Eagles and Beavers

I did not run my weekly extra-20 miler today. The mental edge just wasn't there.

Instead, I escorted Denise through her 6.25 mile run. To mix it up, I took her on a route she'd never run before. The heart of the Beltsville USDA Agricultural Research Station is roughly 3 miles from our home. It is bisected by a hilly, rough country road: Beaver Dam Road. The road glances its namesake, Beaver Dam Lake, nesting site of a pair of eagles. The actual approach to the lake is via Research Road, usually closed to non-federal traffic on weekends. While we've driven Beaver Dam Road many times as stress relief, Denise had never seen Beaver Lake and the eagles' nest.

Today we parked in a small parking lot along Beaver Dam Road and ran through its gnarly woods and open fields. Coming upon Research Drive, we followed it down to the swampy lake. Today, no eagles were to be seen, though we tarried by the prehistoric lake setting in the gray gloom of a budding Maryland spring. Then we continued our run.

Our run took us to a little "M25" painted in the road. It marks the beginning of mile 25 of the George Washington's Birthday Marathon and the beginning of a 250 foot sadistic rise to the end of the race. Denise and I jog easily up the slope that seemed so impossible to race 12 months ago in the closing moments of a full effort marathon.

We turned around at 3.13 miles, just after entering old Greenbelt and threaded our way back into the woods and glens away from development.