One Weekend, Three Races

Exciting weekend coming up! Though I am already trying to figure out how I am going to drag myself out of bed tomorrow at 6am and wondering if my legs still work.  It's been such a busy week, I've been biking to and from the office, but not doing much running at all. I might try to do a little shake-out run tonight after work. There's a bottle of white wine in the fridge already though, calling my name already (McVVV....McVVVV, drink meeeee).

Tomorrow morning is Lawyers Have Heart, the annual 10k slog up shadeless and unforgiving Canal Road in Georgetown with the final mile on the Death Valley-like Whitehurst Freeway. I am so not complaining about the heat. I just think the location of this race is less than choice. Nonetheless, whatever genius at the American Heart Association thought up the concept of marketing a 10k to law firms and their summer associates, I hope he or she got BIG raise. And the swag for this race is always excellent.

Saturday night I'm running the Potomac River Running Twilight Four miler out in Lansdowne. I actually signed up to run this the first year it was in existence. However it got stormed out by one of the scariest summer storms I have ever had the pleasure of riding out in a metal framed tent.  The race was ultimately cancelled and the drive home was ridiculous--it was just pouring SHEETS.

Both races were free to register for so I figured why not? I threw away so much money on race fees last year (Rock n Roll Half in VB, Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, Marine Corp Marathon...) because of injury that I can't justify passing up a free or cheap racing opportunity.

Sunday I will be spectating as [Husband] rides in his first bike race!! I'm so excited to be the spectator/supporter as he has been dragged out of bed many an ungodly hour in the morning to watch me. I'm excited to be returning the favor.

Hurrah for the summer racing season!  Anyone else racing this weekend?

Hiking in Shenandoah

Saturday [Husband] and I met up with his parents and drove out to Shenandoah National Park to Hike. The Park was pretty busy (good to see people out enjoying the outdoors!), but we only encountered two other people on the trail we picked.

We hiked the Snead Farm loop. The trail was about 3 miles and took us about 2.5 hours. It's amazing how much slower you go on rough terrain and with so many up and downhills.

Amazingly enough, about five minutes before I took the picture below there was one of those incredible summer downpours where it's as if a cloud has burst above you. We were able to stay dry by standing under a tree. You can see in the picture how quickly it cleared and what a beautiful afternoon it became.

Above: Sad [Husband] because I'm making him hike.
Below: Happy [Husband] because he's spending time outside with meeeeee. :)

[Husband] claims he suffered from over-exposure to the outdoors as a child. His family took lots of camping/road-tripping type vacations as a kid, so he's claims that he now "hates" hiking and camping. However, I would like to present some evidence to the contrary.  1) The man loves to ski. I think we can all agree that no matter how many pints and plates of nachos are involved, skiing still make the top 10 list for brutal outdoor sports. Skiing down a 80 degree angle in zero degrees with 3 feet of visibility>a walk (hike) in the (Shenandoah National) park.  Camping consists of drinking, cooking/playing with fire, and sleeping in a tent.  [Husband] is an enthusiast of two of those three activities, therefore he can't possibly hate camping. I  have to call him on his nonsense sometimes.

I, on the other hand, grew up in a decidedly un-outdoorsy family that mostly took beach vacations. My dad and I spent a couple weeks two summers in a row driving around the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State. camping where ever. Our favorite places were the Hoh Rain Forest, one of the few temperate rain forests in the Americas, and Sequim Campgrounds near the John Wayne Marina.  True Story: John Wayne hated horses, but loved boating.  I also went to Girl Scout Camp for many summers. I did the same program three years in row (Paddle, Pole, and Roll!! What!!) because it was the only two-week program they offered and I wanted to be at camp as long as possible.  Still I would say that it's only in the last few years that I've become more interested in hiking and such activities.  I imagine [Husband] often thinks, "who are you and what did you do with non-outdoorsy person I started dating five years ago?"

Let me recall for you the first time I went to snow-shoeing with [Husband's] family back in 2007.   Snow-showing, for those unfamiliar with this delightful pursuit, is essentially trudging through the snow for the sake of trudging through the snow. Yes, you can places and see some cool stuff, but when you get right down to it, that's what it is.  We were all snow-shoeing down the road in Glacier National Park and I turned to Todd after about 15 minutes, and said:

"Um how long are we going to do this?"

"Oh a couple of hours."

"Are you kidding me?" (except I probably said the R-rated version of "are you kidding me")

Oh yeah. No, but, once we turned off the road (boring) and got into the woods, it was really fun.  Even if it was just walking around in the snow for the sake of walking around in the snow.

I always liked camping, but activities like hiking and snow-shoeing seemed totally pointless. I think getting more into long distance running (let's face it, running marathons is basically running for the sake of running),  has led me to see and appreciate the appeal of walking around on a mountainside just for the hell of  it.

You do however get to see things like this if you go walking around on mountainsides:

The Green Tunnel.

Almost back to the visitor center.

Out of the woods and back to the car.

I got my first pack for overnight hiking and camping this weekend too. [Husband] is in serious trouble now. Mwhahaha!

Seven Business Days To Go

I like to count down the days to vacation in business days. Weekends can be filled with so many fun anticipatory activities (like packing!) that those days don't even count to me. Just seven more days and I'll be skiing fresh snow,

shot of the day, 12/27/2010

hopefully seeing an inversion or two, sipping a few pints of Big Fog and Glacier Chaser at the brewery, and snow-shoeing out to see this sight in person. (Switch the resolution to 1080 for the best picture) Till then, fitting in as many squats and lunges as I can so I can enjoy every second. :)

Speaking of Swings & Misses

I got to go to a baseball game last night! One of the attorneys here was giving up his tickets to last night's Cubs/Nats match-up for free. I was first to respond and snagged the tickets. He asked me if I was a Cubs Fan or a Nats Fan: I'm really just a beer and baseball fan (though I do love me some Ryan Zimmerman). I LOVE the game day atmosphere, I love the new stadium, I love the crowd, I love the Bull Pen (the bar, not, you know, the actually pitching warm-up area though that is fine too). I love that I can get Hard Times and 5 Guys and Ben's all within 25 yards of each other. I love that guy who is the Head Nats pack dude (saw him in person last night!). I also got to take an old college friend and new DC-ite last night. She hadn't been to the stadium before and I'm glad I got to introduce her to the best sports venue in DC. We had a good time catching up, hanging out, and vaguely watching the game. I didn't look up to check the score till the 8th inning and it was 1-0 Cubs. Perhaps if I had continued to not pay attention the Nats would have had a shot. As soon as I actually started watching the game the Cubs scored three runs. I got home just in time to catch the newest episode of Top Chef-DC, which in my opinion has been a total BOTCH. Talk about a miss. Last night's challenge was pretty good though. The Chef-testants had to serve up-scale ballpark food at Nationals Park! Three of the Nationals (Adam Dunn and two guys who are not Steven Strausburg or Ryan Zimmerman) were part of the challenge and sampled all the dishes. They weren't part of judges table though...too bad. It was a good challenge IMHO because it FELT like DC for once instead of "Top Chef [Insert Generic City Here]." My only constructive criticism is that I would have liked to see a few more wide shots of the stadium in order to give a better sense of the location. I would've liked to see a little more Red Porch and a little less Tom Collichio's bald head (Sidenote: I saw a Wealth channel travel show episode from the '90s and Tom had HAIR). Also, Padma should never wear jerseys. It does not work for her. But what of her wardrobe HAS worked for her this season? I couldn't stay awake to see who won/was eliminated. Did anyone see?