Marine Corps 10k

Jennifer and I ran the Marine Corps 10k today. It was a nice day, sunny and in the 50s, and we both had a good run. I set a world record...for people with my social security number...coming in at 60:24. It was below my goal of a ten minute mile pace and four minutes better than my last 10k. Jen also was well below her goal, so we were definitely pleased, although she may have preferred it to be a couple degrees warmer (notice the hat and gloves!).


The course was good, but probably not as nice as the Army 10 miler. However, the finish was outstanding. After starting off on the mall, running across the 14th St bridge into Virginia, and a couple miles through Crystal City, the route merges with the end of the Marine Corps Marathon course and you head north past the Pentagon and Arlington Cemetery. The last tenth of a mile is uphill to the Marine Corps Memorial, which is the statue of the famous picture of the Marines storming the hill and raising the flag in Iwo-Jima.

Random thoughts: the PA announcer said that the Marines did a marathon on a base in Iraq today, although it was a little warmer there: a brisk 120 degrees. The picture is of us posing with Miles, the races' mascot. I think this marks the end of my racing for the year. Maybe I will do something next year.

1-5 is a lot better than 0-6

Sunday morning Lelaine, Kellie, Isaac, Nick, David and his boys, and I went out to FedEx Field to see the Chiefs-Redskins game, a true clash of the titans. The Chiefs only make it here once every eight years, so I figured it I had to go, no matter how poorly the team has been playing.

It was good football weather: mid-40s and cloudy (good for me at least, Lelaine was a bit chilly). A nice day for tailgating. After brats, hot dogs, burgers, mac and cheese, chips, brownies, and a couple of beers we headed into the stadium.

There were a fair number of Chiefs fans in attendance, which was a nice surprise. We weren't really harassed and I even got a few compliments on my Will Shields jersey. To show you how bad it is for the Chiefs this year, Kellie was wearing a Matt Cassell jersey that her mom sent her, complete with a 70% off tag still intact. Pretty sad that you can get a jersey of our starting QB who is in his first year on sale already. As you can see from the pics, the apathy extends to the Skins as there were a lot of people dressed up as empty seats.

The game wasn't pretty but someone had to win, and luckily the Chiefs were that team. The defense played well, or maybe the Redskins offense is just really bad, and our four field goals and a safety were enough to put the game away. Skins fans are pretty distraught by the loss and calling for the coach's and owner's heads for losing to the lowly Chiefs, but I'm just happy we are no longer winless.

A Day of Exploration

On Columbus Day we decided to go with half of the Manhoffs and honor Columbus's zeal for exploration. We took a drive down south and hit Washington, Virginia; Sperryville, Virginia and several lookouts on Skyline Drive in Shenendoah National Park.

It was a bit early to see a lot of fall foilage, but we city folk amused ourselves with the winding roads, narrow bridges and country air. I must say, it isn't the Adirondacks, which I still think about often, but it is a close(r) substitute.

Football Sundays

Not to steal from Dinner at the Pinks, but I thought I would post a little about our Sundays. With the return of Directv and the Sunday Ticket, we enjoy the 3 Fs on Sunday: food, friends and football. The Manhoffs, Doug and Christy are our regulars. Honorable mention goes to the Todds who were a part of the original Football Sunday at the purple house.

This Sunday we had an Italian salad, stromboli and caramel pecan apple cupcakes. Next week I get a bit of a break from cooking since we are going to watch the Chiefs at the Redskins stadium. The week after is the Marine Corp 10K and we have Jennifer in town. I'm thinking turkey and mashed potatoes. Does that sound like a good post race lunch?

ten miles

This morning I ran the Army Ten Miler. Finished in 1:48:40, which was one minute and twenty seconds ahead of my goal and I ran the entire way without stopping to walk (in the pic I'm the fat guy in bright green/yellow smiling into the camera).

It doesn't seem like it now as I can feel my legs tightening, but it was a lot of fun. It is a huge race - 30,000 people - and the course is great. You start at the Pentagon, run over the Memorial Bridge, around the Lincoln Memorial, past the State Department, over to the Watergate building, along the Potomac, under the Kennedy Center, back past the Lincoln Memorial, by the tidal basin and the Jefferson Memorial, past the Washington Monument, around the Capitol reflecting pool, and then head back to the Pentagon.

Although I didn't sleep well (nervous), when I woke up I felt physically and mentally prepared. By the time I got to the start line - 20 minutes after cannon fire started the race (there were a lot of people ahead of me), I was feeling great. Started off with a good pace and kept it, including several negative splits. Mile 9 was pretty difficult, but I pulled through and my fastest mile was 10. It felt great to finish strong.

Being the military and all, it was very well organized. The morning included parachuters and a fly over. On the course there was tons of water and gatorade, a lot of soldiers yelling hooah, and several bands along the route playing music, including one junior ROTC band that was playing one of the songs from Rocky. Part of it was pretty sad: on the backs of a lot of runners there were either pictures or names of soldiers who were KIA in Iraq or Afghanistan, and there were quite a few guys running who had lost limbs, but the money raised went to a good cause and at least at the finish line, everyone seemed to have a good time.

Lelaine and Doug went down to the mall to cheer me on and saw me around miles 5 and 7. They took some nice pictures.

I'm running the Marine Corps 10k in a couple weeks (Wang Tang, are you coming?) but I'm not sure what is next after that.

"hey Croatian"

Late in the week my friend Brian from Missouri decided to take a last minute trip to DC. What a pleasant surprise.

Friday night we picked him up from the airport and scarfed down a burger from Ray's Hell Burger. As always, it was tremendous. Not enough places will serve burgers as rare as they do, and I believe that redder is better.

After dinner we headed to H St NE, a "neighborhood in transition." It was pretty sketchy several years ago but then the hipsters decided it would be the next new neighborhood to invade. We have been to a few of the restaurants over there and decided it might be fun to go bar hoping.

The first stop was the Palace of Wonders, which calls itself the only vaudville stage, museum of oddities, and bar in the world. It was quite entertaining. We say a woman on a trapeze-like contraption, a voodoo guy, a guy who let a mouse trap snap on his tongue and then put his hand in a bear trap, a woman whose waist was so small she could cinch a belt smaller than twelve inches around her waist, a woman would could swallow a four foot long balloon, a woman would did a lot of tricks with a flaming hula hoop, and a woman who did some crazy cirque du soleil type things with two banners handing down from the ceiling. We all had a good time, particularly Brian who had a few rather strong gin and tonics (and he would know, as he is the only person I know who went to school to get a bartending license for fun, not for work purposes). The picture is Brian with "the cincher" and his balloon eating friend.

After the show ended we hit the H St Country Club. It doesn't really fit into the neighborhood - it isn't very gritty - but it was also nice. Played a lot of skeeball, although Doug must have gotten the voodoo guy from Palace of Wonders to put a spell on the machine when he would play because he would get ridiculous double points for no reason, and some shuffleboard. They also have a miniature golf course inside, but it was closed by the time we got there.

Brian continued the steady stream of booze and made many new friends. One of them, upon hearing his last name, yelled "Hey Croation, get over here." Brian was pretty impressed that his new friend knew the origin of Zuzenak. He also met "blue skirt" (whose skirt was actually green, but I don't think Brian was seeing too clearly by then), although that ended poorly when she asked Lelaine "Bigelow, do you know where the cute girls are?"

Saturday morning was a little rough - note Brian wearing Lelaine's sleep mask - but we went to Eastern Market for breakfast and then had a nice day of watching football. Brian eventually headed to another friends place for a birthday party. His flight was at 6am this morning. I wonder if he slept last night or how he was feeling at the airport.