We got home from the beach Friday night around 6. I fed and bathed Mikey, then put him to bed so that I could unpack and repack for our next trip. My mom was set to get in from San Francisco at 10pm then we were going to head up to DC. Her plane had some problems and she ended up not getting in until 2 am! I picked her up and we headed up to DC...it was exhausting. When we got in (around 7am) all the roads to our hotel were blocked off because we were staying a block and a half from the White House, so we figured it had to do with that. After driving around for a half hour we finally found a way to our hotel. Once we got into our room and unpacked Mikey was ready to wake up for the day and party. I tried to nap for about an hour before having to pick up my race packet for the Army 10-Miler over at the DC Armory. I had plans to come back to the hotel and nap before heading over to college park to tailgate, but that didn't happen...so we just got ready and headed over.
Once we parked we headed over to some of our Deb Ball friends' tailgate. They had a huge spread of food and alcohol, a lot of which Maddi had made. All of her friends were there and they oogled over and played with Mikey. Maddi made cupcakes and got everyone to sing Happy Birthday to me before I blew out some candles. Shortly after that my friends from home joined us and we headed into the game. It was a close one that State pulled out at the end...but I didn't make it that far. I lasted until just after halftime, when I had to go back to the car because I was just too exhausted. When the game ended we went back to the hotel and were knocked out by 9:30.
I had to wake up early the next morning to head over to the Pentagon for Wear Blue's circle of remembrance. It was very touching, the group leader reminded us why we were wearing blue and the we were part of a living, moving memorial. We then went around and said the names of the fallen military members that we were running for. I said Sal Corma and Evan Miller's names. After we were finished the group leader said a prayer and gave us some encouraging words. I was the only one that appeared to shed some tears, but you could feel the emotion in the group. After that we parted ways to check our bags and head to our corrals. It was freaking cold...it was early in the morning and the high that day was 60 maybe. I decided to run in a tank top and shorts...smart... I was int he second to last corral since I had never run the ATM before, so we watched several others start before us. It was pretty cool, they shot off a canon for every heat as the starting signal. As we ran the course we ran by several of the monuments and memorials DC. At one point we ran a half circle around the Washington Monument...that was probably my favorite part of the race. There was live music about every 2 miles and water stops every 2 miles. The water stops were manned by soldiers...which is always a sight for sore eyes. The whole course was lined with fans shouting encouraging words and the finish was pretty awesome. There were about 200 running in Wear Blue gear which is really cool. It was fun to have someone run by you, or run by them and hear or shout "Go Blue!".
I met my mom and Mikey after the race was over and we headed to lunch. After that I decided that I needed a nap, so Mikey and I napped together for about 2 hours. I then showered and we headed to Maddi's apartment, which I have not seen before. We hung out for a bit, Maddi gave me some awesome black suede boots, Mikey threw up in her kitchen, and then we headed to Baltimore for a dinner. At dinner Mikey decided he wanted to be a hellion again. It was delicious, but kind of stressful. We were past his bed time again and service was ungodly slow...so maybe that contributed to his behavior. We spent the night back at the hotel and hit the road for home Monday morning. It was a really fun trip and a great birthday. I have such wonderful friends and family!
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