Running for Office

My Fundraising Webpage: http://pages.teamintraining.org/nca/pfchangs09/ayates

I ran TEN miles this morning! I still can't believe it. Erin was out of town, so I went over to the O&D Trail in Vienna with Dave. The O&D is one of many "rail to trail"s in the area, meaning that old railroad tracks that were no longer in use have been paved over to create scenic wooded trails. The foliage is at its peak around here, which made the trail extra pretty.

Fortunately Andrea was there today, and she and I ran together. I am truly grateful that I have a teammate that runs at the same pace as me! We keep each other motivated, keep our paces up, and make the whole run go a whole lot faster. Today was no different, as we spent the entire ten miles talking about work, family, and recent little anecdotes (Andrea's kids sound adorable by the way, and I can't wait to eventually meet them!). It's nice to have someone else to discuss the week with too, especially since she was a teacher before she became a full-time mom. The more I run with her, the more I know I am going to miss her when she goes to Disney and I go to Arizona!

Today there were two water stations instead of one - no, nobody got lost on the way to setting them up this time! - , and they were lovingly manned by members of Petra's and Miriam's family, as well as Monique. Monique is training with us, but she also ran in the Marine Corps Marathon last Thursday. She had her impressive medal around her neck as she cheered us on from the sidelines and took pictures. Most of us stopped to inspect her new piece of jewelry and congratulate her on her accomplishment. Pretty soon I'm going to be getting a finisher's medal too!

Coach Jim ran with us for a little bit on the way out, as well for the tail end of the run as we were coming back to the rec center. He's such a nice man, and he seems genuinely concerned about each of us and our health. He is always reminding us to drink more, he checks in with everyone to make sure we don't have any injuries, and he knows all different sorts of stretches to suggest when something hurts. While he was running with us, I got to learn a little more about him. It turns out that he has two boys, ages 16 and 23. Never in a million years would I have guessed that he was old enough to have a 23 year old son. It's becoming more and more obvious maintaining an active lifestyle and knowing how to take care of yourself are an important step in preserving one's health, no matter how old you are.

As I said before, Coach Jim was with us when we finished the 10 miler. I was a little tired, but I was so proud of myself. Jim told me that just by looking at me he could tell that I could have gone even farther today. None of the coaches had ever said anything like that to me before, and I realized that he was right. I had been running a long time, but I was still energized and in good spirits. There is now no doubt in my mind - I am officially a runner, and I am definitely capable of running this half marathon (and maybe a full marathon some day)!

When we got back to the parking lot, I realized that I had put my stuff in Tina's car instead of Jim's, and so Dave and I had to wait a long time for her to return from the trail with her key. Although this prevented us from leaving as early as we both had hoped, I was happy that Dave got a chance to meet some of my team members. It's strange to have this whole separate world that my husband isn't a part of, so I was really glad that he was able to come hang out today. After all, we are going to be spending a decent amount of time with these people in Arizona, and it will be good for them to not be strangers.

Once we got my stuff from Tina's car, we popped back home for just a few minutes before heading back out to vote. Today is the last day for absentee voting in Alexandria, and we wanted to make sure that we didn't have to wait in crazy lines on a work day. The line was still two hours long today, but we did our best to pass the time quickly. Standing in line for two hours is not the easiest thing to do after running for 10 miles, but my candidate has been "running" for two years, so it was the least I could do. :-) Basically, I had two monumental firsts today - the first time I ran a double-digit mileage count, and the first time I voted in person in a general election (the past two times were by absentee ballot, since I was in college and then graduate school). I have never felt more in shape or more patriotic than I do today!

Tonight we will be attending an event at my school. It will be a tented party in the school yard, which probably means another two hours of standing. This has definitely been an exhausting day, and I am looking forward to getting into bed tonight. I think I've earned it!

Thank you to everyone for reading, and for all of your support!

My Fundraising Webpage: http://pages.teamintraining.org/nca/pfchangs09/ayates