My fundraising webpage: http://pages.teamintraining.org/nca/pfchangs09/ayates
With a sniffly cold, icey weather, lots of food, and several wonderful days with my family and in-laws, the holiday season is officially over. I let a lot of the aforementioned factors get in the way of my training schedule, but I'm doing my best to get it back together now.
Today was the second-to-last training for those of us doing the PF Changs races, and the last training for all of the people racing at Disney next weekend. I knew this meant that it would be my last training with Erin, Andrea, Kate, Betsy, and many others, so I was kind of sad about that. I felt particularly awful when Andrea arrived with her two beautiful girls only to drop off my fuel belt - which I left in her car - and to pick up her race packet. It turns out that her whole family has been sick, and that she and her husband have been taking turns having the flu. Poor things! That meant that I sadly wouldn't get to run with Andrea today, but I'm still sending her great wishes for her upcoming race day!
Our training today was back at Haine's Point, the same place where we ran at the beginning of the season during Hurricane Hannah (OK, it was downgraded to a Tropical Storm, but I'm still very proud of that run. Look for the "Liquid Sunshine" post in the archives for a more detailed description). While we were doing announcements and warming up, somebody noticed a bald eagle in the tree above our heads. I had never seen one outside of the zoo before, and it was so beautiful and magestic. I was worried that we would scare him off as we cheered and chattered loudly, but he sat unmoving during all of the usual pre-training noisiness. It wasn't until people started quietly giving updates about their honored teammates that the eagle started to move. As someone was in the process of talking about a loved one's lost battle with cancer and how we are working to prevent that from happening in the future, the eagle left the tree and slowly glided away. It was a truly an incredible site.
I assumed that the coaches were just going to have us do laps around the point like we did last time, but they opted for more of an "open run". They had us do a loop around the mall in a route that allowed us to pass the Capitol Building, the Washington Monument (we passed around that one twice, actually), the World War II Memorial, the reflecting pool, and the Lincoln Memorial before heading back to Haine's Point. It reminded me how lucky I am to live and work in such a cool place. How many people have the privilage of nonchalantly saying, "Yeah, I ran from the U.S. Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial this morning?" Not many. I love DC!
I'm so glad that Kate and I ran together, because I totally wasn't paying attention when the coaches announced the route (fortunately, she was). With her help, we did our 8-mile trip relatively easily, although that last lonely stretch on the point can get pretty monotonous. Kate managed to take off in a sprint for the last mile and half or so, but I have no idea how she had the energy for that. As it is, I did the best I could and still returned home with sore hip flexors. Hopefully, the excitement of race day will push me towards a strong finish. I suppose that hoping not be sore after the race as well is a little too much to ask!
In any case, I can't believe that the race is only two weeks away. We've been training since August, and it's just become a part of my routine. It's definitely going to be weird not to see the same people that I'm used to seeing every Saturday. Erin agreed with me on the car ride home that she's going to miss our trainings, minus the early wake-ups, of course! We decided that we're still going to try and get together for Saturday runs in the neighborhood, but will probably do so a little bit later in the morning. Kate mentioned that she would be interested in running with me, too, if we can ever get together. I also know that Andrea and I talked about doing a race together every now and then, and I would love that too (maybe the GW Classic 10-miler in April...What do you think, Andrea?). I can't even begin to express how amazing it feels to go from being the kid who everyone made fun of in gym class, to someone with whom other people actually want to run. This whole experience has really changed my life. :-)
Tomorrow's the last day before Winter Break is offically over. I start school again on Monday, and I know it's going to be a busy two weeks leading up to the race. It's time for the final push!
My fundraising webpage: http://pages.teamintraining.org/nca/pfchangs09/ayates
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