Join me as I travel around the country to fulfill my goal of running a marathon or half marathon in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Recruiting

It wasn't too long ago that people had to drag me out to run...but the tables have turned and this weekend I managed to get friends out to run with me on two different occasions. It is so nice to be able to run with friends...I mean don't get me wrong, I love going on long solo runs once in a while to clear my head, but there's just something about the bond of hitting the payment with someone beside ya.


Last week my friend Amy and I went to a Wizards game. During the 4th quarter of the game a Milwaukee Bucks player missed both his free-throws which somehow magically transformed our ticket stubs into coupons for free chicken sandwiches at Chick-Fil-A. The closest restaurant to redeem our coupons was about 5 miles away in Virginia. For some people it might seem ridiculous to go 5 miles to get a chicken sandwich when we have plenty of good restaurants in the city, but if you've ever had the buttery goodness of a Chick-Fil-A sandwich you know exactly why we had to go. We figured we could justify it a little more if we ran there, so we headed out and immediately felt the wrath of some of the strongest gusts of wind I've encountered in a long time. Check out this pic of the wind trying to blow Amy off the Key Bridge in Georgetown!

The wind was out of control!
 Finally we made it to the finish line (Ballston Mall food court) and reveled in the fact that we had just had a great workout and were scoring a free chicken sandwich. We chose to ignore the fact that the metro fare to get back home was probably more than that chicken sandwich would have cost. Eh, whatever. It was a good Saturday with a great friend.

Our Holy Grail.
On Sunday my friend Laura joined me for about the first 3 miles of my 9 mile run. Although she says she doesn't run, I think she is a great runner in disguise. I'm convinced I'll have her running races with me in no time. It was a really nice day weather-wise, quite the change from the freezing temps we've had lately. We struggled a bit to find a pedestrian entrance to Rock Creek Park, so we wandered through beautiful Georgetown instead. I eventually found the entrance to the park, which is essentially a runner's paradise. There were tons of other people on the park paths...even saw a guy wearing the same Philly 1/2 marathon shirt that I was wearing and he gave me a lil smirk/wave :) It's a little family, kind of like when people who own Jeeps wave to eachother on the road.


Yesterday was Valentines Day and my current love happens to be the weather...it seriously felt like spring outside; I hope it's not a tease. Even though yesterday was supposed to be a rest day I couldn't pass up the opportunity, so I went out for a quick 3 mile run, then stopped at the local library to pick up something to read on my flight out to Colorado this weekend (I'm going snowboarding in Vail...super excited!!) I firmly believe that being single on Valentines Day doesn't require you to be depressed. It also doesn't require that you sit around and watch everyone else get gifts while you wallow...just go get your own dang presents! For me, flying solo on V-Day means treating myself to the Whole Foods hot bar for dinner...expensive but definitely worth it...yumm.
Apparently I wasn't the ony one at Whole Foods on Valentines Day.
Hope everyone enjoyed the warm weather and had a wonderful Valentines Day! And for all you ladies in the DC area wondering why you're single, listen to this fact I learned on the news last night: we outnumber men in this city 4 to 1! DC was also voted most intelligent city. Coincidence? I think not.

2 comments:

bryce sanders said...

sam i love you

Anonymous said...

Chick-fil-a is awesome! I would drive 5 miles for their sandwiches.