Week Four will meet at 7:30 am at Daingerfield Island

Week Four (Aug. 4) will meet on Saturday morning at 7:30 am at Daingerfield Island (Washington Sailing Marina) at MP 12 on the Mt. Vernon Trail just off the GW Parkway south of Ronald Reagan Airport. You can access the parking entrance from either direction. Park over to the left (north) in the paved lot near the comfort station. (After this coming week, we'll move our meeting place to a different location, Fletcher's Boathouse in DC, for weeks 5 & 6).

Week three was a little confused as people were uncertain where exactly to meet. But everyone eventually got hooked up and Matt took the advanced group on a long run south of Alexandria, over seven miles. Linda took her intermediate group on a yo-yo course up to Gravelly Point and then back south past the Marina towards Alexandria. They went from four to five miles. Jeannie took her group somewhere for four miles. A few runners added some distance onto their runs on their own, up to six miles. (Who needs headphones when you could listen to this? Linda's group saw and heard jets taking off from National directly overhead.)

The trail was really crowded with Team-In-Training runners doing seventeen miles getting ready for the MCM, Capitol Hill Runners doing fourteen miles, the Galloway group practicing walking six abreast, and sundry bicyclists and individual runners.

It was also the first really warm day. With the heat of the summer now upon us, we will try to get underway on the actual run each week at 7:30 am sharp. If you're late, you'll just have to catch up! Bring a water bottle too; either learn how to carry a half-liter bottle (16.9 oz) in your hand (fluid weighs a pound a pint) or get a water-carrying belt (fuel belt). Google fuel belt or go to Pacers or another running store.

Remember, this Friday-Sat.-Sunday is sales-tax holiday in Virginia for shoe purchases under $100, and you get at least a 10% discount at most running stores by mentioning that you're a dcrrc member.

The program is now one-quarter over. How are we feeling? You all should be running two (or three) other times a week, two to three miles each time. You could introduce something new to your week if you're already running twice mid-week: a fast mile or two thrown into one of those mid-week runs. This is a version of a tempo run, a mile or two back-to-back or two different miles run at a 10K race pace, preceded and followed by a slower jogging mile again.

Want to map out a route of any distance from the curb in front of your house? Go here, http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ then click on "Hybrid" at the top, enter Washington DC (or Bethesda of Falls Church or wherever you live) and 15 for the magnitude (zoom), and hit Go. Once the satellite image comes up, with a street grid superimposed on it, grab and drag the map any direction until you find your very building. (Click on even greater magnification to make sure.) Maybe you'll see your car on the curb. Or your WaPo in the driveway. Then hit "Record" and start plotting out a run down your street and around your neighborhood, an out-and-back of any distance you want, by pointing the cursor in a straight line down the street (or path) a ways and clicking. The route will be delineated in red, with mile markers, and you can even save and email the eventual route and count calories along the way. Most importantly, it tells you distance traveled.