Project Crow

Farragut North Run: Victory Over the Connecticut Avenue Hill

2023-02-19T17:03:00.003-05:00

I have been training for a 10-mile race. You may remember last year at about this time I was training for a half marathon but ended up discovering that my body wasn't ready for it. This 10-miler is my re-entry into longer distances again. So it was that I had a 9-mile run on the schedule for last Sunday.

So it was that it was forecasted to rain all day last Sunday.

I figured my best chance of not giving up partway through a run was to start far away from my house so there wasn't a convenient way to get home other than running the damn miles. I set my sights on the Farragut North Station and set out.

I was not as cheerful as I look.

But first let me tell you about Farragut North. I have a soft spot in my heart for this station because it is the station I use when I take Metro to work. I've spent many a 12-minute wait for a train gazing at the patterns in the acoustic tiles on the ceiling. I can only assume those patterns come from water damage but if you look hard, you can find pictures in them as if they were clouds. Other than those tiles, I don't find it to be a terribly fascinating station, what with its center platform and two sets of tracks.

The station is nice, however, because it is close to a bank and a post office and UPS stores and FedEx and a cafe that sells delicious blueberry muffins in the morning and it has three different entrances so there is easy access to the station no matter where I am coming from. Farragut North is also one of the OG stations, being one of the original five stations to open with the first section of the Red Line in 1976. There have been many changes and repairs made since, up to and including some happening as we speak.

A fun fact about the station is one that answers a question I thought to myself after I took this photo:

These aren't the fun ceiling tiles. Those are on the tunnel ceiling.

The question: What the hell is Farragut Crossing?

Well. It turns out that Metro wanted to connect Farragut North Station to the nearby Farragut West Station that serves the Orange, Silver, and Blue Lines. They wanted to do it in a manner that would have disrupted Farragut Square, which is between the two stations, and the National Park Service, which owns it, said no. In a fun twist, some websites refer to this crossing (leaving Farragut North, walking a block above ground, then entering Farragut West) as a "virtual tunnel." Kind of a stretch, but whatever. You can do the crossing without paying any extra fees though, making it as though you had transferred trains without exiting a station.

I was doing no such transfer though. What I was doing was riding the Metro for the first time since the first week of November. For various reasons I'd been driving to work for a couple of months, so this was actually my first time back.

Just a little light stretching. Legs for running; arms for selfies.

I like to run in the rain, but I don't usually start runs if it is raining. I have to be caught in the rain to enjoy it. Setting out for nine miles in 40-degree rain wasn't something I really wanted to do. I really tried but I couldn't think of another way to fit the run in, so I decided to suck it up and take it on.

It was almost exactly a year ago that I ran pretty much the same exact route from another downtown station and really had a hard time. I started that post by writing, "There are good runs and bad runs, my friends. This one was a bad run." If I wrote that sentence for this outing, it would have ended with "This one was a good run."

From almost the first steps, I felt awesome. There's something about accepting cold and wet and just living in it when everyone else is huddled and wants to get somewhere dry. It was really energizing for me. I ran straight up Connecticut Avenue until I got close to my neighborhood then veered off toward home.

Pretty simple, no?

I have been intentionally running slowly these days, babying one of my knees, but I kind of crushed the first, uphill portion of this route, running with energy and joy.

The taller the line bar, the faster the pace.

You can see the elevation underneath my pace bars. It wasn't until the last two miles that I significantly slowed down -- and those last miles were mostly downhill or flat. Honestly, I love rolling hills way more than flat land. Yes, it can be really hard but at least it is varied and interesting.

This was a pretty straightforward run. Yes, some Girl Scouts tried to ambush me in my fourth mile by waving boxes of cookies at me and, yes, I did take a short break in a bus shelter after mile seven because my legs hurt and, yes, some cars did splash me as they passed, but mostly I just checked off the miles and kept taking steps.

I don't know how my 10-mile race is going to go this coming Sunday. The course pace cutoff is a 13:10 pace average. I don't know how my knee is going to hold up. I might be shuffling in after everyone else has gone home, but this run gave me a good confidence boost. If nothing else, I know I will have fun.

Happy and soggy at the end.

STATS:

Metro station: Farragut North
Line: Red Line
Distance: 9.01 miles
Time: 2:02:13
Pace: 13:34 pace
Crow sightings: Zero. They were smart enough to stay out of the rain.
Interesting tidbit: This run is probably the most extreme example of a transition from "oh dear god I really don't want to do this run" before I set off to "fuck yeah this run is awesome" after starting.

Friendship Heights Run/Walk: It Takes Two

2022-07-06T13:44:00.000-04:00

This one was a whole thing, y'all.

Friendship Heights is on the Red Line about four miles from my house. I had to make it hard though.

I like to actually ride the Metro to or from my end point because I feel as if that is the best way to really experience it. Like, I could have someone drop me off at a Metro station, but that isn't really the same as taking the train to the station. There is, however, no rule that says I have to take the longest fucking route to a station. Yet here we are.

Could someone have dropped me off at Bethesda and let me take a five minute train ride? Did I do that?

I didn't want to put out my family and have them drive me ten minutes to Bethesda instead of five minutes to Forest Glen, so I decided to ride allllllllll the way around the line. It took a long time.

Friendship Heights is your standard one-platform/two-track station deep under ground.

These people are more than 100 feet under ground.

The station is one of only 11 constructed with "rock tunneling," which is why it is so deep and why the escalator ride takes a full minute and a half to get you up top. Or at least that's what Wikipedia says. I didn't time it. In fact, there are two sets of escalators to the exit I took: One from the platform and one to the street.

This theatrical space is between them.

There's a mall (read: bathrooms) that you access directly from this space-ship like area or you can go ahead and travel on up to the street.

One really fun thing about this station is that it has five exits. Two of them let you out in Maryland and three of them let you out in DC! Take that, Four Corners!

I was pretty excited about this run because I was taking a straight path from the station down Military Road to Rock Creek Park, where I was going to run the West Ridge Trail down through the park. To do so, I was wearing my brand new trail running shoes, which I purchased for all the fun trail running I was planning.

Snazzy!

I have unfortunate information about these shoes -- and the trail -- coming up, but first we have to run up and down Military Road in the dead heat of DC summer into the park. It is here that I will show you the elevation map of this run.

Spoiler alert: This map is from my second attempt at this Metro station because I didn't make it the first time.

The first mile or so was on the sidewalk and was hot. There was a lot of downhill, but the uphill sections were UP HILL. I was really excited to get to what I was really considering the beginning of my run.

I love this park.

I have sad news for anyone trying out new trail running shoes though. The West Ridge Trail is almost entirely paved. So I didn't really need shoes with stiffer midsoles and better traction. I also have what I have determined is a bunion that was really hurting at the time. It was also 78-million degrees and this run quickly turned into a run/walk.

Eventually my foot was hurting so much that I gave up and called Alex to come pick me up less than a couple of miles from my house. It was really discouraging. I considered returning the shoes immediately, but I've worn them a couple of times on shorter runs since then and they haven't hurt. My bunion (I AM ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD) has not been hurting as much either, so I'm hanging on to them.

STATS for Run One:

Metro station: Friendship Heights
Line: Red Line
Distance: 4.70 miles
Time: 1:06:43
Pace: 14:11 min/mi
Crow sightings: none
Interesting tidbit: I wore trail shoes because I wanted to run on a trail, but this trail is paved. How much was dirt trail out of the whole thing? About a third of a mile.

I was not about to give up on this station though, so about three weeks later, I headed out again. Having not learned my lesson, I again took the Metro all the way through DC. Fun fact: The weekend I chose had scheduled track work on part of the Red Line, requiring me to get off of the train, take a shuttle bus two stops, then get back on the train to continue my journey.

It was some bullshit.

Agreed. This whole process is TRASH.

The whole trip from Forest Glen to Friendship Heights took, like, seventeen hours. I considered running from a different station, but by the time I realized I was going to have to take a shuttle bus, it would have been an 8 or 9 mile run and I wasn't ready for that. It was a whole Thing.

Eventually I arrived at my station, wandered around the shopping center until I found a bathroom, endured some low-key male harassment, and then took off on my run. I knew what I was in for this time though and even though it was still a gajillion degrees, I settled in at a slow run and headed out. It took a lot longer before this run turned into a run/walk. I was doing a really good job for the first few miles, but eventually I just decided to embrace some walk breaks.

Running the hypotenuse might have been smarter.

Happily I made it the whole way this time. It would have been a bummer if I had to do it a third time. I did learn that I no longer give a shit about being considerate to my family and they can drive me to Bethesda next time I run from a station on the other end of the Red Line "U."

I sat on a bench after my run for a long time.

STATS for The Real Run:

Metro station: Friendship Heights
Line: Red Line
Distance: 6.19 miles
Time: 1:26:55
Pace: 14:02
Crow sightings: none
Interesting tidbit: This was the first time I have ever been forced to take a shuttle bus on a Metro trip.

Silver Spring Run: Project Penguin

2022-06-03T15:43:00.002-04:00

I was astonished when I looked at a Metro map a couple of weeks ago and noticed that I hadn't run from Silver Spring yet. Why astonishing? Because it's one of the closest Metro stations to my house and eaaaaasy to run from. So...

It was bustling on a Saturday morning.

This station is pretty standard. There is one platform and two tracks on either side.

You can see the MARC train station to the left there.

The Silver Spring Metro station is adjacent to the Paul S. Sarbanes Transit Center, which is a station for a bunch of buses and trains.

This map shows the location of all the bus stops. It was all very complicated. It is multi-level and was constructed since I've lived in DC, so it's not very old. I remember when it was built and there were some very serious design and construction defects so people made all kinds of jokes about not wanting to stand under it.

The transit station opened in 2015, which was five whole years behind schedule.

In addition to the current public transit offerings, the map indicated that there was a "TRIPS Commuter Store." I figured it was a place where they sold tickets and stuff but I was hopeful that maybe there was some public transit merch I could procure. No such luck.

I'm glad I made the trip up to it though because I passed this oddly stationary pigeon on the steps on the way up and back. I couldn't tell if he was injured or just didn't give a fuck. I'm hoping for the latter.

It didn't seem like normal pigeon behavior though.

I don't come to this Metro station often, so I was surprised and amused to find that there is a mural titled Penguin Rush Hour hanging at this station.


I mean...

But then I turned the corner and was confronted with the rest of this mural, which is actually 100 feet long and I think I might have audibly gasped. I find this to be just about the most delightful public art I have ever seen.

This mural was originally placed at the station in the 1990s and was painted by Sally Callmer Thompson.

In 2004 the mural was removed for restoration by the artist, but it was decided to not put it back until the new transit center was built.

This is actually a digital copy of the mural painted on aluminum sheets for durability and was installed in 2017.

The only flaw I can find in this mural is that there is no angry penguin sitting on the train screaming at the top of his lungs, because that person is ALWAYS on my train car.

Also, they are clearly pre-COVID penguins.

The only other thing I will say about this station is that the transit center signage was excellent.

Weird choice of words.

I don't think I know what "alighting" means. I'm not sure if it means getting on or getting off the bus. *checks the dictionary* Okay. It means to come down from something. So you can't get on -- or *checks the thesaurus* bestride -- the bus from here.

From there I had a very simple run home. I took off westbound down East-West Highway and swung right on Rock Creek Trail when I reached the bottom.

I like running down East-West Highway because there is a lot of downhill.

I always forget about that middle hill though.

It was a pretty uneventful run. I'm working on base building this summer, so I am intentionally running slow and not worrying about my time. It was a nice run if not very long. Just as I predicted: eaaaaaasy.

STATS:

Metro station: Silver Spring
Line: Red
Distance: 3.25 miles
Time: 40 minutes exactly
Pace: 12:18 min/mi
Crow sightings: 0
Interesting tidbit: I now have three kids who can drive by themselves, so even though Alex was out of town when I did this run, I didn't have to hitchhike to the station to start! (Kidding. Don't hitchhike, friends. Stay sexy and don't get murdered.)

Takoma Run: Mid-city Trail Running

2022-04-30T13:49:00.002-04:00

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

2022-04-18T18:18:00.000-04:00

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

2022-03-13T12:23:00.001-04:00

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

2022-02-24T18:57:00.000-05:00

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

2022-02-20T14:12:00.000-05:00

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

2022-02-09T21:48:00.002-05:00

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!

2021-07-27T14:16:00.001-04:00

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.

Forest Glen Cycle: I Can Ride a Bike!

2019-09-26T15:26:00.000-04:00

I'll be honest here. I mostly included cycling in Project Crow because I needed a "C" for crow. I've had a bike for a while, but I rarely ride it. I want to be a cyclist, but I'm all kinds of scared about it. But I've had a shin injury recently that has kept me from running at all, so if I have any plans to Crow about DC, I'm going to need to get on my bike.

The thing about cycling home from a Metro station is that you have to take your bike on the Metro to get to the starting station. I decided I didn't want to have to jam my bike into my minivan and drive to my home Metro station, so I decided my first bike excursion would be to figure out exactly how the hell to ride from my neighborhood to Forest Glen. Unfortunately, the roads between there and my home are not bicycle friendly. I rarely see cyclists on them and there are cyclists who ride everywhere!

I deduced that there have to be other ways to get to the station without taking a million-mile detour around Wheaton to get there so I took to Google Maps and did some close-up inspecting of the satellite images to find a route that avoided Newcastle Avenue from one direction or Capitol View Avenue from the other. I thought I'd found a good route that would put me on Capitol View for only about a block or so, which is terrifying, but doable. But then! I found a cut-through that wasn't even on the map version of Google Maps, but was visible on the satellite view and I managed to avoid Capitol View altogether except to cross straight across it. If you ever drive on Capitol View Avenue, you understand why this is a good thing.

It's hard to take a selfie that shows both you and your bike.

I recently switched from flat to clipless pedals and this was to be my first ride using them. I'd practiced unclipping before and found that the kind of pedals I purchased release when my leg makes a panicked "oh shit, I have to put my foot down immediately" motion, so I felt okay about venturing out of my driveway in them. Spoiler alert: I didn't fall down once.

My journey to Forest Glen was more than a mile longer than my return trip. This is because I did a quick trip around a parking lot first to make sure I could still ride a bike (I can!) and I made some wrong turns. I also forgot to turn off and restart my Garmin right at the Metro station so my ride home was a little shorter than it should have been.

The top one is the ride from Metro to home; the bottom is to the station.

I could not have felt more proud of myself. It is very scary for me to do something so new on an unfamiliar path by myself. And I did all of it. Go me! I got a lot of practice switching gears because my route was very up and down. I don't think it was all that steep or hard, but I definitely got out of breath and sweaty. It felt awesome.

My pace wasn't great either direction because I stopped now and again to look at maps, cross roads, take photos, or walk my bike up/down a couple of very short steep sections. I'm okay with that.

This was elevation just for the actual Crow ride (from the station to my neighborhood).

My route was pretty convoluted. Honestly, the hardest/most stressful part was crossing Capitol View. Other than that, I rode through quiet neighborhood streets. Leaving Forest Glen, I headed away from Forest Glen Road and into the neighborhood behind the station. From there, I went through McKenney Hills Park, which I'd never been to before. I did have to dismount to walk my bike across a narrow bridge on which there were numerous children and their adults. I'm new to bike etiquette, but zinging past them and probably mowing down a few because of my inexperience seemed unwise.

My route.

I actually really loved this. I see more of these rides in my near future. I just have to make sure I find more stations accessible by small, unbusy neighborhood streets because I don't want to get hit by a car.

STATS:

Metro station: Forest Glen
Line: Red Line
Distance: 1.89 miles
Time: 17:20
Pace: 6.5 mph
Crow sightings: Not a damn one.
Interesting tidbit: It actually took me longer to bike this route from Forest Glen than it took me to run a different route from the same station!

Columbia Heights Run/Walk: Trails, Paths, and, Oh! Look! More Trails!

2019-05-21T19:14:00.000-04:00

I have been delinquent. I did a Project Crow journey weeks ago and haven't told you about it yet. I guess sometimes it's easier to do the physical work than the mental. Not that this particular trip home from Metro was easy. In fact, I had to create a whole new category for it: the Run/Walk.

So, what station? I chose the illustrious Columbia Heights Metro Station on the Green Line, disembarking just four days before someone was stabbed at the station in the middle of the goddamn afternoon on a fucking Tuesday. I went looking for more information on said stabbing and was aghast to discover that the stabbing was fatal and done with a screwdriver, before I realized that in fact the latter information was about a stabbing at the Columbia Heights Metro Station in July 2018. Then I made the mistake of Googling Columbia Heights metro stabbing, found more stabbings, and decided to stop investigating Metro station stabbings altogether.

To begin again: Columbia Heights! What a great station! Evidently this station is one of the busiest Metro stations outside of the downtown core with more than 12,000 exits on weekdays and nearly 16,000 exits on weekends.

Pretty. And not a screwdriver in sight.

Based on my exit from the station, I believe those numbers. The area was absolutely packed. There were people playing music, vendors selling food and crafts, many shopping destinations, and so very many people milling about. I also saw this cat/astronaut.

Catstronaut?

It looked like a hoppin' neighborhood. I headed down Irving Street toward the zoo because I wanted to find some of the trails that run through Rock Creek Park that I'd never run on before. I came to the end of Irving Street and immediately got lost and wandered in circles for a bit. Once I found the path I wanted to take, I ran down it for a couple of minutes before I realized that I'd run that direction on that path before, but at the time I'd been running away from my house, so I turned around and ran the other direction.

I wasn't entirely sure how I was going to get home. I'd made a decision to head into the park and run north until I found Maryland. I've run a similar route south into DC often, so I figured that, worst case scenario, I'd just run that in reverse. I came to a literal fork in the road about a mile and a half in when I saw the path I knew go one direction and the path I didn't know go another.

Refrains from road less traveled joke here.

I headed off down the Western Ridge Trail, not knowing what to expect. Shortly thereafter, I got a hint when I came across this sign:

It's almost like the sign was throwing down a dare.

You guys, the "moderate" arrow was pointing to an uphill trail and the "strenuous" arrow was pointing to a gently downhill sloping trail. Being an unthinking asshole, I passed a hiker to sprint down the strenuous trail. Shortly thereafter, when the trail took a sharp upturn and I realized that running up it was unlikely (for I was still planning on running this route at that time), I had to turn around and re-pass the same hiker on my way to the easier trail, while muttering, "I've made a huge mistake."

It turns out the "moderate" trail was not all that moderate. This seems as good a time as any to explain why this turned into a run/walk instead of my planned run.

There were stairs on the trail, people. STAIRS.

I tried to run as much as possible for a long time, but eventually I realized that I could no longer in good conscience refer to this as a run. However, I'd already run (and continued to run) more than I would on a walk, so I created a new Crow category. Deal with it.

The moderate and strenuous trails met up before too long and I managed to stay on trails that I'd never run on before. I'd actually been really excited for this route because I've driven on roads that run near these trails and paths many times and I've always wanted to put foot to dirt and asphalt on them. I was delighted to find that I had quite literally stumbled on to them.

This route wasn't the easiest, but I really, truly enjoyed it. There were enough water fountains and spigots that I ran into along the way to keep my water bottle filled and it was maybe the prettiest run I've taken through DC.

I mean, come on.

At times I did feel like I was on the very trails that that hapless jogger who finds bodies runs on. Mostly I just found people with dogs. (Phew.)

Rock Creek Park kind of floors me. It is incredible to me that there is this giant, gorgeous park right in the middle of DC that seems miles away from everything. There was a 10-15 minute stretch where I literally saw no one. Literally. Where in DC can you say that?

I was pretty sure that I was headed in generally the right direction, but I was still happy to find a sign indicating that I was approaching my home state.

Maryland is thatta way!

Eventually I popped out of the woods at the DC/Maryland line, which is a turn-around spot for a lot of my local runs. Victory! But then I still had to run three miles to get to my neighborhood.

A nice little jaunt, if I do say so myself.

I'm so happy that I challenged myself to take a different route than usual. In fact, I might even do this route again and try to run the whole thing. I love that I can run 8 miles through the heart of the DC area and touch almost no roads. I might even branch off these trails onto new trails. There is a lot of park to explore out there!

STATS:

Metro station: Columbia Heights
Line: Green Line and sometimes Yellow Line
Distance: 8.37 miles
Time: 2:03:08
Pace: 14:42 min/mi
Crow sightings: Sniff. None.
Interesting tidbit: There is a Target right next to this station, which meant I could use the bathroom before I started running. Game changer, right there.

Glenmont Walk: A Long Walk on a New Path

2019-03-23T17:32:00.000-04:00

I have been working out pretty hard lately and hadn't taken a rest day for a while, so I decided that I should do my first Crow Walk on March 17, 2019, from the Glenmont Metro Station. It turns out, however, that Glenmont Station is seven and a half goddamn miles from my house, so I don't think that counts as a rest day even though I was walking.

Glenmont Station is the last stop on the Red Line. I had been to this station once to buy a special Metro card for the second Obama inauguration, but I'd never taken a train there. Upon first glance, it was much like every other Metro station in existence. Wikipedia seems to think it is of note that Glenmont is the only Red Line station to have a six-coffer design, leading me down a rabbit-hole that started with "what the hell is a coffer," and ending with "I have so many questions about coffers."

I could only find evidence of four coffers for the longest time until I realized that the train was blocking one of them.

The Glenmont Station was planned ever since the first layout was approved in 1968, but wasn't actually opened until 1998 due to a morass of bickering amongst politicians, political bodies, and businesses. I could go into it—and it is actually kind of interesting and dramatic—but I don't know that I really need to considering you can go to the Wikipedia page that lays out the whole story in more detail than I would. Also, my eyes kinda glazed over during parts of the story, so I'm not sure I fully understand it.

What I do understand is that Glenmont is not actually 7.5 miles from my house as the crow flies (ha!). But I wanted to take the Matthew Henson trail to the Rock Creek trail and that is what added all the mileage.

I recently figured out how to show you this map instead of a tiny thumbnail and am feeling preeeetty proud of myself.

The Matthew Henson trail is almost two miles away from the station, but you can get there without walking down Georgia Avenue, which is where Glenmont Station is. I walked through neighborhoods for about a mile and then doubled back to Georgia, because I wanted to spend the most time on the trail that I could.

You guys. People throw a TON of trash onto the side of Georgia Avenue. It's kind of a bummer. If anyone wants an old-school TV, I know where you can find one. I was very happy to arrive at the Georgia Ave trailhead so I could make a left turn off of the trash heap.

Most of the trash on this trail was empty beer bottles. People are the worst.

The walk itself was really nice. It was a gorgeous day, as you can see. It was warm enough that my capri leggings and light jacket were fine, although cold enough that eventually I wished I'd brought gloves because evidently walking doesn't warm up your hands all that much.

I'd never walked the Matthew Henson trail—and I LOVE checking out new-to-me running routes—so I was excited to check it out. There was even a trail-side informational display about Hanson, who I'd not thought about at all, but turned out to be very interesting. He was a Maryland-born black explorer who adventured with Robert Peary and planted an American flag at the North Pole in 1909.

On that same display there was also a set of instructions for walking on the trail that included the wise suggestion to "keep alert for surprise actions by dogs and children." Very sage advice for pretty much any day in your life, honestly.

Sadly, the day was yet another day without crows, but I spent a chunk of time watching three vultures circling the trail. They were pretty cool. I also found this fun, colorful little duck:

I forgot to quack at him.

Eventually this trail dumped me onto the Rock Creek Trail, which is very familiar to me. I stayed on it until I hit Knowles Avenue and walked up it into Kensington. The elevation on this walk was easy and fun and felt mostly level (except for those two hills at the end).

The break in the graph at about two hours is where I paused my Garmin at a stoplight and forgot to turn it back on right away.

So there we have my first Project Crow walk. Interestingly, I don't walk all that much slower than I run. (I mean, I do, but I expected each mile to take about 20 minutes. Even with stopping to gawk at signs and birds, I was only slightly over 18-minute miles.) My final review of my route: If you live in the area and haven't traveled on the Matthew Henson trail, I highly recommend it.

STATS:

Metro station: Glenmont
Line: Red Line
Distance: 7.51 miles
Time: 2:17:59
Pace: 18:23 min/mi
Crow sightings: None, but I saw vultures and a delightful duck.
Interesting tidbit: I found some fun online reviews for the Glenmont Station, including "staircase smells like pee every time," "fuck the red line!" "you can literally get away with anything on the 3rd floor of the garage," and the super descriptive and very helpful, "farecard machine."

Wheaton Run: The Easy Road

2019-01-27T20:12:00.002-05:00

I wussed out hard this week.

I was going to do a run of five or six miles, but you guys, it is cold out there and I am tired and so I decided to run from Wheaton Station, which is not only super close to me, but almost entirely a downhill run. This is going to cause me trouble when I only have stations that are, like, 20 miles away from me.

Anywho, on January 27, 2019, I ran from Wheaton Station on the Red Line to my neighborhood at a whopping distance of 2.05 miles.

I'd missed the train before this one by seconds, so I had to wait 18 minutes at my stop for this one to arrive. It was sad.

You know the Wheaton Metro Station as "the one with that escalator," or "the one where people get stabbed on the regular," but probably for the escalator. It is hard to get a photo of the Wheaton escalators that really demonstrates how long they are.

It's probably more dramatic to take the photo from the top, but that would have required me to get on the thing going down and, frankly, I just didn't have the time for a whole extra Wheaton escalator round trip.

These escalators are 230 feet long, which makes them the longest escalators in the Western Hemisphere. It takes about 2 minutes and 45 seconds to take the entire escalator trip if you don't do any walking. I used to commute from this station and it is hard to walk up the whole thing, even when it's helping you out by going up with you. If you want to know how out of shape you are, try to walk up those escalators. Warning: It is extremely demoralizing.

You can always tell regular commuters in the morning by their no-handhold, no-fear jog down the whole thing. I used to do that too and lived in terror that I would trip and plummet to the bottom on sharp escalator steps. Doing it is really a faith-based venture.

There are always parking spaces available at this Metro station, which is nice. Every once in a while when I can't get a spot at Forest Glen, I'll drive here so I can park. It's nice because it's in a garage too, so in bad weather, your car is protected. It's less nice because of the previously mentioned risk of stabbings. Remain vigilant.

The parking garage is across the street from the station, connected by a third-level bridge across Veirs Mill Road.


There is a fence in the road median to prevent people from just crossing the street on ground level. I'm guessing that was a dangerous problem in the past.

Parking in the garage usually involves walking up (or down) a stairwell in the parking garage, across the bridge, and then down another stairwell on the station side. There is an elevator, but I've never taken it, partly because it seems to be really, really slow and partly because it seems pretty grim in there.

I have seen people waiting here for a loooong time.

As I mentioned, this was my home station for a long time because I used to live in Wheaton. All in all, I like this station. I think the escalator adds a lot to the ambiance. Plus, it's right next to Wheaton Plaza, so it's super convenient for any shopping you might need to do.

There's also a fun statue of a commuter here. He's wearing roller skates, as you do when you commute. I read a fun post about how he seems to be skating directly into a garbage can, which is kind of a bummer for him.

I was briefly annoyed that it was hard to take a photo without that garbage can, but now I'm amused by it.

If the transit police don't give him a stern talking to about skates in a Metro station, he is going headfirst into the trash.

When I lived in Wheaton, I used to run up Veirs Mill to University, then run down University to Newport Mill. It was my standard, no-frills route when I didn't have the energy to think of someplace else to run. Consequently, I was already very familiar with every part of this trip. The only difference from my old route is that instead of heading back north on Newport Mill, I kept going into Kensington.

Easy peasy downhillsy.

There's not a whole lot to say about this run other than it didn't feel as cold as I thought it would. I may take a couple of weeks off from Crow runs because the cold weather makes me really sad. It's been very hard to motivate myself to exercise outside when I have indoor alternatives. Although once I'm out there, it usually feels pretty good. It is a constant battle.

STATS:

Metro station: Wheaton
Line: Red Line
Distance: 2.05 miles
Time: 23:59
Pace: 11:41 min/mi
Crow sightings: Zero. I'm starting to despair of ever seeing a crow again.
Interesting tidbit: The Wheaton and Forest Glen stations are the only DC Metro stations that have separate tunnels for each direction as opposed to having both sets of tracks on one large, common platform. These two stations are also the system's deepest, which is why they have those separate tunnels, it being cheaper to build it that way.

Georgia Ave-Petworth Run: Snow Day!

2019-01-22T17:17:00.001-05:00

I am a little behind on writing this Project Crow report. I ran home from the Georgia Ave-Petworth Station on January 12, 2019, which is—oh dear lord—ten days ago.

This is the least interesting part of the station, as you will soon see.

This station, serving the green and yellow lines, opened in September 1999 and serves several neighborhoods in the area. I think there is probably a lot going on in this area in terms of development and gentrification, but I am not knowledgeable enough about it to craft a thoughtful essay so instead I'll just tell you that I ran past a cider bar with a children's train table in the window so, you know, the hipsters' babies can play while they booze. (I'm not saying that I wouldn't park my kid there and take advantage of a couple of pints, but running past on a cold Saturday, it cracked me up.)

I think that one of the most interesting things about this station, which is pretty unremarkable otherwise, is that there is some really cool art there, most notably a two-part piece called "Homage to a Community," by Andrew Reid and Carlos Alves.

The main mural is 130 feet long and depicts major events in the neighborhood from Native Americans, featured at the far right of the mural, to modern-day commuters on the end at the left. I looked this up on the WMATA website and the difference in color from when it was new in 2002 to now is shocking.

In terms of square footage, that is a lot of art.

According to an article I found, this section features Duke Ellington and the U Street community.

I wish I'd known about this mural and what it represented prior to walking pretty quickly past it. I imagine it must be kind of neat to commute through that station every day and be able to see different parts of it. Frankly, it's way better than the walls of ads at most stations.

The mural is complemented by a tile piece on a nearby wall that adds a nice touch of color. It's very pretty and brightens up what are usually pretty grim surroundings. Let's be honest here, WMATA hasn't spent a lot of energy making Metro entrances appealing.

Not being "smart" about art, I'm not entirely sure what this "means."

There is more art outside in the form of a leaf titled "New Leaf" that was installed in 2007.

I'm willing to bet this gets used as a bench/leaning platform pretty regularly.

So there's the station. Now what about the run? I chose to run the day I did (a Saturday) because snow was in the forecast and I really love running in falling snow. I also knew that if I ran that Sunday, there would be accumulated snow and ice and I'd probably fall and hurt myself, because that is something that I do A LOT.

This run was kind of tough from the get go. It was probably the longest run I've done in a year; at the very least, it was the longest run I've done since my knee injury last March. See, I'm registered for the DC Rock N' Roll Half Marathon this March although I think I might have to bail on it because of a conflict at the same time and the fact that I'm not entirely sure I'll be ready for it. Regardless, I have a training plan and the plan for this weekend said 7 miles, so I found a Metro station 7 miles from my neighborhood to run from without considering any other factors. Oy.

I ran up Georgia from the station to Iowa and then cut across to 16th Street, which I took all the way to East-West Highway in Silver Spring. I started out pretty well, but my knee, which sometimes has a problem with uphills, started twinging a couple of miles in, slowing my already turtle-like pace. I'm a pretty slow runner. I was slow even before my injury, when I usually ran between 11- and 12-minute miles. I'm even slower than that now, but trying to work my way back.

It doesn't really matter which way you run on 16th street because it goes up and down a lot. Some of that was quite a slog. A couple of runners passed me going up one of the uphills and they turned around at the top of the hill and gave me a sympathetic nod and a "good job!" as they passed me on their way back down. I think I mighta looked like I was struggling.

Fun times with hills!

All in all it wasn't bad though. My legs were really tired, but I had some great sections where I felt good. At first I was really hot and stripped off my gloves, headband, and jacket. Eventually everything but the gloves got put back on. I finished the run pretty wet and chilly.

Now I'm in DC! Now I'm in Maryland! Now I'm blocking my camera with my water bottle!

Once I got to Silver Spring, I turned west on East-West Highway, a road I've run a bunch, but not for a long time. I was prepared for the hills there, but did more shuffling than bounding up them. I was close to the bottom, not far from taking a right onto Rock Creek Trail near Jones Mill Road when I saw my husband, Alex, appear, take a u-turn at the intersection, and go back the way he'd come. I was really excited to see him, but he didn't see me and so I sped up to catch him. The only problem is that he runs significantly faster than me on my best day so I was pretty sure it was a futile acceleration. Fortunately, there is a water fountain about a tenth of a mile in from the intersection where he u-turned and I caught him.

He's a very patient man.

And then he left me in the dust again. But once he got to the bottom of our neighborhood nemesis hill, he turned around and ran back to me. And then he ran back to the bottom of the hill. And then he ran back to me. It was both adorable and demoralizing. But then we got to walk up the hill together. My hip abductors were killing me on that walk. I don't know what activity works abductors so hard, but evidently I did that thing.

A quick stretch and a shower later, however, I felt much better and I was happy to cross my first non-Red Line run off my list.

STATS:

Metro station: Georgia Ave-Petworth
Line: Green and sometimes Yellow
Distance: 6.98 miles
Time: 1:30:58
Pace: 13:02 min/mi
Crow sightings: none
Interesting tidbit: Yellow line trains don't run north to Georgia Ave-Petworth past Mt. Vernon during rush hour, which seems inexplicable, but is really because, past Mt. Vernon, there aren't any "pocket tracks" allowing the trains to move out of the way while turning around to go the other direction. Because of that, it would take too long for trains to turn around at Fort Totten during rush hour, which would cause big gaps between trains.

Cleveland Park Run: "Clean and Free of Riff-Raff"

2019-01-13T12:22:00.000-05:00

(The title is pulled from a Yelp review of this station by what one only assumes is a very tolerant and down-to-earth person. I didn't see her in the station the day I visited so it was, indeed, free of riff-raff.)

When I first moved to the DC area 15 years ago, I thought it was weird that there was no Metro station at the zoo. Instead there were two nearby stations and you had to walk to the zoo from there. Because I had little kids with stubby legs and whiny mouths, I always drove there instead. Hence, I had never been to the Cleveland Park Metro Station before I ran home from there on January 6, 2019.

Yep, that's a pretty standard Metro platform.

Both Cleveland Park and the nearby Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan Station sit near but on opposite sides of the zoo. I did learn, however that not only is Cleveland Park 106 feet closer to the zoo than Woodley Park, but the walk there is downhill.

I tried to look up things that are 106 feet so you could get an idea of much shorter of a walk it is, but I came up with results like, "it's about one-and-three-fifths times as long as a cricket pitch," and "it's about three-fifths as tall as Nelson's Column," and "it's about one-and-seven-tenths times as long as a bowling lane," and I couldn't figure out the math and also what the hell is Nelson's Column and who knows how long a cricket pitch is? Aren't they supposed to compare distances to common objects? I finally discovered that 106 feet is either about half as long as the wingspan of a 747 or twice as long as a semitrailer, so depending on whether you prefer division or multiplication, you can visualize how much shorter the Cleveland Park walk is. That said, you're going to have to walk a half mile to get there regardless and once you're at the zoo, you will have to walk up and down that giant, stupid hill the park is built on anyway.

But I digress.

This station has been in operation since 1981, only five years after Metro started running. Until recently, the escalators there were the same ones that were installed at that time. I know this because the station is in what one would hope is the end-stages of an escalator replacement that started in June 2017, resulting in adventures in staircases.

What do you suppose those wood frames are holding up?

But see how shiny and presumably new that working escalator is!

Cleveland Park Station lets you get to street level on either side of Connecticut Avenue, which is what I ran down (and up and down and up) almost the entire way home. In fact, I ran five miles north on Connecticut Avenue and then took a right turn on Beach. Connecticut Avenue is made up of long, rolling hills and is adjacent to a lot of homes and businesses, which may be why there were approximately 65,000 runners on the sidewalk that day, every single one of them faster than me.

One of these graphics is a straight line and one indicates that you have to run uphill a lot.

The day I did this run, it was unseasonably gorgeous out. It was in the mid-50's, which pretty much mitigated the headwind I ran into for the first few miles. As much as I complain about being forced to run uphill, I actually really like to run along Connecticut. There's a lot to look at, there is usually space to run around pedestrians, and lots of people take their cute dogs out there. Also, if you need to drop into a store for a bottle of water, there are approximately 67,000 CVS stores on that street.

There are a number of Metro stations all in a line on Connecticut. I'm going to have to get creative to find new, non-Connecticut ways home from them. Stay tuned for that!

STATS:

Metro station: Cleveland Park
Line: Red
Distance: 6.21 miles
Time: 1:16:29
Pace: 12:19 min/mi
Crow sightings: zero
Interesting tidbit: Metro started running in 1976, which doesn't seem that long ago, but really is.

Forest Glen Run: Where is the Forest? Or the Glen?

2019-01-01T14:06:00.001-05:00

I took my very first Project Crow journey on December 9, 2018 from the Forest Glen Red Line Station. This station is the closest to my house of all of them and the route is almost entirely downhill, so this was a short, charming run.

Forest Glen Station is located on the corner of Georgia Avenue and Forest Glen Road in Silver Spring, Maryland. Probably the most interesting thing about this station is that at 196 feet deep, it is the deepest station in the whole of the system. There are no escalators, just high-speed elevators, many of which work much of the time. It is the only station that doesn't have escalators, so don't get stuck there if there is a power outage and you don't feel like walking up 21 flights of stairs.

Such a beautiful glen.

Evidently this station opened in 1990. It has a parking lot, although unless you're there by 9am, you will likely not get a spot. Depending on day of the week and the weather, it can fill up before then.

This station is located in Forest Glen, which is a census-designated place. I had never heard of a CDP before I started wondering about WHERE IS THE FOREST? Evidently a census-designated place is a concentration of population defined by the Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. Huh. Who knew? (Wikipedia knew.)

This run was great. Here is my route: I ran down Forest Glen Rd to Linden Lane across the railroad tracks. There are a couple of options after you cross the Beltway (I love running over highway overpasses—I don't know why. You can go the safe up Woodley Avenue then down Forsythe Avenue way or you can go on the twisty, no-shoulder Newcastle Avenue. I always take Newcastle because Forsythe Avenue is really steep. If you ever take Newcastle, be careful and be mindful of which side of the road you run on. I spend some time on the right side because there are lots of blind turns if you're on the left. After Newcastle, I ran to Jones Mill and took a right back under the Beltway and I was done! At 1.3 miles, this is definitely my shortest Project Crow journey.

It feels a lot twistier than it looks.

A big reason why this run was fun.

So there you have it: my inaugural crow run—on which I saw no crows. I have, however, seen them at that station before so it is not entirely unfitting that this was my first. On to the next one!

STATS:

Metro station: Forest Glen
Line: Red
Distance: 1.3 miles
Time: 14:28
Pace: 11:07 min/mi
Crow sightings: zero
Interesting run tidbit: This was the first official Project Crow run!

As the Crow Runs (and Walks and Cycles)

2019-01-01T14:06:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my new blog about my new fitness project: Project Crow — or, if it makes it easier for you, Project CRoW. Project Crow stands for Project Cycle, Run, or Walk. During Project Crow, I will be getting home from each DC-area Metrorail station by one (or more!) of those three methods.

My sophisticated activity-tracking system.

I came up with this after I heard about someone who had run to every Metro station and I thought that was a really cool idea. I don't know for sure if that is a thing that happened; maybe I'll do some research on it. Regardless, I liked the idea because I get bored with running the same routes all the time so this seemed like a good way to do some exploring and motivate myself to get out the door in my running shoes.

I live in Kensington, Maryland, and will run to my neighborhood, not my house, partly so that you can't triangulate in on my address and partly because I live at the top of a bummer of a hill that I don't like to run up. In more bummer news, Kensington is net uphill from most Metro stations. That super sucks but also leads me to my next topic, which is why not just run downhill to all the stations?

I decided to run home from the stations because it is a super drag to shiver all the way home on the Metro from a winter run and it is just downright embarrassing for me and gross for others when I sweat all the way home on the Metro after a summer run. I've done both; neither is awesome.

I should probably address the cycle and walk part of Project Crow here. I am primarily a runner. In fact at the time of this writing, I could probably count my adult outdoor bicycle experiences on one hand. That said, I have had knee issues of late, so the cycle part is there in case my knee blows out and I can't run anymore. Also, do you have any idea how far away the Wiehle-Reston East station is from my house and how long it would take me to run that distance? (It's really far and a long time.)

I do have a bike, so I hope to start some riding, but I don't really want to be killed during this endeavor, so I will need to find some bike path-accessible stations. I am an avid indoor cyclist (I love me some Peloton), so hopefully by the time I get on the road, my legs will know what they're doing.

I included walking in Project Crow because sometimes I am just not feeling a run and it is nice to walk. Also because it starts with a "W."

I'm really excited to begin this project. I tend to obsess over running routes. Whenever I am in a car or on the Metro, I watch roads and paths and think about terrain and elevation and how it would be to run on it. I have my eye on a few paths that I can't wait to run on. I'm excited to plan some routes home. I'm going to try to not run the same routes all the time so we can all experience new areas of the DC Metro area. This means that I won't always be taking the shortest route home, you know, as the crow flies.

There are a lot of Metro stations — 91 to be exact, with more on the way. My home station is Forest Glen, which is the first station I have run as part of this project. It is also the start of my commute to work (Farragut North is the other end — Red Line, represent!). The farthest Metro station that I've run from is Rosslyn, although that doesn't count for Project Crow because I did it last year.

You might have read this far wondering, why crows? What is up with the crow thing? Well. Crows are badass, yes? That's pretty much it. I'm a fan of corvids in general. They're smart, they're pretty, they make funny noises, and they eat roadkill. What's not to love? In fact, I added cycling and walking to my project in part because it made Project Crow work.

That's about it. My next post will be about my Forest Glen run. If you have questions, you can ask me and if you want more information, check out my FAQ.