D.C. Flatlands

The downside of living in the D.C. area, for runners looking to do hill work, is that the place is mostly flat. The best I could find is a grassy slope near my home that's about 40 yards long (about 36 meters for the other 95% of you that use the metric system), where I ran a set of eight pick ups yesterday, preceded and followed by a mile warm-up and cool down.

When I was in high school, I remember reading about a cross-country coach from Florida who faced similar topographical challenges. His solution was to take his team to a large garbage dump / land fill to do hill sprints. At first I admired his creativity, which was easy to say from my fresh smelling home. But funky odors aside, I later thought about the safety of running in a place where everyone dumps their refuse, which probably includes used syringes, human waste and other stuff you wouldn't want to trek into your foyer. However, one of his athletes did go on to the national finals. But if running in waste is the secret to success, then I'm destined for mediocrity.