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Today’s Race for the Cure has us thinking about fun jogs that originate from PQ.
When plotting out your jogging course, the Mall is a natural place to run. A loop of the mall (3rd ST to 23rd, and back) is roughly 3.5 miles, which can be made to 5 miles or more by looping the Capitol and Lincoln Memorial. If you can run even a 12 minute mile, a 5 mile run only takes an hour, for many of us getting up at 6 am and running this route would leave us plenty of time to shower & make it to work before 9.
As nice as a jog on the Mall can be, sometimes you need to combine tasks to make the most of your free time. Here are a few ways to combine your jog with your chores (a good running bag will be necessary):
- Whole Foods at 14th & P is an easy 2.4 miles round trip. Slightly uphill getting there when your bag is empty, slightly downhill coming back. Obviously you wouldn’t make a big grocery store run if you had to carry everything home, but a single meal is easy enough.
- Eastern Market is a tough 2.2 miles away (that uphill at the Capitol is tiring!) but pretty rewarding too. A loop back home doubles that mileage, but this is the type of run you could make, then cool down while checking out the flea market. And with a metro stop so close, you can even buy items too big to take on your jog.
- Maine Ave Fish Market is another fun run, you get to go along the mall, then down towards the Tidal Basin with Jefferson in the background. This is an easy 2 mile run, which can be made much harder on your 2 mile return when you’re back is carrying 6 lbs of shrimp on ice. When you get home and start the shrimp boil, chugging Dixie or Turbo Dog, it will have been worth the pain.
So take the PQ challenge and tell us about your favorite runs, and we’ll see you on the Mall!
(Photo: Dawn breaks on the Mall, Memorial Day 2007)
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Comments
I’m a running blogger based in Toronto who runs a lot in DC (my gfriend lives in Penn Quarter E street by the FBI building). I’m training for the Marine Corps Marathon and the Army 10 miler.
I’m dying for any advice on routes . These are my usual runs
One loop of the mall, starting down Penn Ave toward Capitol building.. that’s about 5 miles.
Å 9 to 10 miler (two loops of the mMall.
yumke, I think a great run that can cover lots of what you’re describing would be to head down the mall to rock creek park up towards g’town. RCP gets packed, and some of the sidewalks get crowded, but if you bail on it right around P ST you can then either jog P to 30th, turn right and head up to the Oak Hill Cemetary, Montrose Park and Dumbarton Oaks. I used to take my dog through there all the time, it’s really a great area in the city.
A one way route like that would be about 5 miles. Sounds like you can jog a lot farther than that so you could then either head up Wisconsin or Mass Ave to Glover Park, or stay in Rock Creek & exit at Calvert & Conn Ave, then head over to Adams Morgan, across to Meridian Hill Park, then down 16th to come home.
Doing the Calvert/AM, Meridian Hill, 16h run would be over 10 miles, with lots of up hill/down hill.
I used to live in Glover Park and would do the following run:
– south on Wisconsin (downhill) to M
– left on M
– left on one of the low 20s or high 10s streets
– left on Mass
– left on Wisconsin
the Mass Ave and Wisconsin Ave legs hook up with downtown and G’town so they are great if you want to throw a serious hill into the mix (approx. 500′ elevation change) and trot through some nice residential, but urban neighborhoods. you go from the lowest point in DC (the river) to one of the highest.
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check out
http://www.mapmyrun.com
it is great site for figuring out your course.