Slow & Steady Wins the Race :-)

Nicole's Impromptu DC Monument Almost Half Marathon Race Report:

After a lovely evening / morning with Chris and Mahsa (think delicious noodles, Sourcecode, delicious brunch, delicious Georgetown Cupcakes, hmmm, mostly eating!) I headed out on my own DC Monument run.  I wanted it to be a half marathon but I was feeling a little nauseous and my back was hurting and most of all I was already back at the hotel so it was easy to quit early.  2 hours even, so 12 miles may be ambitious given all of the numerous stoplight stops, weaving among the millions of middle school spring break groups, and stopping to take a few pictures.

Started along a bike trail (too many bikes!) that went along the Potomac, saw the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam, the WWII, the Washington, all the Smithsonians, the archives, the federal reserve, the cherry blossoms, the White House, and pretty much every other famous building in DC.  Felt a little nauseous in the second hour, I'm been feeling that way randomly ever since Mexico, wish it would stop.

PS - You know you're a true nerd / grad student when you skip heading to the bar with everyone else and go to your room to do work (and write this blog post!).  :-) 

This morning: 6:30am (so really 3:30am!), hauled myself out of bed against my wishes and to the hotel gym for 3 minutes walking on the TM (while waiting) and then 35 minutes on the elliptical.  Dripping sweat by the end.  

After a long day had a great opportunity to go for a run in the lovely random 80 degree day so grabbed it - 47 minutes on the Potomac trail down to the monuments and back, we'll call it 5 miles.  The headwind was so strong on the way down, I would go into a tunnel where the wind was suppressed and coming out was like stepping off of those moving walkways - flung back by a wall of wind!  On the way back I tempo-d it, 15 minutes of hard running on the way back (with the tailwind!).  

Lovely dinner with my new travel-mates, now some work and bed, I am exhausted (they went to the bar again after, ahh to be young again! :-)

After the conference headed out into the stormy windy drizzle.  50 minutes of running, felt really good!  Felt like I was hauling, and was really proud of myself.  Maybe my recent increase in mileage is finally paying off (this is my 5th 25+ mileage week in a row).  But then later I was headed into a horribly strong headwind and thought maybe I just had a tailwind that whole time??!!

Saw even more of DC today - running is definitely the best way to tour a city!  Somehow I missed the capitol building in my huge tour on Sunday, caught that today.  Ended up at the Natural History Museum, toured it quickly, ran 2 minutes to the American History museum, toured that quickly, then ran 23 more minutes back home.  My stomach was growling this whole time and I was much slower.  Ran to Cosi, which is like a souped up more awesome Panera, where I had an excellent salad and flatbread.  Delish.  Now at the airport, back to the real world and soo much business tomorrow.  75 minutes of running total, we'll call it 7.5.

Proud of this run.  It was sleet-snow-raining this morning when I left and soooo cold.  I made myself do 3, I wanted to quit so bad after just one loop.  After 3 I felt better though and it was less drizzly as it got lighter out so I finished the full 60 minutes (probably around 6.3 miles).  Did 6 'speed-ups' in the last loop (1.5 miles).  

I taught my 2nd class last night - I love teaching!  I hope the students like it too.  Or at least don't think its TOO bad. :-)  Yesterday was rough though - at work from 7am-7:30pm.   We launched our website... it went over... hmm... okay. 

SPRING!  I actually wore shorts and a tshirt, that's how lovely it was today!  AND even lovelier, had a great run with Lisa & Denali (for 1 loop), Anya (for 2 loops), and Jordanne, Boone, and Cooper (for 3 loops).  Sunny day and awesome company, what could be better?  3 nice and easy slow loops.  WEEKEND!

Lovely trail run with Kasey at Forest Park in Portland.  9.5 miles in 1:34, so pretty much exactly 10 minute miles.  Definitely please with that considering how rocky, muddy, technical, and hilly the trails were at times.  I just love trail running, need to do more of it!  Smelled so good, fresh air, birds chirping, great company.