Hains Point, The Hidden Gem of Washington D.C.

Amid the hustle and bustle of the Nation’s Capital quietly awaits a scenic outdoor escape from city life.  The East Potomac Park (also known as Hains Point) rests on a tranquil peninsula between the Washington Channel and the Potomac River.  From the golf course to the playground, this peaceful slice of paradise has something for everyone.

Hains Point Loop Courtesy of mapmyride.com

During my last visit, the often traffic-less roadway around the peninsula was alive with dedicated fall runners and cyclists enjoying their brisk outing by the water.  The Hains Point Loop is 3.2 miles around Ohio Drive SW and across Buckeye Drive to your start point. This is perfect for those who are training for an upcoming 5K race (5K is equal to 3.1 miles).  Or equally as nice for a “joy run”.

My nephew sliding down one of several slides

Meanwhile, we spent time with our family at the large and fully fenced-in playground.  Emphasis on the “fenced-in”…being a parent of only fur kids, my niece and nephews taught me that this quality is equally as nice with children.  We had a blast running free, climbing on the monkey bars, and sliding down the slides.  When we needed a five minute recharge, there were plenty of picnic tables available.  There was also the bonus of regular bathrooms (not port-a-potties) in case one of the crew needed to make a pit stop.  All in all, it was a great afternoon of fun for the family.

As the sun started to sink down in the sky, we decided to stop by the water to watch the sunset.  It is hard to beat the view and burst of colors on display during a sunset at East Potomac Park!  I decided to capture to scene in a video; it is the only way to appreciate how the colors dance off the surface of the water.

I hope you enjoyed your peek at Hains Point.  If you know of any other “city escapes”  in your area, please do share!  Until next Friday, enjoy the wanderlust!

Why I Ran 104.8 Miles…

Kent and I at the Diva 1/2 Marathon near D.C.

After 104.8 race miles in three years, I have decided to hang up my pink running shoes and step away from the racing world for a bit.  I will never forget the memories made along those roads or the lessons each step has thought me.  Running gave me a way to reclaim and love my body when I felt like it was going rogue.  A series of issues and hospital visits had left me feeling like my body betrayed me.  We were separate then, my body doing what it willed and I dealt with it as the soul trapped within.

This continued until I met a Spin Class Instructor named Andre.  He was one of those rare people who could bring out the best in others through his genuinely caring spirit.  He was always smiling and remembered everyone’s name, even if you came to his class once.  I loved this about him.  Being with him in this class enabled you to shed the weight of the world and see yourself as you did when you were a child…innocent, loved, and full of potential.  The best part of the class was the last song, this is where the magic happened.  Andre would walk around the room encouraging you to think of what was driving you to be in the class, then harness that energy and pedal through to the end.  That is when it clicked, “this is my body” said a bold voice within me.  It might be broken, but it is my body and it is still capable of truly amazing things.  In that moment I decided to love my body, even in it’s broken state.  I was going to honor it by tending to what it needed and I was going to push it to prove it was mine. So I set out to do something I told myself I would never do…I became a runner!

Each morning I went out for a run and the most amazing thing happened.  I felt whole again.  I could feel my soul and body working together in perfect harmony with each step.  There was nothing but me experiencing the moment through the world around me…no hospitals, no fear, no frustration.  I wasn’t just running, I was proving to myself how strong I was with each stride!  My body was adapting to what I wanted, getting stronger and going farther each run.

This is when I realized that there are a lot of other things I had been asking my body to do that weren’t helping it.  Things like sitting all day in an office, skipping lunch, or dealing with the stress of unhealthy relationships.  So I started to put my foot down and make some major changes.  One by one, I shed myself of negative people and environments. I distanced myself from people who didn’t respect me or treat me the way I deserved.  I stopped pouring time into things that were bringing me down.  I started saying ‘yes’ to the things I enjoyed.  I starting living the life I should have been living all along and now, ironically, I am grateful to my body’s warning signs for being the trigger to freeing myself!

As wonderful as this was, it was not the only thing running did.  It also gave me a way to honor and fight alongside my loving Aunt Madeline. While I was going through my own (comparatively minor) health issues, my aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer.  I hate cancer!  I had learned that her body was also going rogue, so I did the only thing I knew to do with rogue bodies…I pushed my body harder to fight for her too.  With these last several races since she has past being the hardest, I have decided that running my last race during Breast Cancer Awareness month is the best way I can honor her memory.  After the Woodrow Wilson Bridge 1/2 Marathon on 5 Oct 14, I will have pushed through 104.8 miles of races in her honor and memory. I may race again one day, but for now, it is time to retire my pink running shoes for her.

My heart and prayers go out to all members and their families who have been affected by cancer.  May hope, strength, and peace be with those fighting the battle.

2012-2014 Races in Honor of Madeline Leyda

• 2012 Rock n Roll Half Marathon, Virginia Beach
• 2013 Rock n Roll Half Marathon, Virginia Beach
• 2013 Rock n Roll Half Marathon, Washington D.C.
• 2013 Rock n Roll Half Marathon, Las Vegas
• 2014 Disney Princess Half Marathon, Orlando
• 2014 Anthem Half Marathon, Virginia Beach
• 2014 Diva Half Marathon, Washington D.C.
• 2014 Woodrow Wilson Bridge Half Marathon, Washington D.C.

31 Ways to Celebrate October and the Halloween Countdown!

October is my absolute favorite month of the year.  The weather is just starting to cool, the fall leaves are changing colors, the sweet smell of pumpkin is in the air, and then there is Halloween!  I can’t help but feel both excited and refreshed when this time of year rolls around.  Something about October makes me feel so alive and at peace in my own skin.

It always seems to go by too quickly though, so much excitement and in the blink of an eye it is gone.  I suppose like the adage says, time flies when you are having fun.  This year, I don’t want to miss a thing!  So I’ve made a list of 31 wonderful ways to celebrate October and would like to share it with the rest of my fellow Pumpkin Heads!

1. Get your culinary talent going with 31 Pumpkin Filled Recipes.   
2. Horror Movie buffs can work their way through the 31 Scariest Movies of All Time.
3. Get your ghost gear ready and visit the 31 Most Haunted Places in America.
4. Curl up in your favorite reading nook with 31 of the Scariest Books. 
5. Photography Admirers can check out these 31 Haunting Images of Abandoned Places. 
   

   Abandoned home in Nebraska

6. Try your hand at 31 of these 33 Awesome Pumpkin Carvings.
   

   Nittany Lion Pumpkin

7. Or get crafty with 31 Most Amazing No-Carve Pumpkin Ideas.
8. Don’t throw all those pumpkin seeds out, whip up these 5 Mouth Watering Pumpkin Seed Recipes.
9. Spend some time with the little monsters in your life with 31 Days of October Crafts.
10. Let these 31 Terrifyingly Creepy Vintage Halloween Costumes inspire your plan for this Halloween.
11. Kick back and try 31 of these Must Try Pumpkin Beers.
12. Take a drive through the Top 14 Foliage Destinations in the U.S.
    

    Fall Foliage at Penn State University

13. Find your way through 31 of these Corn Maze Locations.
    

    My niece having a blast in the Mount Vernon Hay Maze

14. Make sure to visit a few pumpkin patches, perhaps one of these 5 Best Pumpkin Patches in America.
15. Get a good scare at The Top 31 “Must See” Haunted Houses.
16. Enjoy the fall harvest at one of these Great Apple Picking Orchards.  Couldn’t resist adding this Apple Picking list from Travel and Leisure too.
17. Get your blood pumping with a Zombie Run or download the addictively entertaining Zombies, Run! app to kick up the stakes in your training.
18. Try out some of these great Hard Ciders.
19. Do it yourself, Make your Own Hard Cider!
20. Brew your own Pumpkin Ale!
21. Drink your beer from a DIY Pumpkin Keg!  Lol, I love my pumpkin beers.
22. Start planning your Halloween Party with 31 Halloween Party Ideas for your inspiration.
    

    My husband and I at our neighbor’s awesome 2012 Halloween party.

23. Get creative with your party food with 31 Ghoulish Treats For Your Halloween Feast.
24. Make one of these 31 Halloween Wreaths for your front door.
    

    The Halloween wreath I made last year.

25. Real your Fur Kid into the festivities with 57 of the Greatest Pet Costumes.
    

    My sweet little Zippo as a pumpkin

26. Read up on your history with 13 Facts You Never Knew About Halloween.
27. Take “Trick or Treat” literally this year with 50 Amazingly Epic Pranks.
28. Learn how the heck that superstition about black cats started and other Black Cat Folklore.
    

    Our black kitten, Onyx

29. Don’t forget your pink, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month!
    

    Kent and I at the Diva Half Marathon in memory of my Aunt Maddy.

30. Enjoy one of the Great Autumn Hike in National Parks.
31. Have the Happiest Halloween and countdown 364 days until next year!

Do you have a favorite way to celebrate October?  I’d love to hear your ideas and stories, just comment below!

The Last 13.1 Miles

My Pink Running Shoes

Everyone runs for a reason; steps turn into miles and the journey evolves into a tribute.  This tribute could be to any number of things, from better health, to finding a cure, or the memory of loved ones past.  I started running after struggling with my own (relatively minor) health roller coaster, it started as a way for me to say that “this is my body” and no illness will take that away from me.  After going through times where it was a struggle just to get out of bed, I wanted to prove that I could do this, my body could do this because a body is an amazingly beautiful and powerful thing.  Prior to my first half marathon, I had never ran further than 6 miles.  I will never forget the triumphant feeling of crossing the 6 mile marker and thinking to myself, “every step I take now is the farthest I’ve ever ran.”  Each step felt like it’s own victory.

I will also never forget the people at the race, because they allowed me to see the good in humanity.  I ran behind runners dedicating their race to loved ones fighting illness or in memory of those who did not make it.  I watched strangers, fellow runners and spectators, cheering on those who were struggling with each stride.  I watched home owners along the route flock to the sideline to hand out tissues, or spray water from hoses, or hand out ice on a hot day to runners.  Perhaps the most humbling, were the Team Hoyt racers, pushing wheelchairs as they ran to the finish line.  For those who are not familiar with Team Hoyt, I encourage you to click on the link and watch the brief story of runners Dick and Rick Hoyt, completing an Ironman.  Little did I know at the time, but my own running tribute would evolve to be more like those of the runners around me.

Someone I loved had breast cancer.  I was at loss for what I could do…I felt so helpless, so useless in this fight she would have to battle.  It wasn’t until I went to replace my worn out sneakers that I remembered the runners from my first race who ran in honor of another’s struggle.  I glanced up at the hot pink sneakers above me, the ones with a “for the cure” breast cancer tag on them and bought them.  It was something small but it helped me feel like I was fighting by her side every step of the way.  Each time I stepped into my pink shoes, I felt like I was stepping into the fight.  Each step I ran felt like a step toward her victory and freedom from the bonds of cancer.  I told myself that I would run for her in these shoes, that my feet would run for her until she was able to again.  When my legs hurt, I looked down at my pink shoes and thought “these steps are for her…keep going”.  I ran race after race, often signing up for the next one within 30 minutes of the one I had just finished.  I became something of a race junkie, hungry for the fight and victory.

My run times were getting better and my legs hurt less, but the cancer was still progressing.  It eventually metastasized to her spine and her liver.  I signed up for a race near her, but she was now too weak to come so I went to visit her the day prior.  Her body was small and frail, but she still glowed with love.  I will always remember her walking back to the couch, wanting to be twirled and dancing with her husband…a beautiful soul.  She passed away soon after that race and my next race was the weekend after she passed.  65.5 miles of races I  had run to support her battle, but the most difficult miles were the first 13.1 I ran after she was gone. My legs hurt ; I’d look down at my pink shoes and think “this was for her” as my eyes teared up.  I said I would run for her until she was back on her feet, but now what?  She was gone…now what?  She would not be getting back on her feet, but my feet were still running.  Each step hurt, not in my feet, but in my heart.  My foot strikes pavement, but she is gone.  It wasn’t until mile 10 that I started to look around me again.  I saw a man running with a sign on his back…”In Honor of My Mom“…another one…”In Honor of Aunt Sue“…and another…”In memory of My Sister“.  In memory of…I thought of her and the last memory I had of her.  The memory of her husband delicately twirling her as she danced her way back to the couch.  I realized what a beautiful gift she had given me with that memory.  I looked back down at my shoes and realized that these runs will always be for her.  I cried as I crossed the finish line, the weight of her loss hitting me again.  There would be others in the future to add to the list of who I run for, but she will always be there.  These runs are where I find them.