Live from D.C.

Hello all! I’m coming to you today not from my humble abode in NYC, but from Obama’s backyard in our nation’s capital! Okay, not exactly his backyard, but since his front gate is only a block away from my hotel, I think that’s close enough! I’m here all this week on a semi-work basis enjoying the view and checking out the sights. I’m considering it only semi-work because the conference I’m supposedly attending isn’t really mandatory, so I’ve been attending only half the sessions. Hey, don’t judge, that’s more than what a lot of my other colleagues are doing. At least I don’t take day trips to Baltimore or Virginia when the conference is right here in D.C.!

One of the surprising things I noticed as soon as I arrived in town was the number of people I saw running on the streets. Out on the sidewalks, in the parks, people were out and about more than I remember in other cities. The most impressive thing about it is that there’s been a thunderstorm watch here for the past few days and the weather has been very erratic. Yet, these people were running with their Ipods and Garmins as oblivious to the heat and humidity as they are to me gawking at them. Needless to say, I was rather impressed.

As for my own run, I finally got one in today after conference before it got dark. A couple of days ago, Betsy recommended that I "run the monuments". So I took her up on her suggestion and circled the track from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol Building and back, bypassing the Washington Monument in the middle. It turned out to be a fun and glorious run! In between the national landmarks, I passed by high school teams playing baseball on the lawns and younger girls playing kickball and older teens tossing a Frisbee around. I also saw many runners both young and old taking the same path that I was. I didn’t run too hard, but took care to enjoy the summertime sights all around me. In the end, the 9.4 miles that I ran (at 7:14 avg pace) felt more like 2.4. If it hadn’t gotten completely dark by the time I was done I would have gone back and ran some more.

The only drawback to all of this running is that I was actually banking on being busy with conference and easing up on my miles this week. Unfortunately, it looks like that’s not going to happen now as I’ve already planned on another 6 mile run tomorrow and a 10K race on Saturday before heading back. Oops! But as long as I hold myself to keeping my pace at a recovery effort, I think the extra miles won’t bother me. I’m hoping anyway as I’m about to start marathon training again in another couple of weeks and I want to be as fresh as possible heading in.