That was Tuesday, and by Wednesday we had our date - meet at the Downtown Y, 8 am Sunday morning. There are very few things in the world that I will wake up that early for on a weekend - apparently one of them being a run date with HMR. The other things include the promise of a delicious breakfast or a flight to somewhere exotic.
I had a slight planny-plannerston fail that morning. You see, it was incredibly humid (100% humidity, in fact), so I thought that I had better hyrdrate. A lot. So on the way to the Y, I sucked down a bottle of water and of course needed to go to the bathroom 25 minutes into the drive. "No problem," I thought. "I'm a little early so I'll go into the Y and use the bathroom."
When I got there I was surprised at the lack of cars and as I passed the Y it was strangely dark. I parked in front and jogged up to the doors when it dawned on me... DUH. It is Sunday. The Y is closed! This was a problem because there is no other place around that neighborhood that would have a public bathroom. The library is down the street, but definitely also closed on Sunday. The restaurants (if they were open) wouldn't let me in. What was I going to do???
And then my genius moment - the Jefferson hotel is a block from the Y. Hotels are always open. But what would they think of some girl dressed up in running clothes waltzing into their 5 star lobby and using the facilities? Would they throw me out? Yell at me? Stop me? But wait! The lower entrance is never guarded by bell hops or door men or concierges. I will go there!
So I did. I walked in and up the grand staircase like I owned the place. Once in the lobby I decided on making a b-line for the restaurant bathrooms because I knew exactly where they were.
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| Successful infiltration of the Jefferson bathrooms. V. fancy, yes? |
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| Also note my new Brooks - LOVE THEM. |
And Marcey showed off her new running gear, a shiny pair of what I like to call "douchebag glasses" (sorry if you're offended by that word - you should probably skip the caption below if so).
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| You might have d-bag glasses if: your friend can take a photo of herself in the reflection on your lenses. |
Then we set off toward the Virginia War Memorial. Neither of us had ever been there, and on Friday when I was devising a route it seemed like it would be appropriate to find a way to visit the Memorial this weekend. It was worth it - the place is beautiful and moving.
After taking a few minutes for reflection, we headed toward our usual spot - Monument Avenue.
I stuck with Marcey for the first two miles and then took off on my own for about a mile to really test out my new shoes - the Brooks PureCadence. I'll write a full review on them sometime soon, but for now I'm just going to say that I LOVE THESE SHOES and they were totally worth the ridiculous $110 I paid for them.
After our run, we spent some time drying off before heading to a new post-run tradition - Lift Coffee Shop.
We sat at "our table" (the one in the picture), leisurely enjoyed our iced coffee beverages of choice (iced caramel latte for me, big old frappucino for her) and split a bagel while we chatted. Marcey observed that as long as we were sitting still, it was actually pretty pleasant outside. We also had a good time people watching, and as it happens, dog-watching.
This awesome guy strolled by with his owner twice, looking as happy as a clam. We "awwwww"ed over him appropriately.
A little after 10 am we finally pried ourselves out of chairs and started walking back to the Y. On the way, we passed by this and Marcey insisted on a photo op:
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| Only an epic run date includes a two legged dog AND a Crime Scene Unit. |
I'm really growing to love my run dates with Marcey. Really, the running part is just an excuse to get to spend some time with her. With two young kids and a super busy job, she doesn't have a lot of extra time laying around and I'm so thankful that she'll spend some of it with me.
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