C25K Day 1 – A D.C. Run In Pictures

Postponing my run until Tuesday turned out to be a fabulous idea.  I got plenty of sleep last night and then had nothing to do in the morning besides my little couch to 5k workout.  I had to go buy new headphones before the run because mine had magically disappeared.  So $12 bucks and 30 minutes later than I planned I set out on my first run.

I did my brisk walk warmup on the main street where a lot of people were walking to work or out exercising as well.  When it came time to start the workout for real I turned off the road and found this trail:

I thought, “Sweet!  A trail!  That is so much better than staying on the main road where I keep dodging people and feel slightly silly for running/walking/running/walking.  So I walked past the sign and found this:

YES!  It was slightly downhill at first and a really pretty little trail in the middle of the city (I’m in downtown Washington D.C. right now.)  The only problem was it was short.  I went to the end and back and still had a ton of workout left to do.  So I set off down a street near where I am staying.  

I chose the street because it looked like this, with gorgeous houses and shady sidewalks to save my fair skinned self from the sun.  It turns out the street I chose is where the foreign embassy residences are.   First I ran past the Republic of Poland Embassy Residence:

Then I ran past the Italian Embassy Residence:

The I ran past “The House of Sheeba” (that’s what their sign said) that had multiple sculptures in the yard:

I walked/ran past a few more embassies and cool houses but didn’t take pictures.  In the end I looked like this (sweaty):

 
It was a really enjoyable first day of the plan.  It has been a while since I did any running, but this felt pretty easy.  Up until the last run section I had no problem.  Because I started over when I went down that road, I actually did more running than was scheduled for the first day.  I’ll call that a win!

For some reason the idea of being a runner and being an explorer never connected in my mind.  But after this morning I realize that these two things go together so well.  I love to explore, and running is a great way to do it.  And if I live somewhere like D.C. I would totally fit in.  There are people running everywhere here!  It is impossible to avoid runners.  They are on every street, in the National Mall, everywhere.  I’m really enjoying being in a city where there are so many active people.  Starting running this morning made me feel very accomplished and like I fit in.  Now if I can just stick with it this time and be a runner for real!

1. On Track… To Becoming a Runner
2. Post Tornado Pictures of Union University
3. Thank You For Your Persistence
4. No Gym? No Prob… Um, No Workout.
5. I Registered For A 5k, Finally

Tagged as: c25k, running