Mt. Vernon Trail

Our UAB (unaccompanied air baggage) arrived on Saturday, and with it came our jogging stroller.  S and I couldn't WAIT to get out on the road and run together, so first thing Sunday morning we were lacing up our sneakers and hitting the pavement. 

I'll be honest.  We hadn't quite done what we said we were going to do--that is, each set off on our own to discover our individual running routes--but that was simply because it was so dang hot last week (seriously, I think it hit 100+ three days in a row) and we were exhausted when we got home each evening, that we just didn't have the energy.  But we're back in the groove now.  And we have discovered what I think will become our regular route, the Mt. Vernon Trail.

The Mt. Vernon Trail is roughly 18 miles long and starts in Rosslyn, Virginia and extends down along the Potomac (on the Virginia side) to George Washington's home, Mount Vernon.  Hence the name.  S and I had no idea such a lovely trail was right outside our doorstep until we stumbled upon it the other day while walking our dog.  

Sunday morning was a bit overcast with a threat of rain, and very high humidity, but the trail did not disappoint.  We entered the trail near our apartment in Crystal City and when we hit the fork in the road, headed toward Washington, D.C. rather than Alexandria.  The trail took us past Reagan airport, where E had a wonderful time pointing out all the airplanes during take-off and landing,  and up toward our turn around point at the 14th Street Bridge.  In the distance we caught glimpses of the Capitol building and the Washington Monument, which as a history nerd I thought was pretty freaking amazing.  S got a little annoyed that I whipped out my iPhone to take a picture, but he'll thank me when he has all these amazing photos to look at in the nursing home one day. 

All in all it was a great run.  While we definitely saw that the trail is rather popular with cyclists, we still had good running company. And we only did four miles, but we plan to run farther next time.  My only complaint was the lack of water along the route.  If anyone familiar with this run knows where the water fountains are located, please let me know.  We're glad we took a water bottle with us, and even happier we packed our fuel belts in UAB.  I'm not gonna lie.  The idea of doing the full 18 miles for my next long marathon training run really excites me.  Or heck, maybe one day I'll get super ambitious and attempt the full 36-miles round trip!



Dreary day.  Beautiful view.