There are many great things about living in the DC metro area. For starters, you're at the epicenter of the most powerful country in the world. That's pretty cool. There's a ton of history in the city, from monuments and memorials to government buildings and museums (the Smithsonian museums are open every day of the year except Christmas). There are also lots of good restaurants (I really haven't gotten a chance to sample very many of them, at least the higher profile ones, but I've heard lots of good things). It's also a relatively young city - as far as the age of people living in the area - and as such, it can be a lot of fun on the weekends. I'll get into that more another time. I'm also not going to talk about being a sports fan in DC (not that it's necessarily a good or bad thing about living in DC) because that would be (and will be) and entire post in itself.
DC is not a perfect city by any means. For evidence of this, you'd have to look no further than the metro system. It's a decent system, but it seems like there are always delays, it doesn't have as complete coverage as it could (but they're supposedly working on an expansion), and I would bet anyone, anywhere, any time, any amount of money that there will never be a day when EVERY SINGLE escalator at EVERY SINGLE metro station is working without difficulty. It's just not going to happen. Ever. But that's not even the worst thing about living/working in DC.
The weather, for the most part, isn't too bad. It doesn't ever get too unbearably cold in the winter, and it's pretty nice in the fall and in the spring. Yeah, the weather is actually pretty nice. Oh yeah, summer... Summer is terrible. Hot. Humid. Uncomfortable. You know, the kind of weather where you go outside for a short walk and end up dripping with sweat within minutes. It's just not pleasant. Heat I can deal with, humidity is bearable to a point, but combine them together and you get the monster that is summertime in DC. But this is also not the worst thing about living/working in DC.
See, the problem with living amongst all the landmarks and history, and the fact that it's the most powerful city in the most powerful country in the world, is that it creates a hot-bed for tourists. It's ridiculous. You know how certain attractions around the world talk about "tourist season"? Well, in DC, there is no such thing, because there's NEVER any down-time. It's also unbelievable how every. single. week. there are bus loads full of children on a class field trip driving around the National Mall. I thought spring break was only one or two weeks out of a two month period. Clearly DC is the exception to the rule.
Walk past the White House, Lincoln Memorial, or any other major landmark in the city during the middle of the day and you better be prepared to help take a few group photos. I don't really even care about this, it's just amazing to me how many people are ALWAYS on the Mall. Year-round.
What's the worst thing that you could possibly do to make tourists in DC even worse? Send them on the metro. Tourists should never, ever be allowed to ride on the metro. It's like trying to force a million square pegs through round holes, all at once. It just doesn't work. It's not that the metro is too confusing, because, compared to other major cities, it really isn't that bad. It's just that it's already pretty crowded as it is, and then you throw a bunch of lost, complaining, loud, confused, annoying (I could go on and on) tourists, it creates such a gigantic mess that it makes it nearly impossible to get anywhere even close to on time.
I could go on and on, and on about all the problems associated with tourists in DC, but I think I've already exhausted the topic, and in the process completely tired myself out (no seriously, I'm almost falling asleep at this point), so I'll save you time and the pain. Goodnight.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Hey I've Got an Idea, Running a Marathon Sounds Like Fun!
So as you may or may not know, I've decided to run the Baltimore Marathon (October 15th, 2011). Not only is this my first marathon, I've never even run a half-marathon or 5k, let alone any sort of running race. Am I insane? Maybe. But I figured, why not just go for it? Is this the best strategy? Probably not, but I figure I can talk about running a marathon, or I could just bite the bullet and do it. And I made sure that I picked a marathon that was far enough in the future that I'd have enough time to properly prepare for it.
Aside for doing a marathon just to do it, I actually do have some further motivation for running this marathon. My long, long-term, waay down the line goal is to one day complete an Ironman triathlon. So yeah, maybe I am pretty insane. And I figure, if I'm going to be able to complete an Ironman, which involves running a marathon at the end, I should at some point run a marathon, and thus my running the Baltimore Marathon. Seeing as running is by far my weakest link (and by far and away my least favorite) in regards to swimming, biking, and running, I decided that I should get used to running a lot and at long distances. And what better way to get into the habit than by registering for a marathon and thus giving myself no other choice than to prepare for it.
Now, about the Baltimore Marathon... As it turns out, it's not the flattest marathon in the country, and as such probably isn't the best option for my very first marathon, but as they say, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, or something like that, right. Yeah...I probably should have looked at the elevation chart BEFORE registering for it. (In reality, I did, but only after I had my mind set on running it). They say you should pick a flat marathon for your first one, and it probably would have been the smarter choice, but as I'm not really looking to shell out extra cash for a plane ticket and potentially a hotel room in addition to the marathon registration fee, I decided it would be easiest to run a marathon that was close enough where I could have one of my friends drive me down, and since the Marine Corps Marathon fills up way far in advance, the Baltimore Marathon was the next best option. It isn't too hilly, there are really only two major hills, one the first few miles, and unfortunately, one around mile 20, which could be pretty devastating. I figure as long as I incorporate hill training in my preparation, I should be decently prepared come race day.
Finally, my last, more recent source of motivation has come via a sort of bet between myself and several friends. When I was toying around with the idea of running a marathon, we decided to look at famous people who had run marathons and how they had done. In browsing celeb marathon times, we came across Sarah Palin, who in 2005 ran Humpy's Marathon in Anchorage Alaska in a respectable 3:59:36. And naturally, as Sarah Palin is all that is evil and wrong in this world, we decided that I should make it my goal to beat her (kinda like how P. Diddy's goal in the NYC Marathon was to beat Oprah). Of course, as this is my first marathon, my main goal should just be to finish, as that would be a pretty good accomplishment in itself. But, being the competitor that I am, just finishing isn't good enough. This may not (and probably isn't) the best strategy, but I figure I'm dedicated enough to make it happen. It's going to be challenging, but in order to beat Palin, I'd have to average just over 9 minutes per mile, which is a pretty decently fast pace, but also very doable.
A few weeks after I had officially registered was the Boston Marathon, where the marathon world record was unofficially broken (it couldn't be officially recognized because the Boston Marathon is basically a downhill race and because of the tailwind, and maybe other things that I don't necessarily know about or understand), and that got me really pumped for my marathon. It also planted a seed in my head, an thought that, "yeah, maybe I could one day run that race". One problem, you need to qualify for it. And the qualifying time for my age group is ridiculously fast, at least by the standards of a marathon novice. 3:10:00. About 7:15 per mile. That's pretty fast. And the bad news is each age group only adds an additional 5 minutes to the qualifying time, and I'm in my current age group until I'm 35, so I guess I have plenty of time to try to qualify. I'm probably getting way too far ahead of myself, but I guess it's good to have long-term goals, and who knows, maybe (and hopefully) I'll do better than expected and decide it's something I can do in the next 5 years. Yeah, that sounds like a reasonable goal.
Aside for doing a marathon just to do it, I actually do have some further motivation for running this marathon. My long, long-term, waay down the line goal is to one day complete an Ironman triathlon. So yeah, maybe I am pretty insane. And I figure, if I'm going to be able to complete an Ironman, which involves running a marathon at the end, I should at some point run a marathon, and thus my running the Baltimore Marathon. Seeing as running is by far my weakest link (and by far and away my least favorite) in regards to swimming, biking, and running, I decided that I should get used to running a lot and at long distances. And what better way to get into the habit than by registering for a marathon and thus giving myself no other choice than to prepare for it.
Now, about the Baltimore Marathon... As it turns out, it's not the flattest marathon in the country, and as such probably isn't the best option for my very first marathon, but as they say, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, or something like that, right. Yeah...I probably should have looked at the elevation chart BEFORE registering for it. (In reality, I did, but only after I had my mind set on running it). They say you should pick a flat marathon for your first one, and it probably would have been the smarter choice, but as I'm not really looking to shell out extra cash for a plane ticket and potentially a hotel room in addition to the marathon registration fee, I decided it would be easiest to run a marathon that was close enough where I could have one of my friends drive me down, and since the Marine Corps Marathon fills up way far in advance, the Baltimore Marathon was the next best option. It isn't too hilly, there are really only two major hills, one the first few miles, and unfortunately, one around mile 20, which could be pretty devastating. I figure as long as I incorporate hill training in my preparation, I should be decently prepared come race day.
Finally, my last, more recent source of motivation has come via a sort of bet between myself and several friends. When I was toying around with the idea of running a marathon, we decided to look at famous people who had run marathons and how they had done. In browsing celeb marathon times, we came across Sarah Palin, who in 2005 ran Humpy's Marathon in Anchorage Alaska in a respectable 3:59:36. And naturally, as Sarah Palin is all that is evil and wrong in this world, we decided that I should make it my goal to beat her (kinda like how P. Diddy's goal in the NYC Marathon was to beat Oprah). Of course, as this is my first marathon, my main goal should just be to finish, as that would be a pretty good accomplishment in itself. But, being the competitor that I am, just finishing isn't good enough. This may not (and probably isn't) the best strategy, but I figure I'm dedicated enough to make it happen. It's going to be challenging, but in order to beat Palin, I'd have to average just over 9 minutes per mile, which is a pretty decently fast pace, but also very doable.
A few weeks after I had officially registered was the Boston Marathon, where the marathon world record was unofficially broken (it couldn't be officially recognized because the Boston Marathon is basically a downhill race and because of the tailwind, and maybe other things that I don't necessarily know about or understand), and that got me really pumped for my marathon. It also planted a seed in my head, an thought that, "yeah, maybe I could one day run that race". One problem, you need to qualify for it. And the qualifying time for my age group is ridiculously fast, at least by the standards of a marathon novice. 3:10:00. About 7:15 per mile. That's pretty fast. And the bad news is each age group only adds an additional 5 minutes to the qualifying time, and I'm in my current age group until I'm 35, so I guess I have plenty of time to try to qualify. I'm probably getting way too far ahead of myself, but I guess it's good to have long-term goals, and who knows, maybe (and hopefully) I'll do better than expected and decide it's something I can do in the next 5 years. Yeah, that sounds like a reasonable goal.
So I Decided to Start a Blog...
This whole blogging thing seems to be kinda cool, so I figured I'd give it a try. This is my attempt. I don't think there's going to be any specific theme to this blog, like a main subject or anything like that, I'm just going to talk about whatever I feel like talking about (because it's my blog and I can do whatever I damn well please). I guess a some-what running theme of this blog will be me updating my progress as I train for the Baltimore Marathon (see what I did there?). As I am a huge sports fan, I'm sure I'll spend a fair amount of time writing about that, as well as music, movies, and whatever else I'm currently thinking about.
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