Well, that didn’t last long.
Two days ago, I was lazy and listless. Today, I am energized and happy. If a bit sore. Because I ran a little three-mile race and got back in the game.
What a relief.
I woke up earlier than usual so my ride could pick me up at 6:40am; our mission was to pick up the rest our team and get to the race site by 7:15am. Downtown Washington is such a pleasure that early in the morning. The sun is rising over the Capitol and people are just starting to hit the pavement, but the tourists haven’t yet gotten up and mucked up the traffic. It’s beautiful.
My agency fielded a five-person team for the ACLI Capital Challenge, a little three-mile race that’s been run in DC for thirty years. Teams from every branch of the government participate, as well as members of the print, broadcast, and electronic media. Teams must have a qualifying captain to enter, and there are all sorts of criteria to determine who qualifies. Sitting Senators and Representatives count, as do Cabinet Secretaries (and their boss). Judges must be Article III judges (President-appointed and Senate-confirmed), and that was my favorite criterion by far. I could just imagine race organizers making sure that each judicial competitor was, in fact, appointed by a U.S. President. Other agency, or sub-agency, heads/directors could also be captains, and that’s how I got in. My co-worker, the Little Buddy, somehow convinced the director of our agency [FN1] to participate, so there we were, freezing our butts off on Hains Point and gawking at Senators Brown, Cantwell, Hutchison, and others. (“Sen. Brown doesn’t look like model material…” ”I didn’t know Maria Cantwell was so fit!”)
I didn’t post a great time, but I certainly had a great time. One of the best parts of the race was the team name competition. U.S. Census Bureau: Everyone Counts on Our Team. Fox News’: Fair and New Balanced. My team: Follow the Money.
I think next year we’ll stick a dollar sign on our fastest runner and have the rest of us dress up as bank robbers.
Tremendous.
———–
FN1. Our director is father to a three year-old and a twenty month-old. He did not consult with his wife before consenting to meet us downtown at 6:55am. Captain, you better never do that to me.
