Running on the National Mall in the Hot Hot Summer

C- 10ish (9.8?) miles, very slow, early in the AM

Found this on Fast Cory - very entertained :)

Running since the race has been a bit of a journey.  A few days post-race, I tripped on a free weight, and the top of my middle toe has been swelling up and down since.  I didn't run for the first 2-3 days after, when it was surprisingly painful.  Then the swelling went away, and I stopped thinking about it.  Apparently that was a mistake.

Swelling on the top part of your middle toe doesn't sound like a big deal...

This past weekend, D and I did some HILLY, sweaty miles.  They were great workout miles- challenging and much more vertical than my normal running routine.  Then we did some light stretching, and I managed to hurt my toe again... clearly I need to avoid anything that isn't running.

Since our last race, I've also managed to get violently sick, and I've been struggling with the 90 degree DC weather.
Net result = not running my normal weekly mileage.

I was determined to get back to normal miles this morning by waking up early and running something further than 3 miles.  The high for today is 90something, so I set my alarm for 5:30am, with a goal of being out the door by 6am and beating the heat.

bright and hot, hot, hotttttt 

At 6:30am (oops) I was out the door, and started running down to the National Mall.  In the summer the National Mall is usually baking and jammed full of tourists.  However, if you can get your run done before about 8:30am, it's still shady and somewhat-cool.  Most importantly, you won't be stopping for, and weaving around, giant packs for tourists.

Photo Credit- D

Reasons why everyone should get up early at least once to run the mall in the summer:

-it's beautiful when all the trees and plants are in full foliage (in the winter it's a different kind of beautiful)
-it's not yet obnoxiously hot
-there is still some shade and the sun isn't directly above you
-the flatness makes it easier to get in the miles (cause it's still going to be hotter than it should be)
-you can actually check out the monuments without swarms of people around them
-you don't have to stop for traffic frequently
-the sidewalks are not crowded with hordes of tourists
-you can loop around the mall once or a zillion times and not get bored
-it's the National Mall (enough said)

Cheers to running in the summer, and hopefully starting to build up some mileage again!