Training Log Archive: Nadim

Prince William Forest, VA. From the Pine Grove parking area, I ran a course that Lacho Illiev had setup. It was rather fun and a great day to be out in the forest--near 60 F. Lacho's course was straightforward in appearance but one had to be fairly careful about not making mistakes when attacking. I made a few though none were big. Overall, I was just slow. Chris Gross ran this in 85 minutes and Ted Good did it in 91 minutes. I felt a little tired from recently running more than I had been.

This was a nice way to end the year. In retrospect, I should have not jumped over the streams like I did. It hurt my back (felt for days afterward). Many of those who came gathered nearby for a hosted pizza lunch and caught-up with each other--very nice!

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station. I went into the office for my official shutdown work.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Norfolk Ave. where I met Max for lunch, and then to Northfield Rd.

From Northfield Rd., up Custer Rd., to Wilson La., to Exeter Rd. to Glenbrook Rd. to Rugby Ave., to Woodmont Ave., to Battery Ln., to the Bethesda Trolley Trail, to the NIH grounds, to Maple Ridge Rd. to Georgetown Pike, to Huntington Pkwy., to Custer Rd. to Northfield Rd. Battery Park was walled-off for some type of construction work. I improvised the detour. Overall I felt slow and tired; some of it was the increased running, but probably most of it was due to a lack of sleep.

From Northfield Rd., Greenwich Park, to Old Georgetown Rd. to Beech Dr. to Johnson Ave./Hempstead Ave. to McKinley St. to Garfield St., to Roosevelt St., to the trail at Jefferson St. to Northfield Rd. It was a nice windless evening. I worked-up a sweat, showing how out of shape I'm in. I was surprised to see that fewer people have been putting up Christmas lights; there were enough, but I'd seen many along this route previously.

Rock Creek Park, Washington, D.C. From the Visitor Center parking lot, Peggy and I went past the horse stables and turned right on an intermittent trail. It was covered by leaves most of the way and there were some loose rounded rocks underneath. It was interesting going along the top of a narrow ridge, a rib to the larger ridge. That got us to Ross Dr. where we turned south, and across a large reentrant on the bridge. However, once across the bridge, we turned east to go all the way down to Rock Creek anyway. We went on the trail along the creek that goes steeply up and down all the way to Broad Branch Rd. From there we mostly took the Western Ridge Trail back to the visitor center. It was a nice run. I went Peggy's pace but got plenty of exercise climbing.

Williamsburg, VA. From William & Mary Parking Lot on the university campus, we ran out Compton Dr. to get to the trail along Matoaka Lake. We wandered our way across campus to Landrum Dr., and eventually to W. Duke of Gloucester St. At N. Queen St. we turned north, then we turned back to ward the car on W. Nicholson St. and Prince George St. We did more wandering across the campus admiring the grounds and thinking how they would make for a great sprint map. The forests around the university (and elsewhere in the region) seemed rather open and mostly pleasant. Our run ended going along Gooch Dr., and Yates Dr., to the parking lot.

Jamestown, VA. From the visitor center at the end of the Colonial Pkwy. Peggy, Max, Samantha and I hiked into Jamestown. The parts of the park supported by the federal government were closed, however private historical organizations do a lot, and it turns out they seem to own the land where the historic fort remnants are. We paid a small fee and went over the bridge across the marsh to the oblisk and happened to meet up with an archeological tour that was already in progress. The speaker filled-in a lot of details about the science and methodologies. She explained how around the time when the National Park Service took over what everyone thought was Jamestown, they were the best in archeology. The park lands covered a lot of the grounds were old ruins were found that were similar to Gloucester St. in Williamsburg. That land also had the loop road driven by most visitors. A conclusion by experts until recent times had been that the historic triangular wooden fort had been lost into the enlarged river. However, once a preservation society had been persuaded by an upcoming visit from the Queen of England to let archeologists dig on adjacent land, they found evidence of foundations of a church that was supposed to be in the fort, and which closely fit dimensions and locational descriptions found in historic letters. The orientations and artifacts from graves inside the church foundations provided other evidence. The persuasive talk was enough to keep an audience sitting or standing in the cold winds coming off the water for an hour--even Samantha and Max were good listeners with Max wearing only a sweatshirt and shorts. The discussion wrapped-up with talk about the demise of the town. Drought changed the salinity of the waters and drove away sturgeon, crops weren't doing well, fighting with the Powatan Indians over food aid ensured the company to become isolated. Making things worse, re-supply ships were waylaid by a hurricane. When they finally started showing-up, it was without food and 400 more people to feed. It was said about 500 original settlers diminished to about 60 in one winter. It was so bad that cannibalism of the dead occurred (according to evidence derived from a human skull bone found in a trash heap). They all packed-up to leave and got to the mouth of the river when they discovered Lord Delaware coming to see them. Delaware forced them to turn back and stay in Jamestown longer.









Whether or not the archeological interpretation was correct or not, the talk provided was interesting and made our trip. We hiked a little further to the Archaearium Archaeology Museum and then headed back. Had the federal government not been closed, we might not have stumbled into it. Later we spent more time in Williamsburg.

Great Falls, MD. From the Angler's Inn parking lot, Peggy and I ran up the Berma Rd. to the bridge where the Billygoat Trail starts, and returned on the towpath. It was a nice sunny day that was warming-up quickly. It's nice to be running early on weekends again--with Samantha, one of us needed to hang around but she's more capable now.

Williamsburg, VA. After driving into town and a brief visit at the Colonial Williamsburg Visitor Center, we went to the colonial part of town, hiking Duke of Gloucester St. from the college at Boundary St., to the Capital building and back. We'd wanted to take a carriage ride but were too late for that. The town was decorated for the holiday season. The decorations are mild by modern electric standards, but enjoyable none the less. It was getting cold by the time we were done. Later we had a pizza dinner and Peggy read a participative gift giving story to us in which we had to shuffle gifts in front of us to the person left and right, back and forth. This was a nice easy trip, quite different from our holiday trip to New York City a year ago, and much cheaper.