Takoma Run: Mid-city Trail Running

 I almost forgot to post this one! I ran it two whole weeks ago. So without further ado, I present to you: Takoma Station!

It's not a very exciting station.

This is your basic two-track, one-platform station on the Red Line. It was one of the first Metro stations opened in 1976. This station serves both Takoma Park, MD AND the Takoma, DC neighborhood. They're not the same place, something it took me a while to figure out.

The platform looks like every other platform.

The station itself is down a couple of escalators and seems to be pretty much under construction.

I just noticed that painting, but I don't think it is part of the station. I think it is across the street.

I headed off on my run, actually in the opposite direction of home, but there was a dog park a couple of blocks away that I wanted to check out. It was disappointing though because there were only two dogs wandering around.

My route that day cut through Rock Creek Park on the Valley Trail. I love running through Rock Creek Park so much because even though it is in the middle of the city, it can seem like you are completely alone in the woods. I mean, if I were dumping a body, I'd do it here. 

You can see the road there in the middle of the photo, but once you're a quarter mile in you're alone.

This is my route map, which shows my path through the park. The dotted part indicates that it is trail, but doesn't differentiate between dirt and asphalt.

I ran  bottom to top.

I don't do a lot of trail running, largely because it's easier to find a road to run on than a trail, but also because I am prone to tripping on things and I feel as if it would be a lot easier to lose a tooth on a rock or break a shin on a log out there than on a sidewalk.

That said, I might have to do more of it, because good lord it is beautiful out there.

I mean...

Many of the Rock Creek Park trails converge and dump out at the DC/Maryland line, which is about two or three miles from my house. This trail did as well. The trail turns into asphalt when you enter Maryland and it is much closer to roads and also a route I run so often that I could run it with my eyes closed. You know, if I wasn't likely to trip on the first crack in the trail.

I passed another dog park, but there were no dogs there either. Fortunately, the trail to my house passes a horse stable, so at least I got to see some large mammals.

They fetched nothing, however.

I also saw these ducks.

They are rarer than dogs in my neighborhood, so I felt pretty good about them.

That's about it. It was a pretty chill little run--one that I could see myself taking again. I do like the elevation map even though it is fairly misleading. That big drop was from the road into the park, and it really wasn't as dramatic as this chart makes it seem.

But look! I ran a mostly uphill slope and didn't complain about it! Too much.

 

STATS:

Metro station: Takoma
Line: Red Line
Distance: 6.39 miles
Time: 1:18:26
Pace: 12:16/mi
Crow sightings: One! 
Interesting tidbit: I ran into my friend Vickie partway through my run, which not only gave me an excellent opportunity to chat with her, but a nice pause in my run.

How the Half Marathon Turned Out

 It didn't.

Remember how I was all, "I'm running a half marathon!" And then I was like, "Running long distances is hard," and finally I said, "I don't think I want to run a half marathon."

Well, the week after that last statement I tried to run from my house to the West Hyattsville station, which would have been 12 miles, but I didn't make it. My legs weren't having it and I had to call Alex to pick me up. He showed up with pickles and Diet Coke and drove me home while I thought about my musculoskeletal system and how I think it needed more time to prepare for 13 miles. 

So...I pivoted, downgraded from the half marathon to the 5k distance and crushed it!

The half marathon medal was way cooler. :(

I still plan to run more half marathons and one day I really, really wanna run the NYC Marathon, but I'm going to build up a little more slowly. No fear though, I'm still doing Project Crow. I did a run last weekend and will have a post up about it soon!

Smithsonian Run: I Don't Really Want to Run a Half Marathon

Remember my last run when I said I wouldn't be running Connecticut Avenue again any time soon? Well, just one week later (I did this run a couple of weeks before writing this post), I was back on Connecticut. This time, however, I was running the opposite direction. 

See, I decided that I was torturing myself by insisting on running to my neighborhood from Metro stations, so I made an executive decision that I could also run from my neighborhood to Metro stations. My project, my rules, right?

That is why I set off from my home on February 26 and ran DOWN Connecticut into DC. My goal: The Smithsonian station.

Fun fact: I was on the wrong platform.

Before we get there however, I would like to tell you that a mere mile and a half from my home, I found this here crow trying to collect some materials from a construction barrier. My presence and fumbling for my phone camera scared him off the ground into a tree.

He was doing crow stuff.

Here is my route into DC. It's that long, straight orange line again.

And check it -- my elevation graph was so much more pleasant this time. It was nice to get most of my uphills out of the way in the first few miles.

Right at the DC line there is a traffic circle. As I was waiting to cross a street, I ran across a couple with two tiny dogs. "Look at you, champion," the man said, nodding toward my hydration vest, warm morning outfit, and clearly badass running self. That's right, I thought: I AM a champion.

But to where was this champion running and into what? Well, she was running to this escalator entrance to the Smithsonian Metro station that is located on the National Mall. If you're headed to one of the Smithsonian museums, you're probably headed to this Metro station.

Who in the world is Carmen E. Turner?

This station is dedicated to Carmen E. Turner, something I learned as I was traveling down into the station. It turns out that she served as General Manager of WMATA in the 80s, when it was named the nation's best public transportation system by the American Public Transit Association. I know. There was a time when people praised Metro. Who woulda thunk it? Ms. Turner was the first Black woman to lead a major public transit agency. She moved on from Metro in 1990 to become Under Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. What an incredible woman who I'd never heard of and what a very appropriate dedication. 

The station itself is a regular ol' two-platform station on the Blue, Orange, and Silver Lines.

I swear that this isn't the same photo from my McPherson post.

This station was built in the 70s after some controversy. The station had been planned, but the National Capital Planning Commission decided that the station entrance near the museums would impinge upon the National Mall view and WMATA very sneakily, without notifying anyone outside of Metro's core planning group, eliminated the entrance, then claimed that since no one had commented on this change, it was aaaaallll good.

The Smithsonian and a couple other organizations formed a strong coalition in favor of the Mall station entrance and WMATA was all, "That's cool, but the money we already said we'd use for this station has now been used for other stations so if you want this thing, you're going to have to raise the funds yourself."

In 1972, after some pretty hard lobbying, Congress passed a law that, among other things, provided almost $8 million for this station entrance (and the Arlington station). And thus it was that I was able to descend the elevators directly from the mall between museums into the Metro.

So back to the running. I was about 7 miles into my run when I started to think, "Do I really want to run a half marathon?" I was about 8-1/2 miles in when I determined, "No, I really don't want to run a half marathon." You guys, running is hard. My mileage increase has been faster than I'd been planning. I'd originally wanted to run a fall half marathon, but Alex suggested this March one and stupid Past Jean hopped on board like an asshole.

I spent a couple of miles really cursing out Past Jean and Alex From All Times. But then I got into DC and running in DC is just always really lovely and fun. There is so much to look at and it's mostly flat and my half marathon is in DC, so maybe it won't be so bad. 

Present Jean is cautiously optimistic.

I took a reverse tour of some of the sights from my last run from McPherson Square, including Black Lives Matter Plaza.

I love that this is there.

I also stopped for a few minutes to take in a pro-Ukraine demonstration in front of the White House fences. Two weeks later and the situation there just gets worse and worse. It's all so horrifying.

At least no WWIII. Yet.

I took a quick selfie in front of the Washington Monument because that is what you do when you are near the Washington Monument.

Don't I look well rested and not at all like I want to die?

I had never been to this Metro entrance before, at least so far as I can remember, so I wasn't really sure how to find it. Fortunately, the National Mall sign people were there to help me out.

I guess I'll go thatta way.

Fun story: I was stopped to take this photo and as I started running again, a passing woman said, "You're doing great, girl!" It was very nice and very encouraging, but I always wonder what it is about me that makes strangers shout encouragement at me. Do I look like I need it that bad? Am I visibly suffering? What is it?

I offer my splits to you here just because they are not as awful as the McPherson run.

I was aiming for an easy 12:30 pace.

I had thought ahead and brought two jackets so I wouldn't be super cold sitting in my sweaty clothes on the way home so I was feeling pretty good as I waited on the platform for my train.

Look at confident Jean!

I got on the train and rode it for several stops before I realized that I was headed away from where I wanted to go and had to disembark and wait for a train going the opposite direction.

God. Dammit.

Look at dumb Jean!

Here I am passing through the Smithsonian station again on my way back.

Grrrr.

I eventually found my way to my transfer station, then back to my Red Line train, and finally to my home station where Alex picked my now shivering ass up. It was a long trip back.

But there you have it! My triumphant return to Connecticut Avenue.

STATS:

 

 

  Metro station: Smithsonian
  Line: Orange/Blue/Silver
  Distance: 9.98 miles
  Time: 2:03:19
  Pace: 12:21 min/mi
  Crow sightings: One!
  Interesting tidbit: The subtitle "National Mall" was added to the station name in 2017.

To Stave Off Despair

 I have my reasons for choosing to run from Metro stations rather than to them. Mostly it is because I am gross and/or cold after I run and don't want to take the train home after a run. After my most recent terrible uphill run and my subsequent looking for long runs that aren't all uphill, I decided to change my mind.  If I want to risk the cold or dirty looks because I smell or drip on the way home, that's okay. From here on out, my goal will be to cycle, run, or walk to every Metro station from my neighborhood or home from every Metro station to my neighborhood.

So say we all.

McPherson Square Run: The Wind Was Angry That Day

There are good runs and bad runs, my friends. This one was a bad run.

Pre-run. Look at the optimism in my eyes!

I was excited for this one too. I had an easy 10-mile run scheduled for this week and I figured I could run straight up Connecticut from downtown DC to my neighborhood. 

"Ugh, that'll be all uphill," said Alex, who drives Connecticut two times every day.

"No, it's more of a rolling hills situation," said I, who runs on Connecticut every once in a while.

Guess who was right?

Let's just let that sink in for a while as we get to know McPherson Square. This Metro station serves the Orange, Silver, and Blue Lines and is located in downtown DC. It is a two-platform indoor station with an excellent viewpoint for photo taking.

Weirdly, there were two other people taking similar photos at the same time.

It's not a hugely remarkable station in any way other than its proximity to some cool places, but it does have some art on the wall to commemorate veterans.

There are other panels I didn't photograph because there was a homeless guy sitting in front of them and I didn't want to be an asshole.

There was also a pigeon, which I mention because I didn't see any crows, but pigeons, while less smart than crows, are similarly delightful in their scavenging and willingness to hang out near humans.

This station is located near McPherson Square. Which seems obvious, but not everything in city planning in obvious. McPherson Square is named after James B. McPherson, who was a major general in the Union Army during the Civil War.

There's a statue of the guy right back there in the middle.

McPherson Square is similar to lots of other downtown DC park-like blocks. Fun fact: I work right near here!

There are a lot of cool places to see near here, including the White House and Black Lives Matter Plaza. There is also the Subway sandwiches shop where I bought an oatmeal cookie so I could use the bathroom. Fun fact: This is the Subway sandwiches shop where I buy my morning fountain soda to take to work!

Banners at Black Lives Matter Plaza

I took a quick little run tour of the sights and local bathrooms, then headed over to Connecticut Avenue to start my run home. I'd show you a picture of the map, but it's really just a straight orange line. 

I can't not do it, for some reason.

Anywho, I set off UP Connecticut and soon discovered that the wind advisory put out by the National Weather Service was put out for a reason. That wind was not fucking around and it was right in my face the entire way. It was genuinely A Thing.

I don't know if it was the hills or the wind or I was just tired and burnt out, but this run was grueling for me. I also had a hard time finding my groove because running out of DC involves a lot of stop lights. I was way sad by the time I hit three and a half miles. Mile four was a tough one.

I made it all the way to five miles before I got sad enough to sit on a bench and feel bad about myself and my life choices. During this sit, I watched a metal sign across the street be battered and shook by the wind and I felt devastated for it and myself.

This is the face of someone only halfway through a run she really doesn't want to do.

I texted Alex for encouragement, which went unanswered (evidently he has his own life) then decided I should keep going at a slow run with some walk breaks thrown in. I already wasn't going to get ten straight running miles in, so I decided to at least bank some time on my feet. I was also approaching the part of my run that was less extremely uphill.

I pulled my shit together and shuffled up the street again. There was a minor car crash blocking the road at one point, so for two amazing blocks, I was moving faster than the traffic. I was blazing fast! Or not.

I'm not proud of this.

Eventually I made it close enough to my house to give up. I had apparently done some wacky pausing of my watch or maybe I paused it a stoplight and forgot to turn it on for a while, but that watch said I only went just over eight miles.

I gave not a single fuck.

I was very proud of myself for pushing through and making it home on my own feets. I figure that every training cycle has at least one terrible run. I'm hoping this one was it for this cycle. There are plenty of Metro stations that can let me run up Connecticut. Maybe I'll try again someday, but for next week I'm going to try running somewhere other than the "rolling hills" of Connecticut Avenue.

STATS:

 

Metro station: McPherson Square
Line: Orange, Silver, & Blue Lines
Distance: 8.31
Time: 1:44:03
Pace: 12:31
Crow sightings: 0
Interesting tidbit: These stats reflect my run time/pace/distance. My elapsed time/pace/distance was different. It was longer, for sure, but it also included a fair amount of (watch paused) moping time, slowing my pace down significantly.

Fort Totten Run: Not Quite Far Enough Away

 I am currently training for a half marathon, so I am finally running long enough to make it home from Metro stations. In fact, when I arrived at my end point for this run, I still had another mile to run and had to do a little out and back loop after the route I'd planned. My required mileage for this week's long run was 8 miles, so I chose Fort Totten, which turns out to be 7 miles away from my neighborhood.

 Fort Totten is on my regular commuting route, so I see it a lot. It is also the transfer station closest to my house, so if I am switching Metro lines, this is often where I do it. Ergo, I am very familiar with this station.

That said, I just uncovered a ton of veeeeerrrrrry interesting information. But first, the basics. Fort Totten is a three-story open-air station with the Red Line running through the top and the Green and Yellow Lines running through the bottom. It is the last DC Metro stop before the train enters Maryland.

Red Line leaving.

Green Line arriving.

In 2009, there was a terrible accident when a train headed to Fort Totten during rush hour hit a stopped train in front of it, resulting in nine deaths and at least 80 injuries. There is a memorial plaque in the station, but I have never noticed it, only learning of its existence from the station Wikipedia page. I remember when this accident happened. It was awful.

Deep cleansing breath.

On my commute, I have watched a the progress of a trail expansion happening at the station. I so badly want to run on that clean, new trail. It looks really exciting.

It's hard to see the trail from the platform, so this map will have to do.

Before I get into my run, however, here's something interesting: In an article published -- oh shit -- today, it was reported that an unexploded shell discovered in the construction area last summer is -- again, oh shit -- a chemical fucking weapon. I'm not quite sure what that all means, but it seems to be connected to the Spring Valley cleanup, which I am uninformed about, but was apparently undertaken at a site referred to as "the mother of all toxic dumps." Huh. It'll be interesting to see how that shakes out.

Deep cleansing breath.

My run path was a zigzag north and west, taking me to 16th Street, which I ran out of DC and into Silver Spring.

I switched from Garmin to Strava and I'm not sure I like this map.

The path itself was okay. But the thing that was exciting was my elevation graph. Fortunately, I was supposed to be running slow and easy so it wasn't too rough.

Am badass.

There were stairs -- STAIRS -- on my sidewalk route coming into Maryland. Then there was a lot of fun downhill. 

Once I realized how close I was to my home, I was a little concerned, because my training plan said I had to run 8 miles and I was sure I was only at 5+. Happily, when I checked my watch, I was actually at 6+, so by the time I got to my neighborhood, I only had to run an extra one mile instead of two. That said, it was incredibly sad to bypass my usual exit point and have to run another half mile out and half mile back.

In addition to Strava, I have the Zombies, Run! app going on my phone during runs, so I have a more detailed map of that last, oh-so-sad mile.

See how I got steadily slower, as indicated by the line turning from green to dark red?

I have a Project Crow run planned for my 9-mile long run next weekend, but I am planning a route of 9.5 miles to make sure I don't have to take that dispiriting mile jog at the end. See you then!

STATS:

Metro station: Fort Totten
Line: Transfer station for Red, Green, and Yellow Lines
Distance: 8.01 miles
Time: 1:40:28
Pace: 12:32 min/mi
Crow sightings: Two and a half! I saw two crows at my boarding station and I heard a crow on my run but couldn't locate it. So half.
Interesting tidbit: Alex (husband) was also going on a run when I was. We started in radically different spots, we run very different paces, we ran different mileage, and we started out in different directions. The road I was on at mile seven and the road he was on at mile nine intersect with each other and we both hit that intersection at THE EXACT SAME TIME. It was crazy weird.

 

Twinbrook Run: Back at it!

Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? Skipping October 2019 through March 2020 is all on me. But then, you know, COVID. When, just like everyone else, I figured that the best way to catch COVID would be to ride Metro, I decided to table Project Crow during quarantine. I started back commuting on Metro this month, so it seemed like the right time to get back on the rails for fun too.

I did this run July 11 and then forgot that I actually have to write it up. Sorry. My long runs these days are about 5 miles so I chose my station based on distance from my neighborhood. I was limited in my options. 

Twinbrook Station is on the Red Line in Rockville. It opened in 1984 and has an outdoor platform. 

It's not really that exciting of a station.

It is near a bunch of new eateries that have sprung up in the past couple of years and you can easily walk from it to all kinds of places on Rockville Pike. 

There are two exits to and from the station and both feature parking and bus service. So many options! 

The platform

There isn't a lot to say about this particular station, so on to the run! I was very excited about this run because there were some trails on the way home from this station that I hadn't run on since I'd been injured and I sorely missed them. 

I love running one-way routes.

I ran down Rockville Pike, hung a left on Randolph, and continued until I was able to join Rock Creek Trail. It was only about 10am, but the humidity was at, like, 62 percent, so it was pretty hot.

As evidenced by my sweatiness and redness.

I was so happy to run on those trails. Also, there are parks with water fountains along the way, which is really nice for a hot day. I stayed on that path all the way to Knowles Avenue, then I turned left and started running up it. Then I did some walking. Then I tried to run more. Then I walked. Then I shuffled. 

You can see Knowles as that last hill there. Otherwise the elevation was kind to me.

That's about it. Eventually I arrived at my neighborhood, triumphant, happy, and tired! I'm so excited to finally be back to it and I'm looking forward to exploring more stations!

STATS:

Metro station: Twinbrook
Line: Red Line
Distance: 4.91 miles
Time: 56:00
Pace: 11:24 min mile
Crow sightings: *sniff* none *sniff*
Interesting tidbit: There is but one escalator from the station entrance to the train platform. It is usually going up. You have to use stairs (or an elevator) to go the other way.