6.2

I finished the 10k on Saturday. Finished, but I'm not going to even tell you what my time is, it was so bad. I finished about 2/3 of the way down the list of finishers, which I'm okay with.
Lessons learned:

1. Go to the bathroom before you run a race. I thought I could hold it. But no. I had to stop about halfway through and hit the porta-potties.

2. No one can run through mud when it gets to a certain level. I'm not kidding, there was about 6 inches of slippery, wet mud that was simply unavoidable for about 2 miles of the race. I literally did not see one person who was able to run through it. When I finished, Dan told me that the first and second-place finishers had mud up to their thighs, just covered. Everyone else was just filthy, like me. I would bet that fewer than 1% of the finishers ran the whole course. I finished, though, and I got my registration. $88 later, I'm now officially signed up to run the Marine Corps Marathon on October 25.

Otherwise, we had a great time in DC. After the race, we took a long NAP, then got some brunch and went to the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. I really liked it, and I'm surprised that I've never been before. We saw the official portraits from the U.S. Presidents, which I really enjoyed. I learned some interesting things, like that Eisenhower became a painter himself when he sat for his portrait, and that Lyndon Johnson was kind of even bigger of a jackass than I thought. When Peter Hurd presented the portrait to him, he said "that's the ugliest thing I ever saw, get it out of here" and Johnson was slightly famous for using his size to intimidate people and stand over them. Kind of funny.

We later went bowling with Dan's running friends, and I proved my ability...I bowled three games, and my combined score was about 140. Seriously, I'm a HORRIBLE bowler. Dan and I then went to visit a friend of his at the bar where he works, and I...well, lets just say I was hating life on Sunday. I broke every rule of drinking - I drank cheap tap beer at the bowling alley, then drank the fullest-body red wine I've ever had...all on an empty stomach. I nearly lost it at brunch on Sunday.

Obviously, I was exhausted, and despite a two-hour nap after lunch, I was super-tired driving home. I had to stop halfway and pick up Colonel Mustard at my mom's house, but I HAD to be at work on time today, so my stay in Lynchburg was only about half an hour. I finally got on the road to Charlotte at 9 pm and was so sleepy, I had to stop somewhere about 80 miles away from Charlotte and take a power nap. I've NEVER had to do that, but I would have wrecked the car had I kept going. Luckily, though, Dan talked to me the rest of the way home so I wouldn't fall asleep. Needless to say, my workday today was TOUGH.

And it's now 6:36 and I'm wondering when I can go to bed.