Day 1407 -- Jogger's Progress

	Trip	YTD	Jul
Distance	8865.2	852.2	132.0
Time	61 days, 12 hrs, 51 min	6 days, 10 hrs, 9 mins	25:07
Days	1407	141	22
States	33	10	1

If you are paying attention, you may notice that my total number of states has had a little jump. (OK, I realize no one is paying attention, but I'm explaining anyway. I'm a college professor. It's what I do.) I've been going along, just sort of saying, "Did I run into a new state this month? Better add it." But I haven't been keeping a running list. I began to wonder if maybe I hadn't missed count. So, earlier this month, I went through and made a running list. I was off by four states! I'm not sure exactly where I lost them. Anyway, 33 is the official, accurate count. And I even know which 17 I have to hit, yet.

At 132.0 miles, this wasn't quite my longest month of the year. I made 132.7 in March. And it took me an hour and a half less time. So I'm slowing down. As if I needed evidence of that.

This morning, I managed to crank out 15.2 miles. I was tired and sweaty at the end, of course, but considering I managed four miles more than last week, I felt pretty good about it. I may actually survive the Madison Mini Marathon, after all.

Day 1406 -- More Cumberland

Not much of a run this morning. I am going for a long run tomorrow, so I didn't want to wear myself out. I just did a couple of miles, just so I didn't take another day off. So I didn't really clear the greater Cumberland area. So I managed to catch this concert by the Boro Boogie Pickers. Which was some feat, seeing as the concert was back in September of '08.

Day 1405 -- Cumberland

Found this picture at an interesting little site. Realneo is a web community for people interested in "arts and culture, economy, education, environment, health and technology" and stuff like that there. They posted this photo of the "Design Quarter" in Cumberland, which they say is "not an over analyzed, committee process--just restoration and renewal brought to you by real artists".

I meant to run yesterday, but every time I thought of it, there was another little rumble of distant thunder. It never really got near, and I probably would have been safe, but why take any chances? In any case, by the time the storm passed well and firmly over, I had given up.

So I ran a little longer this morning. About 6.5 miles, with some hills. It was a good run, but a little humid.

Days 1403 and 1404 -- Rocky Gap State Park

There is No Lifeguard on Duty at this beach at Rocky Gap State Park, so I think I will stay out of the water.

I had a nice conference. I learned some things, and met some people. I ran 3.4 miles Monday morning, and 5.1 on Tuesday. Tuesday's run was along the western shore of Lake Michigan. It was very beautiful. No run this morning. I was tempted, but I'd run three days in a row, and I was tired.

Day 1402 -- Flintstone

Well, I couldn't resist a stop in Flintstone, MD.

OK, fine, here's Flintstone, MD:


More thunderstorms this morning, so I got a late start. It was no cooler or less humid, so by the time I was seven or eight miles out, I was pretty beat. I managed to eke out almost 11, but I had been planning for 15. I'm beginning to wonder whether or not I'm going to finish the Madison Mini Marathon, next month.

I'm off this afternoon for a conference. I'll be running, but not blogging. I should check in again on Wednesday or Thursday.

Day 1401 -- Green Ridge State Forest

The Howard Country Group of the Sierra Club beat me to Greed Ridge State Forest, by about eight years.

I took an unscheduled rest day on Thursday. I just couldn't get my butt out the door. Then Friday, it was thundering when I got up. Fortunately, I didn't have any place to be, so I just hung out for a while, and did my Thursday 5K about 26 hours late. It was medium fast. This morning, more thunder, and I didn't want to wait, so I just didn't run.

Day 1400 -- Billmeyer Wildlife Management Area

Mashpedia, Real-Time Encyclopedia? How is it more "real-time" than other on-line pedias?

In any case, they are my source for this photo of the Billmeyer Wildlife Management Area.

Another sweaty run. I think it might have been slightly cooler and less humid than yesterday. I know that today there was a little bit of breeze. Yesterday, it was as still as death. In any case, I ran just a bit longer today than yesterday, then came in to loll in the AC.

Day 1399 -- More Hancock

Hey, if I stick around Hancock for another couple of months, I can run the Western Maryland Half Marathon. It benefits Habitat for Humanity, a worthy cause. However, I had better not jump the gun, as I appear to have done in this photo from the 2008 race.

It was totally ugly this morning. It was 24 degrees already at 6 in the morning, and so humid it was foggy. I managed to plod out a little over four miles. Don't expect any long or fast runs until the weather breaks.

Day 1398 -- Hancock

I don't think I mentioned yesterday that the oldest and newest Little Jogger came along to the race. I ran the 8K, and she walked the 4K. This is us before the start. You can tell it's before the start, because I'm still relatively dry. By the end of the 8K run, I was dripping.

I started today with two strikes against me. I was tired, since I ran a hard 5 miles yesterday, and didn't sleep much last night. And it was horribly hot and humid. So there was no way it was going to be a great run. I finished it. That's about the best I can say.

Day 1397 -- GTLOVI

Today was the 6th annual "Get the Lead Out" Run in my little town. I'm clearly getting faster. Last year, I was 6th (and last) in my age group. This year, I was 4th (and last).

The weather was slightly better than last year. It was still pretty humid, but at least it was overcast, so it wasn't quite as oppressive. And they fiddled with the course again, and took out the really bad hill. The new course is pretty flat. As always, it was a well-organized and fun race.

On my virtual tour, I'm right around Fort Frederick State Park. This photo is from Bike Washington's C&O Canal Biking Guide.

Days 1395 and 1396 -- Clear Spring

From Clear Spring's official web site, we learn the following:

Just 12 miles west of Hagerstown sits the quaint town of Clear Spring, Maryland. Founded by Martin Myers in 1821, the town was originally named Myersville and was later changed to Clear Springs to reflect the natural spring that initially attracted its founder to the area. Impressed by the natural beauty of the countryside and this nearby spring of sparkling water, Myers envisioned a town which could grow and prosper. After all, the historic National Pike (U.S. Highway 40) ran through the center of town, linking the port of Baltimore to the western frontier of Ohio, and it’s this very road that eventually brought business and prosperity to Clear Spring.

Yesterday and today, we had beautiful running weather here in Wisconsin. Cool and dry. I've had two really good runs, 4.5 miles yesterday, and my Thursday 5K today. The 5K wasn't as fast as my July 4 race, but otherwise it was the fastest of the year.

Day 1394 -- Halfway

If I look around, I can probably find a web page to tell me what two points Halfway, MD, is halfway between. But that information doesn't seem to be on Hook, Hand, and Heart, a blog that advertises itself as "The Ramblings of an Eccentric Old Woman, rug hooker, weaver and crazy cat lady"

Scheduled day off yesterday. Six miles today.

Day 1393 -- Funkstown

How could I resist the lure of Funkstown, MD? This is the Funkstown Tavern, from Lost Bob's Flikr stream.

I ran 14.3 miles this morning. The last three were a real struggle. I don't know how many times I slowed to a walk, but it didn't make much difference, because my walk wasn't much faster than my run. But I finished the distance. Then I felt dehydrated all day. I hope that it's not this humid for the Madison Mini Marathon in six weeks.

Day 1392 -- Middletown

If you take the "National Road" from Baltimore to Vandalia, IL, you will drive right down main street in Middletown. I know this from 125 M to B, a blog all about the National Road.

Friday was a scheduled day off. Then I'm never sure what to do on Saturday. Coming off a day off, I can run pretty far. But heading into a long run on Sunday, I shouldn't. Today, my decision was a little easier, because I slept in. So I didn't want to run too long, lest I while away the whole day. So I did four, and that wasn't bad.

Day 1391 -- Braddock Heights

I haven't run across Flickriver before. It seems to be a place to organize Flikr photos into some kind of a theme. This theme is George Washington Slept Here, and it includes a photo of the Braddock expedition monument in Braddock Heights, MD. Can't read the plaque? Here's a close-up.


It was much nicer this morning than yesterday. The humidity was much lower, making for a nicer run. Of course, I only did about three miles, so that helped.

Day 1390 -- Frederick

We stayed up late Monday to watch the fireworks. So I went ahead and slept in on Tuesday. After all, I had run on Monday, which is my normal day off, so I was due for a day off. This morning, I ran 6.5 miles in muggy heat. It was actually foggy this morning. Not a good sign in early July.

Day 1389 -- Buckeystown

Being from Wisconsin, I couldn't resist a little detour to Buckeystown. Unfortunately, it looks like they had a bid of water back in 2005.

Today is the fifth anniversary of my first every road race, a July 4 5K right here in town. To celebrate, I ran it again. I'm a bit slower than I was then, but overall I had a good day. In fact, considering I ran 12.6 miles yesterday (not really considered the appropriate way to prepare for a Personal Record 5K), I had a great day. It was my fastest 5K of the year, faster than all of my Thursday 5Ks.

I did get "strollered", that is, beaten by a woman pushing a stroller. A double stroller. But I didn't mind, because she had extra motivation. One of the kids repeated, "Go, Mommy! Go, Mommy! Go, Mommy!" for the whole three miles. It was so much fun! I think Mommy and the other kid got a little tired of it, but I didn't.

Day 1388 -- Urbana

No, I haven't stepped into a black hole and popped up in Illinois, or even Iowa. I'm in Urbana, Maryland. The Buyer's Best Realtors, LLC says that "Urbana, Maryland, today is a real estate boomtown." So there.

It wasn't quite so warm and humid this morning. It wasn't cool, but it was better than it has been. The first half of my run went pretty well. I was going to say "The miles flew by," but that would be an exaggeration. Let's say that the miles went by at the rate of about one mile per mile. In the back half of the run, they slowed down a little. It took me two miles to run a mile. Then three. Then four. I'm pretty sure that the last mile was as long as the first 11.5 altogether. The last 100 yards was actually infinite.

Day 1387 -- Gaithersburg

The U.S. Metric Association has a page dedicated to signs with metric measurements, and this one at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg MD. So I suppose it's appropriate to say that I ran about 7.4 km today.