Running (Terrain) 24:11 [3] 2.34 mi (10:20 / mi)
slept:7.0 weight:177lbs
Northwest Branch Park. From the Trolley Museum parking lot, I went on an exploratory run going basically counter clockwise, though I did a small loop at the extreme north end making it a figure eight. There are a lot of open fields in the park and very few trails. At one point, I popped out on the trolley tracks and found the quiet train coming at me. This area would be fun for a local meet because the woods along the perimeter are a nice mix of open and light green flood plain with some hills, boulders and ditches. However, one would have to watch out for thorns which are scattered in the fields and established at many forest edges. Alas, this is yet another park doomed to be disrupted by the new inter-county (ICC) connector road sometime in the next 2 years. The ICC will cut out a good portion of the nicer woods slicing-up the south of the park. Even the areas south of Bonifant Rd. will be disrupted. On the loop, I did go past the new trolley station and areas where a planned mock-up of Connecticut or Wisconsin Ave. is to be made.
I ran with my 2007 Christmas present from Peggy, a Garmin Forerunner 305. I like the way it worked and wished I'd used it the day before. It locked onto satellites much quicker and seemed to track at a much better level of granularity. This was a nice recovery run from the longer and hillier run yesterday. It was also rather warm out.
After the run, Peggy, Max and I rode the trolley over a 1.9 mile route. It never went very fast, didn't hold a lot of people and wasn't as smooth as our metro trains but it was relaxing. It's hard to imagine decades past when the trolleys went up and down the road and past horse drawn carriages only two blocks away from where we live. The ride did give a feel for it. After the ride, we went looking at open houses.