on the way down.  16 miles this week felt easy compared to 14 miles in last week's heat.  The best part for me was hearing Annie say for the first time, "wow I really think I can run a full 26.2!"  The training is starting to pay off and I couldn't be more proud of her.

After the run we grabbed a cab to the Dupont Circle metro stop.  Apparently after running 16 miles walking an extra 1 mile isn't cool.  Also not cool is stinking up a cab then realizing you have no cash and the cab driver doesn't take plastic.  Lucky for us the nice gentlemen from <insert random DC cab company here> gave us a freebie.  We grabbed a gatorade and candybar for some post run fuel and then browsed the Dupont farmer's market before taking the metro home.  

These are the kind of runs that you remember.  

Just finished 16.