2 hours closer to Miami and closer to finding a cure!

This morning I woke up around 6am to get ready to meet DC Team Challenge @ Tidal Basin for our weekly long run. The weather forecast didn't have high winds or any terrible cold... sunny and in the 40s... but probably only in 30s when we met, but the sun felt good!!

There was about 10 or so of us who met this morning.... I ran with Elizabeth this time. We ran together a few other times and do great together. Our pace is about the same, too... and we also do a good job motivating each other. The team spirit definitely helps with long endurance runs. Kate didn't make it to this meeting, but I'm sure she'll be back running with us soon after her injury heals. Get Better, Kate!! :-)

We ran for a total of 2 HOURS!!! And here's a list of the places we covered during our run:
1. the National Mall - this place will be covered with lots of ppl in a few wks for the Inaugural Day.
2. Capitol Building - it's an awesome feeling running by the Botanical Garden and seeing the US Flag flying at the Capitol Bldg... the reflecting pool in front of Capitol Bldg was a bit frozen, but it didn't stop some birds, geese and ducks from being in there.
3. Museums we ran by: the Smithsonian Museums (including the castle), the Air & Space Museum, Natural History Museum, National Gallery of Art, Holocaust Museum, Bureau of Engraving & Printing
4. the Washington Monument - we ran around a couple times... last time was to finish off the last 15 mins of the run before we headed back to our meeting location near the Tidal Basin
5. Tidal Basin including the Jefferson Memorial and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial
6. Lincoln Memorial
7. Arlington Cemetery - after crossing the Bridge behind Lincoln Memorial (Jeremy and I ran over the Bridge before during our lunch runs), we kept going... lol... all the way to the cemetery entrance!!
8. WWII Memorial - it is such a great feeling to run past the Washington Monument and head for the Lincoln Memorial as you run by the WWII Memorial and by the Reflecting Pool.

I believe we had cheerleaders along the run today, too. Every so often, I noticed a flock of geese settled on the grass as we ran by or in the pools or in the Tidal Basin... sometimes they were noisy as tho they were cheering us on. :-)

The mention of the geese is important in this post because geese are known to be used to symbolize team building situations. Here's an interesting fact: "As each goose flaps its wings in its place in the formation, it creates uplift for the goose following it. By flying in a “V” formation, scientists have calculated that the whole flock adds up to 71 % more flying range than if the geese flew separately."

So the Teambuilding Lesson: People who share a common direction and a sense of belonging to one another can go farther together than alone. Everyone in Team Challenge shares the common direction of preparing for a Half Marathon and raising awareness & money to find cures for horrible diseases!! Win- Win!! (we don't run in the V-formation tho lol)

Wow!! Running in downtown DC is really great and adds to the excitement of what we're running for. After running for 2 hours, I felt like I could have kept going... Elizabeth commented to me when we were running to the Arlington Cemetery (about an hour into our run), that she remembers it being a dig deal for us to get to 1 hour running... and now we're running 2 hours w/ no problem. So Miami is 2 hours closer now!!

120 mins of running means we probably ran about 12 miles today!! Click here to see how you can help... donations are accepted up until about Jan 16th. And the ING Half Marathon is January 25th in Miami!! (starts @ 6:15am - yeaa for morning runs lol)

I don't think I could map out today's run!

Today was fun to run w/ Jeremy @ lunchtime.  When we started I commented that I was bored with running to Lincoln Memorial this week... imagine that! bored of running to Lincoln, and ever since I moved to DC Metro I always wanted to run to and around any of the Memorials.

Jeremy did a great job running anywhere and everywhere!  We started out as usual from our office bldg - a block from the Capitol Bldg & the Mall - and ran on the opposite side of Independence Avenue than we normally run.  Then Jeremy made a left turn at the light and we ran towards the Potomac River by L'Enfant Plaza.  We ran down towards the river in the direction of the Tidal Basin where I remember sneaking through to get to the Cherry Blossoms in the spring time during the festival.  If you visit DC, that's the time to come - April - when the Cherry Blossoms are in full bloom.  They're beautiful!!  Plus by April, the millions of people expected for Obama's Inaugural Event in January, will have been long gone!  It's going to be crazy in DC... and I'll be running around them all - ha ha!

There's also a Chesapeake Seafood place that sells fresh fish year round... always lots of tourists there and it's within walking distance of the Tidal Basin.  I have yet to get anything from there... then we headed back to the Washington Monument and across the National Mall towards Chinatown, The National Archives, FBI Hoover Building (a friend of mine who's an agent took me to lunch there, it was awesome!), by the National Building Museum... mentioning these federal buildings reminds me of when I awarded & administered the security guard contracts for these buildings.  Minus the FBI Building of course!!  Oh and that reminds me, we did run by the huge, gigantic Ronald Reagan Building... that was the best security guard contract I had while working @ Federal Protective Services HQ.  We ran by so many important places... then again it's DC... National Air & Space Museum, Old Smithsonian Castle, Dept of Agriculture....

I think I've gone off target with this post and need to concentrate more on how my running went today.  We ran for 50 mins, so that would mean about 4-5 miles.  I'm taking tomorrow off with running and relaxing my legs to get them ready for a long run with Kate on Saturday morning along with DC Team Challenge.  Kate is a lot of fun to run with... so I'm glad she mentioned setting a distance goal for us to run together on Saturday morning.  I'll continue to keep you posted how the running goes.... This is one of the best challenges I have committed to and so glad friends & family are supporting me and the great cause for CCFA - Thank you!!

Run for My Lunch.... literally!!

This week I'v been running for my lunch... well I know I've been doing it for the past few months, but for some reason it stood out today.  It's almost a habit now - I have to run @ lunchtime!  It's a lot of fun and definitely is a good stress reliever.

So in a few days, I'll be competing in my first 10K run.  I'm really excited about that b/c lots of us from Team Challenge will be participating and it will be a good preview for the Miami Half Marathon!!! Miami is only a couple months away - I'm so happy with all the support I've received and for CCFA.  Thank you!!

I'll mention one specific run Jeremy & I completed this week... actually it was Monday!  I mentioned about always wanting to run in DC since I moved here a couple years... but I always wanted to run around the Tidal Basin.  (click "Tidal Basin" to see an ariel view of it... and you can see the Capitol Bldg, where we start our run every lunchtime, in the top center of pic.) 

I missed the Team Challenge run around the Tidal Basin at the beginning of our training bc my niece and sister visited me (remember I did lots of walking that week... and according to Nicole, that still counts!!), so when Jeremy headed for the Jefferson Memorial I was really happy.  We not only ran to the Jefferson Memorial, but passed it and then to the Lincoln Memorial, by the Washington Monument and down the Mall to the Capitol Building... back to our office bdg.  It was a great run!!  I've rode my bike around the Tidal Basin, but now I've ran there, too!! :-)  Jeremy suggested it was a 6 mile run according to what we've run before... but when I did a quick check on run.com website, it came to be about 5.5 miles.... so it was probably 6 miles since Jeremy says I'm not perfect recreating our running routes - I just follow him! :-)

I'm really looking forward to my 10k run... I'll definitely let you know how it goes... I'm not worried about my timing so much as just running the entire course and feeling good at the end.  I'll continue to update you on my running progress... and if you don't see a post, check on the right for my daily running.  

Thanks again for all your support!! Go DC Team Challenge!!! We're going to find a cure for colitis & crohn's!!!

What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger... so we'll keeping adding more distance

We've had two great runs so far this week, both at least 5 miles! Week 6 has been awesome for me!

I commented to Jeremy before the start of the last run that I really enjoyed just running anywhere and then figuring out how far we ran. So that's what we did on our second run this week... totaling 5.5 miles (at least). Jeremy mapped out the run and you can check it out here. We ran by the White House in this run... definitely something you can't do everyday... or maybe we can lol :-)

Today, Jeremy hinted already at going for the 6 miles! I'll keep you posted... 6 miles during Week 6 sounds like a great idea lol :-)

Thank you for everyone's donations!! I'm really getting excited as the time gets closer for the run in Miami... I know I'll be prepared and definitely psyched with everyone's support! :-)


Week 5 Summary:

• 10/17: Ran 5 miles
• 10/16: REST
• 10/15: Ran 45 mins/about 4 miles
• 10/14: Ran 5 miles
  

Solved!!! - Mystery Run Distance + Route

Jeremy provided me with this link for our run yesterday. I really enjoyed changing up from our normal run last week to Lincoln Memorial. It looks like we surpassed our 4 miles mark... but this is just an estimate... so at least we matched 4miles if we didn't go over.

I reviewed the route Jeremy mapped out and I think it's pretty close to where I remember running yesterday.

Not sure about running route today, but we're meeting @ 12pm. I'll keep you posted! :-)

Mystery Run up to Capitol Hill

Today, Jeremy and I decided to switch it up and just run anywhere. Running the same route everyday can get boring.... so Jeremy paid attention to the time and I'm sure he kept his usual pace ahead of me, so we're pretty sure we ran equivalent distance.

We ran up Capitol Hill to start... this is tough just walking up it, but to run up it... well, sure you can understand. So we ran around the Capitol Hill neighborhood -turning at red lights or when we saw a clear straight sidewalk to run on... eventually, we turned to run down Capitol Hill and Jeremy asked if I would like to run back up Capitol for the ending... opposed to a lap around the Mall to finish off the run. We opted for the run up the Hill and then Jeremy encouraged me on the last bit to sprint to our office bldg.

It was a good run and we enjoyed the beautiful fall weather... I'll post the route/run sometime this week. More running tomorrow!