My running buddy was back in town one last time yesterday to deal with movers and tie up any other loose ends before heading to his new home on the West Coast.

Knowing it was our last chance to run the monuments together, we squeezed in a short run.



It was slow going. My legs were toast from my CrossFit class earlier in the day, and his head was more-than-a-little sore from a nasty fall he had on his snowboarding trip earlier in the week.

But it felt good to tackle the monuments together one more time.

It was chilly out, but the sun was shining and glistening off all the monuments.



We couldn't have really asked for better weather for a send off run.

We did what's become our normal loop, starting near Lincoln, running along the Reflecting Pool past the Korean War and World War II memorials and out around the Washington Monument.



We didn't venture much further down the Mall yesterday because we were short on time and neither of us had a whole lot of energy in the tank.

We chatted a bit during the beginning of the run, about my work and teaching my class, about his new job and office out in LA.

As we were approaching the Washington Monument, I told him to soak it all in because he wasn't going to get views like that in LA.



On the way back, we mostly ran in silence just sort of taking it all in, plodding along and enjoying the weather.

It's probably no surprise to any of you that saying goodbye isn't an easy thing for me to do. So when our run wrapped up, I didn't linger for too much because I knew I'd probably start crying.

We said our goodbyes, made promises to keep and touch and visit and such. So maybe this wasn't really our last run. Just our last run for a little while.