I spent Sunday morning this past weekend in a surprisingly interesting fashion: I waited at the finish line for The Nation's Triathlon (to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society), just a block away from the Federal Triangle Metro stop at 12th and Pennsylvania.
I got up late yesterday morning, so I didn't have time to eat breakfast before I left, so I brought it with me, even on the Metro (without drinking my coffee, which was hard -though it did keep my hands warm in the air-conditioned train car). I found a spot directly in the path of the hot, hot sun (Brother Pele's in the back, sweet Zina's in the front, cruisin' down the freeway in the hot, hot, sun), and ate my breakfast under the keen eye of a neighbor's dog, who was very interested in my bacon... Mine, puppy. Mine. Anyway, once I finished my breakfast and coffee I started clapping for everyone who ran by, because I know that if I were just finishing something so incredibly impressive like a triathlon in the hot, humid weather of DC in early September, I would want someone to clap for me. A big moment, you want somebody to notice, right?
I went because a friend of mine, who has apparently been doing this for five (!?!) years now - and every time she tells me that, I can't believe it - ran this one. So I looked really hard at every short (and I can say that instead of the euphemism "vertically challenged" because I'm short, too) woman as she finished, and of course nearly missed my friend! She ran by, and I yelled in a sort of knee-jerk reaction, forgetting to whoop and even to clap, before I crossed over to look for her.
I feel this is a good time to promote the use of sunscreen: Use it! Even at 10am in the morning I felt like my hairline was burning, and then my ear started heating up... not so much fun. Made me wish I'd brought my cap like I thought I might, before I left the house. Luckily, I don't have a stripe of sunburnt forehead today, but it was a close thing.
I've just recently become a sports fan (hockey, college football and tennis are my favorites) but even so, I never thought watching people run the last 10 yards of a race would be as interesting as it was. Instead, I enjoyed it more than I expected to. I guess one of the main attractions is that it was really good people watching. Not only is a spectator watching people, but the people are running, and the different strides can be fascinating. The other reason I had so much fun watching must have been that the part of the race I watched amounted to the most emotionally exciting section: the Finish Line.
this isn't related to this post, but it is green.
ReplyDeleteI saw a full plug-in electric car driving to work today.
No joke.
the bumper sticker said "question internal combustion" and it had no intakes in the front, no exhaust in the back.
I forget which brand of batteries it was advertising, but I think it was a custom job. It was built out of an old Honda Civic hatchback. Old circa 1990.
I have a few friends who are skeptical about the awesomeness of the on-coming "electrical revolution" in the auto-industry. Their main complaint, being from colorado, is that the electric cars just won't perform very well in the mountains, all the up-ness, allows no recharge time for the batteries via braking. Ive always said, just look at electric v. gas golf carts...which ones are better? But some don't like to think they would have to drive a golf cart. So, I can now say this to those people: That modified electric, pwned! This was in an up-hill passing lane on my way through the Flatirons into work. I had to downshift and floor it to keep up with it in the passing lane, and even so, it was SO fast. from what I could tell, the guy was like "time to pass" and his car took the f*ck off.
All I can say is, Me Want.
Me Too. YAY electric cars! I heard somewhere that... that funny guy, whatshisname... right, Will Ferrell - owns one, too. Not sure where/how he got his, either.
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