Middle-of-the-Pack Girl

Lincoln Memorial at dusk

I don’t want to jinx it, but so far my trip has been smooth.  Flight was good, left on time, I even sat in the exit row without having to pay extra, and had an empty seat next to me. What else can you ask for, right? I was suprised at how empty our plane was on the way down here, but hey, I was flying on a Saturday after all.

My luggage didn’t get lost – I always consider that a plus (having lost one bag PERMANENTLY on vacation in Myrtle Beach a few years ago), although now Delta charges $15 for each bag you have to check. That kind of sucks considering there’s so much you can’t carry in your carry-on bags nowadays that you are basically relegated to having to check a bag no matter what. Bill and I are hoping that is not the case when you fly first class, which we are doing when we go on vacation.  I just found out yesterday that we are flying first class when we go thanks to my brother-in-law who is just amazing. He’s a member of the Platinum Club with Delta (he hit the 1 million flight miles at least a year ago, I think, can you believe it?) so he was able to get us tickets in first-class. The only other time we’ve done that is when he helped us get tickets for our honeymoon, to Aruba.  I love my brother-in-law!!

I ran with the ladies from my running group this morning.  We all agreed it is so much better to run with people than to tough it out by yourself.  We ran 6.29 miles and it didn’t feel like it at all. I was so glad I did it.

Tomorrow I have to be at the conference by 9 for 2 workshops, so I need ot make it an early night, but the picture above was one that I took last year with my cell phone on one of my night runs while I was here.  Below is a picture I took of the Iwo Jima Memorial last year.  (It truly is HUGE!) Hopefully this year I can go walking around at night with my real camera, and will try to take some really good pictures for all of you, especially for those of you who’ve never been to D.C. before. If you haven’t, you so HAVE to come to this city, it’s really like no other.

Iwo Jima, in the early morning around 9

I can’t believe April Fools Day is really my 1 YEAR BLOG ANNIVERSARY!

Have a great night everyone!

Two runs, in two days. Couldn’t have been more diametrically opposed from each other if they tried.

Thursday was awesome. I set a PR for myself with the 5-mile distance.  46:40, average pace of 9:20.  That’s better by at least two minutes. Not bad considering the second mile is a lot of ups and downs. It’s also when the sunrise began, and Untouched by the Veronicas came up on my iPod. Explains why that was my second fastest mile, even in 23 arctic degrees!  The rest of my route is pretty flat, but still I do run early in the morning so I was happy that my sleepy brain and legs could keep on going.   The sunrise was gorgeous. I think because it was so cold, it made the color stripes appear more crisp than normal. They were pink and green (preppy colors!)

Yesterday was not so great. The first two miles were just fine, pretty decent anyway, and it was in the 30s so I was down to two layers in the morning – wahoo! However, once I got to my turnaround point, you know, as far away from my house as I could be, suddenly I didn’t feel so good. On my way back, I looked longingly at the swamp/wetland I passed (you know it’s not good when that’s the case), and probably would have used them if they weren’t literally off the side of the road, and I was wearing white! (Yeah,  not great camoflauge.)  I also passed some kids waiting for the bus, and toyed with the idea of asking if I could use their bathroom in their house, but then I was thinking, they’d look at me as if I was a weirdo.

Oh, and earlier in the run when I reached down for my sports beans, what do you think I left at home?!  So, anyway, I found out yesterday, my body felt worse when running than walking, so I pretty much speedwalked home as fast as I could.  Ah well. It was a shorter run anyway, so at least I didn’t have any other major problems!

Anyway, I have to get ready to go meet some friends for a quick 5 mile run this morning and then get home to pack for D.C.  It’s supposed to be in the mid-60s there this week, and seriously I don’t know if I’d even know how to dress for that kind of weather right now, it’s been so long!