Here I go again!

Eleven and something nicely-paced miles with the unique, ineffable, (and indeed handsome, Rachel!) Montelepsy!  A perfect day in DC, gorgeous weather, sunny, a bit warm but nothing compared to Iraq, right?

Mike and I met up at my office in Georgetown and I showed him almost all my favorite runs: we went up 28th into the trails of Dumbarton-Oaks park, then over into the trails of Glover Park down to the C&O canal... I got disoriented at one point and wasn't sure we were going the right place! Poor Mike, he had to put up with me going back and forth on the trail, until we found the way. We went to Fletcher's Boathouse on the canal, then back on the Capitol Crescent trail, up to the Key Bridge and into Roosevelt Island, one of my favorite monuments in DC, then back onto the bridge on the canal to my office.

Poor Monte, he had to put up with me talking nonsense the entire way.

I do think he put something in my water though, cause after we finished the run I spent a lot of time in the ladies room...  That, or the 50 peanut butter cups I ate before the run didn't do well in my tummy...

Before the afternoon run, I went to Hayden's park near Potomac, MD to take part in a huge festival that Kids Enjoy Exercise Now organized. I showed up my volleyball abilities and then was in charge of making sure the kids didn't kill each other in the big inflatable obstacle course. So much fun but so much work! Some of those little devils went around me so fast, I didn't even have time to stop them from going when it wasn't safe... too much fun.

What a day! Very exhausted now, I was trying to show off with Monte by going fast and now I'm paying the prize... We'll see what he writes on his report. I even wore pearl earrings to impress him so he'd write a good "review" about me, ha!

I have yet to meet a blogger that's not one of the nicest people out there. Aaron, Jill, Ben, and now Mike, too cool to be in here with them!

So nice to run with you Mike! Good luck this week and enjoy your visit with the family!

Going to sleep now... tomorrow is Monday... NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Montelepsy and the Rocket being silly

And showing off our muscles....

And this one is for Eric...

Ran 2 miles to my colleague Allison's house on the Palisades, picked her up, showed her the way from her house to the C&O Canal, ran to Fletcher's Boathouse with her (did some walking), then dropped her off at home and ran back to the office, then metroed home. Lucia's door-to-door service :) 

Super busy day... went to a briefing about the future of freight transportation on the new Capitol visitor center, I hadn't been in there, very cool. Good information.

Then I came to the office and had to move offices... I have my own office now, with not one but TWO windows, my own round table with two chairs to have meetings... although my nice view of the green trees of Rock Creek Park is gone... I still have a view, but it's mostly of the tops of buildings... The big plus is that it's a lot more quiet, less distracting. In the other office, I could hear my boss on the phone, having conference calls on speaker phone all the time, plus my office mate Hank had to listen to hearings on the TV, plus I could see everyone going into the bathroom and that was distracting. I'm going to miss my office mate though, he's such a nice person, I enjoy our impromptu conversations about anything... he's only a few feet away, but still, it's just not the same.

Also today I found out one of my favorite people in the office gave notice, he's leaving in 3 weeks. I don't work directly with him, but he's one of those super smart guys that is also humble and can talk to anyone about anything, very personable. He was also my supplier of girl scout cookies!!! Things are changing so much around here!

We had super strong thunderstorms and rain here in the afternoon - I stayed in the office till 7, by then the rain was not so strong so I ran up to the Chevy Chase circle, where Will picked me up cause I didn't want to do too many miles since I have the race Saturday. I love my new route, by the Observatory, the Cathedral, Reno Road which is very green, lots of trees. Very hilly but that's good for me. A good run!

Ran from Chevy Chase to the office. Beautiful morning in DC! My legs felt tired the first 2 miles, then much better.

Four easy miles near my house during lunchtime - very humid out, hot. Hopefully it prepares me for Saturday - last year during the race it was so muggy and hot!

I wonder how I'll do Saturday at the 10k... last year I finished in 48 and change, this year I feel much stronger, but I haven't been doing a lot of speed work... I would be so happy to finish around 46! Last year, a month before the Lawyers Have Heart 10k I ran the Capitol Hill Classic in 50 minutes and change... this year I cut two minutes off that course, finishing in 48 and something... so maybe I'll cut two minutes from LHH too? We shall see... anyone wants to try to guess my time? Don't forget I'll be wearing the beautiful Mexico headband, that should make me a whole lot faster!

Biked from Chevy Chase to the office... passed lots of people so that was good, but my legs felt super tired... i did not taper properly for tomorrow's race...

Had my review with my boss - it was good... next is a meeting with our president and ceo, who is the only one that discusses pay raises... hopefully he'll give me one, at least a little one...

Went to dinner with my friend Sangeeta and went home to pack for the race and for the beach!

The weather was much better today than last year! Cloudy and hot but not too bad. Woke up early, ran to Eastern Market, picked up my zipcar for the weekend, drove to the office to meet up with my friend Annie - the race was only a few blocks from my office so it was super convenient. Took a few pictures with my super cool Mexico headband....

Annie is a fast girl but not too fast for me, so I thought I'd be able to keep up with her and she could make me run faster... I think it helped. They had two waves for the 10k, one for runners faster than 50 minutes and the other for slower. We felt like studs by getting in front with the fast people, very cool! Annie and I started together but agreed not to run side by side and go our own pace, and if we found each other good if not whatever. We stayed together the first mile, then she started going faster and I couldn't keep up with her. She stayed within sight the entire time though, so I felt good about that. She was my rabbit.

Felt like I was struggling the whole time, but I thought it's because i was going very fast... not quite... After the turnaround I saw my co-worker Mike running a few minutes behind pushing his twin girls whose birthday was today in a stroller, very cool. Made it the first 4 miles and then I told myself I could push super hard and risk fainting, or keep a decent pace and not faint. I chose the latter. Annie was about 50 feet in front of me... She finished in 47:02 and I finished in 47:16. She is training for the Twin Cities marathon in Minnesota, that's where she's from, so maybe we can do some training together since we run similar paces.

Usually I try to hide from the cameras, but this time I wanted to have proof that I ran the whole thing with the headband, yet every time I saw the cameras it was already too late! I think at the very end one of the photographers took some good ones, or so I hope. I looked absolutely ridiculous with it. Thank you Eric :)

So I finished 147 out of 1754 women, and 53rd out of 607 woman in the 30-40 age division. That's within the top 10 percentile, not bad!

Here are some pics.

In this first ones you can see part of my new office and my new orchid which I will probably kill soon...

The second one shows how thrilled I was of having to wear the Mexico headband...

The third one shows fast beautiful girl Annie

So the lesson learned is that I need to taper better for these races so my legs don't get too tired. I guess Eric won the bet, 47 something... everyone else said 46 and change, I think. Sorry to disappoint :( ... but thank you for the support and encouragement!

Sorry about the delay posting this my fans, I took off to go to the beach right after the race, and wanted to get there as soon as possible to enjoy the sun, which I did! I hope you all had a great weekend! I know at least Marion did!