Washington D.C. was so damn cool

This whole recent Washington D.C. race gig started because a couple of homeless kittens won the pet lottery and landed themselves at Dominica and Ivar's house just outside Washington D.C.;  I say they won the lottery because Dominica and Ivar don't have kids.  Their pets are their kids and their kids are a bit spoiled.  I've often dreamed of coming back as a dog in their household in my next life!  That would be amazing!  When I learned about their recent adoption of two kittens from a local rescue group, I knew we had to plan a trip to visit.  The aunts needed to meet the new nieces.  Yes it started with those precious and lucky kittens and totally snowballed from there.  The weekend involved an unfortunate gas cap incident involving the police, a post-run interview that may render Ivar FAMOUS in the D.C. running community, forgotten insulin and a wrestling match with my luggage that may land me on youtube! And before we even made it out of Michigan there was an epic 3.5 mile run through the outskirts of the MSU campus during which we even did a vodka bomb at a local pub because we wanted to prove we weren't old! Unfortunately, we are old, but whatever! Oh and we visited the new Sparty statue. Check it out!

Sparty ON!

Vodka Bomb by a couple youngsters!

Now I realize in our conquest to run a race in all 50 states running a race in Washington D.C. doesn't strategically make the most sense.  However, we made this silly challenge up and we are making our own rules for it too so D.C. totally counts as its own locale!  Number 8 to be exact!  Oh and Before we are done with this challenge, there will actually be at least 52 locations because we plan to run the Best 10k in the world which happens to be in Puerto Rico. Why this particular race you may be asking!?

Here's Why:

1. it is in Puerto Rico
2. it's on the last Saturday in February in Puerto Rico
3. my anniversary is the 2nd of March so we can celebrate early!
4. it is the "best 10k in the world!"

5. 10k is one of my favorite distances to run

so we've just gotta do it!

Now that we've cleared that up, I have a little confession...To be completely honest even though D.C. totally counts, we would've done a race in Delaware or Maryland if we could've found one, but as it turns out races are hard to come by  in these particular states in February.  I guess the weather is unpredictable or something; Despite countless hours spent searching for a race in either of those states, the only other two races we could find were a 10-miler that was nestled in an endless bit of hills that was described as, "very challenging for even the most experienced runners".  Further complicating option A was the fact that we needed to join some runclub in Virgina or Delaware in order to run in it.  Option B was a HALF MARATHON that was also located amidst a ridiculous amount of hills and was put on by Snapple.  Now back in the day I did love Snapple, but still a half marathon in crazy hills seemed a bit extreme even for Snapple especially given that 3 of our 5 runners going on this adventure don't actually run. SO...

We did nearly sign up for the runclub to try our hand at 10 miles of hills, but luckily Dominica saved us. For being a self proclaimed "non-runner" she sure knows how to find an AWESOME RACE! In a matter of a day or two of our purchasing plane tickets, she found a race that was:

1. unlikely to accidentally kill any of us 
2. free
3. in a cool location
4. fairly close to their house
5. part of a community of cool runners

 It was absolutely perfect. Lesson learned, Dominica is in charge of finding races from this moment forward! Even I who loathes the 5k distance, had a great time. The proof is in this photo!

February 25, 2017

Fletcher's Cove Washington D.C.

State Number 8

We ate all kinds of extraordinary foods while we visited because Dominica is basically a gourmet chef, completed two puzzles, played a bunch of euchre, spent quality time with those precious VanKittens and did a fair amount of hiking!  It really was a magical weekend!  Then as always, too quickly the adventure was over and we found ourselves at the airport with a few hours to kill awaiting our flight home...

But wait there's more!

Cue the craziest of the three crazy traveling running shoes sisters for a new record level of CRAZY running adventure that is Reagan National airport.  Yes I ran for 35 minutes up and down the A Terminal--trying to improve my finish time with each lap I finished! It was so much more fun than I imagined! Shockingly, nobody stopped me or even talked to me. The longer I ran, the more excited I became about running in the airport!  It was a total adrenaline rush. ADRENALINE RUSH.  Now, I did get a few smiles from elderly people and a few strange looks, but nobody actually said a single word!

One of my favorite things in this world is to take someone to their first organized race (or second since I dragged this crew to a race awhile back in Virginia).  At the finish line, in that victorious moment, there are people realizing they are way more awesome than they ever realized. At finish lines people are full of confidence, adrenaline and joy.  Nobody is grumpy!  After such an accomplishment people are just so alive, happy and energized. Finish lines are one of my favorite places in the world.  And because of these facts, Washington D.C. was just. So. Damn. Cool.

This post is dedicated to Rose and Tulip our new nieces.  Enjoy the good life girls!

Vern out