Stories from the south, ep. 3 (and final): The Hills of Virginia.

In case you missed my first two stories (check them out. Here! And here!), I had a few nutty encounters. But, overall, I had a wonderful trip and it was good catching up with family. Most of the people I met were lovely. I just had to share my nutty stories!

My final story is nowhere near as nutty. Nor, most likely, as interesting (great intro, huh?). But here it is: The Hills of Virginia.

If you've read this blog for any length of time, you know I'm a hill runner. I love my hills and I've always thought I live in one of the hilliest neighborhoods going. That may be so, but I found much hillier neighborhoods in the suburbs of D.C. Specifically, Arlington, VA.

In the middle of our southern swing, we traveled to Arlington to stay with another sister-in-law and her family. Since we were spending two nights there, it was the perfect opportunity to get in some running.

I figured that I would be able to navigate the tree-lined streets with no problem at all, but I'm a naive travel runner. It's true: I got lost. Lost!

I had headed out from my SIL's house, running down the steep incline of her street. From there, I winded my way through the neighborhood in a direction that, I thought, would lead me to eventually hook up with the main road that I knew would get me where I needed to go. No such luck. First, every street seemed to be a steep, steep uphill. There must have been downhills and a few little straightaways in there, but where? I don't remember them.

Second, the roads were twisty and that threw me off. Third, and most important, every road I turned on when I was trying to get to the main road was a dead-end. There was a golf course plunked in there that I just didn't know about. So, dead-ends all around.

After turning down the fifth dead-end, I became a little frustrated and decided to retrace my steps and head back the way I came. The streets were so hilly as I was heading out, I thought they would be all downhill heading back so it would be a breeze.

Wrong. As I mentioned, I got lost and, as such, I was running uphill almost the entire time (because I wasn't retracing my steps; I was going in all sorts of wrong directions), until I finally found my SIL's street. By that time, my legs were beat from all the uphill running and my nerves were shot from thinking I would be lost forever. (Yes, I did have my cell phone with me so I could have called for help if I had gotten really lost.)

The run taught me two things: 1) I need to think about where I'm going before taking off for a run in a new place and 2) boy, I'm not as much of a superstar hill runner as I thought -- those Arlington hills were tough!

Lesson learned: My run the following day was much better. I didn't get lost and the hills seemed more kind.

The End of the Hills of Virginia

That concludes my stories from the south. Thanks for reading. And have a great weekend!

~ Felice