Okay. Let's get the mea culpas out of the way early. Yes, there is a heat advisory in DC today. Yes, I got a late start on my run, and the temperature was already in the 80's somewhere. And Yes, I was only planning on running 6-8 miles. But my legs felt good, and when I hit the 4-mile marker, I told myself, "If you can run one more mile, you'll get a drink at Canal Lock 5. My rationale was sound: Rather than run an 8-mile round trip with no drink, why not run two 5-milers with a drink in the middle? You would think that rationale makes sense, wouldn't you?
You'd be wrong. The drinking fountain at Lock 5 WAS NOT WORKING.
I don't panic easily, though I did start noticing a lot more sweat than before. I turned around and ran two miles toward Georgetown, but the thirst started to overwhelm me. I was never really in danger of any heat-related illness, but I was losing the mental battle. Horror stories started popping into my mind, like the story of the whaling ship Essex, where surviving crew members were so thirsty they sucked marrow out of bones of their less-fortunate crewmates.
At the 3-mile marker, I hopped off the trail and happened across a drinking fountain. I have run past this spot probably 100 times (98 of those times very thirsty), and have never noticed the fountain before. Lucky for me, this fountain worked!
As I finished my run, I laughed at myself a little for panicking about the water. Though the thought of some juicy bone marrow still sounds pretty good ...
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