Feb. 18

AM: 10 miles easy

PM: 4 miles easy

Ran down the Rock Creek Park trails and up Beach Drive in the morning. Because today was a federal holiday, most of Beach Drive was closed to cars. The fog, warm weather (60 degrees), and stillness this morning made for a beautiful run. A scarcely saw any other people. I did, however, almost run into a deer, which I didn't see until it was about 10 feet from me. I also saw some sort of enormous, labrador-sized bird, which I'm assuming was just a really big a turkey. Or maybe an emu. I don't know--it was the biggest bird I've ever seen in the wild.

In the evening after work, I set out for a run with Samy from his place in Columbia, and it became obvious about a mile in that he was horribly sick. He kept telling me to run on ahead, but aside from the fact that I had no idea where I was, I was sure I'd be picking up his lifeless body somewhere on the way back if I left him. He didn't look good. When we finished, he was obviously out of it--he could barely stand up and walked us into the wrong apartment building to get back to his place. This reminds me of a lesson that I, too, have learned the hard way: don't ever run with a fever.

Afterward, I hung out at his place with Valerie, Pat, and Jen, eating Samy's mom's spinach pies and watching "My Dad is Better than Your Dad"--which may be the worst reality/game show ever conceived. Thank God the writer's strike is over; it's obvious that the networks were starting to get desperate.