Navy Air Force Half Marathon and Navy 5 Miler Part 1

We made it VA...Share the Love!

Mom and I headed toward DC on Thursday morning around 9am.  She came up Wednesday night and I worked Thursday morning.  For most of the car ride we actually talked which is unusual for us, considering we usually just put on some music.  We only stopped twice on the way to DC, we National Harbor, Maryland anyway; so it only took us about 5 hours to get there.  We definitely wanted to avoid the toll roads.  We made it to MD by 2pm and got checked in and unpacked. 

Some pictures of our resort room...

Living room of our room

Shower in Mom's master bathroom.  I will
have a big shower like that one day in my
own place!!

 Packet Pickup And Military Love!
Right after getting everything up to our room and mostly unpacked we headed out to go pick up our packets.  Packet pick up was on Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling Washington DC.  When we pulled up to the gate it was required that we show an ID and our registration receipt.  The guard at the gate was hilarious and told my mom that they had "run" out of packets.  It took her a minute to get it and it just went over my head, and was thinking how in the world did they run out of packets!

At the entrance of the base

We headed toward the building where we would pick up our packets and the signs to get there were perfect..no way to get lost from them.  We arrived and found our bib numbers on a wall full of numbers separated by 5-Miler registrants and half marathon registrants.  After finding out numbers we headed to go get our packets and we got our numbers and our shirts which were long sleeved without the cuffs (YAY!!).
Just driving through base really brought back my huge love and longing to work for the military.  My mom has always wondered why I never joined and it has always been in the back of my mind.  I just don't know really what I want to do with the military.  I love the CrossFit and personal training side of things, wish I could somehow combine the two and do their PT.

I'll be defense...haha

Loved this, on the Defense Intelligence Agency building

 After picking up our packets we headed back to National Harbor and walked around the area to find a place to eat.  We ended up at a place called Harrington's Pub & Kitchen, if you are ever in the are I definitely recommend you going there.  We ordered soda bread for our appetizer and I got a blackened tuna sandwich and side salad with bbq vinaigrette dressing.  The dressing was really good, just enough of a kick to it.  The burger was huge, cause it was a tuna steak so I tried my best to smash it down and only ate half.

Touring DC

Tons of Walking on Rest Day?

All of Friday we spent in DC.  We first went and got batteries for my camera and a smart pass to get on and off the subway for where we wanted to go.  It was the easiest way to get around. We hopped the bus to the metro station and then got on the subway to one of the exchange points and then headed over to the Smithsonian stop.  From there we first walked through one of the gardens and then into the Smithsonian Institute building.
We headed to the National Air and Space Museum after that and watched a repeated film there that was about five minutes long.  I didn't realize how many jets had to go up in the Navy when it came to mission drills and even drills in general.  It was quite amazing to learn.  After that we walked over to the capital and sat in the yard under a big tree.  

After seeing the capitol we walked down the opposite side of that National Mall and were on our way to the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial when we decided to stop into the Museum of Natural History, we saw a live butterfly exhibit sign and decided to stop.  Little did I know that it was the museum they filmed "A Night at the Museum," at. (lol).  We started heading toward the Washington momument and Lincoln Memorial after that and just that was really far to walk about being in DC since 10am.  

So we hopped the subway back to National Harbor and ate our leftovers for dinner.  Not so sure I was suppose to be walking around that much on what was suppose to be a rest day.  And I will admit I didn't exactly have my pasta meal the night before.  I was not very prepared for this race.  So for this one, don't follow my example as far as race prep goes. If I had been training on a regular basis then I would definitely have had pasta the night before.  Not to mention I should have been in bed a lot earlier as well.  Mom and I wanted to walk down to the water for a little bit and see The Awakening statue and they had a band playing in front of the water that night.

Sitting in the mouth of The Awakening Statue