I've Been Everywhere, Man!

It certainly seems I have done my fair share of travelling this year. This weekend was no exception as my wife and I went down to Washington DC to meet up with her family. But, the weekend started off with a 5k race. The annual Ivyland 5k or as the locals call it, the 'Pancake race.'

We woke up Saturday morning around 6a to the sounds of thunder, lightning and heavy rain. At that point we were questioning our sanity on whether or not to run this race. This particular event has a special meaning to me as it was my first race I did when I got back into running and stayed with it. So, I like to try to run it whenever I can. Plus, the entry fee is very reasonable and you get free pancakes, peaches, coffee and orange juice at the end. Who doesn't like free? By 6:45a, the rain had lightened up and we decided to just go for it.

As we were waiting around for the start, the rain had eased up but the humidity was like a blanket over us. Luckily, it wasn't hot just humid. I wasn't going to push myself anyway. Humidity and I don't seem to get along very well and that day would be no exception. It will make me nauseous if I push it and, with the second mile being all uphill, it didn't make sense to do so. My goal for the race was just do sub 9:00 miles.

By the first mile (which I did in 8:15), I was pretty drenched in sweat. And, the picture wasn't going to get any prettier. As I mentioned, the second mile is long, slow uphill climb. I was passing people along the way but paid for it as I crested the hill and tried to recover. The third mile was down the hill you just climbed. I don't know why I never think of this until after a race but I should bring a bandana or small washcloth on days like this. Your eyes sting from the sweat pouring down. A hat could help but why don't I just carry something in my pocket?

As I rounded the bend to the finish line, I felt strong. I sprinted the last 100 yards with relative ease and finished officially at 26:25 (26:19 watch time). All three miles were under 9:00 so I was pleased with the results. Leading up to the race, my wife wasn't sure how she was going to do but she did fine. I was proud of her as she doesn't have a lot of confidence when she trains but tries hard during the race and does the best she can. After the race, we headed directly to the firehouse and scarfed down our share of pancakes as we needed to hit the road for Washington DC.

It only takes about 3 hours to get to Washington DC from our house. I've been down there many times but I never get tired of going. We stayed in Alexandria, VA which is great town to visit in and of itself. Plus, it is convenient to just hop on the Metro to go into Washington.

The trip down was uneventful until we hit the city itself. Then it poured. And poured. My wife's family didn't get down there until later than expected. The plan was to go see the Washington Nationals play the Milwaukee Brewers that night as we had tickets to the game. I was never in this stadium before so I saw it as an extension of my baseball trip back in June.

It was dinnertime by the time my wife's family got there, so we decided to eat in Alexandria before heading over to the game. It was still coming down pretty hard so we knew that either the game was going to be in a rain delay or, if not, who the heck wants to sit out in the rain anyway?

We headed for the game after dinner and wound up missing only the first two innings (though we did miss out on a chance to get a Frank Howard bobblehead and the Brewers were up 7-2 when we entered the stadium). It is a nice stadium, but, in my travels, all the new stadiums are nice now. The crowd was on the smaller side, I'm sure because of the weather but the team isn't that good as well. There were areas of the stadium that was closed and it didn't have that buzz you get from a large crowd. Still, the Nationals did have a chance to come back as they wound up tying it at 8-8 but losing at the end, 11-9. It was long day and night and we were all ready to go back to the hotel.

On Sunday, we headed for the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. It had been awhile since I was there and, again, it's something I don't ever get tired of going. We spent most of the day there and, in truth, we didn't get a chance to see everything we wanted. It's just a great place to walk around and see history, especially seeing the Apollo 11 command module in the 40th anniversary year of its flight. You look how cramped the conditions were and the fact the computer power for the mission was equivalent to running something with today's cellphone and you just wonder how they did it. Truly amazing.

Afterwards, we walked around a bit before heading home. The dummy that I am forgot to bring my camera along (by the way, it doesn't count if you take your camera out of the drawer, charge the battery, put it in a place that you won't forget to bring it along but don't actually physically place it in the luggage) but did have my cellphone to take some pictures.

Despite the weather, it was a fun weekend and a good way to start winding down the summer and prep for the fall.

(Notes: SteveRunner and I have signed up for the Valley Harvest half-marathon in Wolfville, Nova Scotia on October 11, 2009 as we celebrate the 3rd annual World Wide Festival of Races weekend. Though my intention at the beginning of the year was to run a marathon as the finishing touch of my 50 years of life celebration, it became more appealing to me to train only for a half marathon instead. Plus, Steve agreed with me that it might be best for him to slow down this year and let his ankle heal a bit. As of now, I plan on running the Philadelphia Distance Run in September and possibly do the half at the Philadelphia marathon in November. It may be too ambitous and I may say the heck with that after Nova Scotia but that's the plan so far.)

(Above: Washington Monument)

(Above: The Capitol Building from the National Mall)

(Above: The Lunar Lander at the Air & Space Museum)