I Heart Washington, DC

We got to our hotel in Washington, DC at 6pm Friday evening.  I did my 5 miles on the treadmill in the hotel gym.

The next morning I was ecstatic to get outside and run.  I absolutely love DC.  I started coming down in college to visit my best friend at Georgetown University.  She had a great apartment right by the canal.  I have fond memories of smoking, eating, and walking all over the city (I still get nostalgic about my tobacco...boo hoo).  My husband's headquarters are in DC, so we have visited about once a year during the last fourteen years.  We even lived in Crystal City, Virginia for six months.

I love that DC is a walking city, much like New York.  I love the extra-terrestrial subway system.  I love the monuments.  I really love the free museums (If we brought the whole family to just one museum in NYC it would cost us over $100 just to walk through the door!) !  And I love the energy.  It's exciting to be in the heart of our country's government.  The only downside to living in the area is the unholy traffic on I-95.  I dare say it is worse than the Long Island Expressway.  If we ever lived here, we would just have to live in an adorable brownstone in Georgetown so we wouldn't have to deal with rush hour.  Problem solved.

I set out for my ten miler at 10:30am.  It was around 40 degrees and the sky was a cloudless bright blue.  I had shorts on, a tech t-shirt, my daughter's bright yellow American Eagle hoodie, my son's wool army hat, and my new sunglasses.  The JW Marriott is on 14th street and Pennsylvania Avenue.  I ran down 14th to the mall and then back up to Pennsylvania to  the White House.  There were tourists everywhere, sometimes I had to zig zag to get through their groups.

Home sweet home

I ran back to the mall to the Lincoln Memorial.  Running on the path along the Reflecting Pool toward the memorial is an amazing experience.  I ran up the stairs and looked east toward the Washington Monument.  It's hard not to feel patriotic during moments like these.

I cannot believe Abe had the nerve to photobomb 

my picture of that nice family!  

Isn't that sky unreal?!

I ran behind the Lincoln Memorial and took the Memorial Bridge over to the Arlington National Cemetery.  There is no running on the cemetery grounds so I just did a u-turn and went back over the bridge.  There were a lot of runners crossing the bridge in both directions.  Back in DC proper, I stopped at the World War II Memorial.  I took a terrible selfie in front of the New York pillar (there are 52 pillars with the names of the states and US territories inscribed on them).  An older woman asked a man who had just taken his family's portrait if they were from NY.  The man proceeded to tell her that he was from Yonkers and is the landlord to President Clinton in NYC.  He said his young son and the president are besties and then showed us (because I inserted myself into this conversation) pictures to prove it.  He said Mr. Clinton is extremely kind, thoughtful,  and classy.  He then apologized for bragging.  I had to tell him that Mr. Clinton just happens to be my favorite president so I was happy to hear confirmation of what I had always suspected (this is a running blog, not a political blog.  I only mention my admiration for President Clinton because of this chance meeting.  It is not meant to start a political debate.  I understand he may not be your fav prez, but he's mine.)

At my 8 mile mark I was heading up Capitol Hill.  Yes, it really is a hill.  Just 75 feet elevation, but at the end of my run it was a challenge.  It pays off though, because when you run to the front of the capitol building, it can take your breath away.  It is such a magnificent, majestic work of architecture, you can't help but be in awe.  Too bad there are a bunch of knuckleheads who work there.  Maybe if they took the time to appreciate where they were, they would take more pride in their jobs (oops, sorry.  Now I'm getting all politically preachy.  I'll stop.).  I flew down the hill and back to the hotel feeling more energized than ever,  The run was 10.25 in 1:28:09, an 8:36 pace.