Capitol Hill and Chesapeake Bay Bridge Run

It has been a very busy 5 weeks with visitors from home. But we continued to put in big days and see and do a whole bunch of things. I spent the weekend catching up on sleep and managed to get 15 hours on Friday and Saturday. It was greatly needed. We ended daylight savings this weekend too so we got an extra hour sleep - just awesome. The weather is cooling, the leaves are falling and things look quite pretty around the place.

Despite being tired through the week, I managed to watch the baseball world series finals. They play the best of 7 games and the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians were battling for a long overdue world series title. The Indians were up 3-1 games and then the Cubs got on a winning streak taking the series to 3 all. So it came down to a deciding 7th game on Wed night. It was a fantastic game - I've never seen such great baseball. I couldn't go to bed so at midnight they were 6 all after 9 innings. This means extra time until until someone scores a run. There was a rain delay and I couldn't risk staying up any later so went to bed. I woke in the morning to see the Cubs had won, breaking a 106 year drought. I was pretty happy and had been backing the cubbies.

Onto more serious things, a few weeks back we were treated to a personal tour of the Capitol Building by a friend we have met here. The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol Building or Capitol Hill, is the seat of the US Congress, the legislative branch of the US Federal Government. It sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall.

The original building was completed in 1800 and was subsequently expanded, particularly with the addition of the massive dome. Like the principal buildings of the executive and judicial branches, the Capitol is built in a distinctive neoclassical style and has a white exterior. Both its east and west elevations are formally referred to as fronts, though only the east front was intended for the reception of visitors and dignitaries.

It was really interesting, we asked 578 questions, and we got to see things behind the scenes. Two things of great interest were the balcony (picture with me and Deb) which overlooks where the inauguration will take place in January for the new President. Such a great view. The other cool thing was underneath the various floors is the crypt (I think this features in the latest movie Inferno by Dan Brown). It was intended to be the burial place of George Washington, with a ringed balustrade at the center of the Rotunda above looking down to his tomb. However, under the stipulations of his last will, Washington was buried at Mt. Vernon (just outside DC). The Crypt houses exhibits on the history of the Capitol. A compass star inlaid in the floor marks the point at which Washington, D.C. is divided into its four quadrants; however, the geographic center of the city lies near the White House.

 
 

The other highlight was running the Chesapeake Bay Bridge 10km fun run. One of our local running friends had wanted to do this run so we decided to register a few months ago with her. While our running had been going well, the past 5 weeks or so with travelling and visitors gave us little chance for exercise. So the run was going to be a tough struggle, particularly since the bridge has a very long climb. 

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge (commonly known as the "Bay Bridge") is a major dual span bridge in the state of Maryland at Annapolis (about an hour from DC). Spanning the Chesapeake Bay, it connects the state's Eastern shore region with the urban Western shore.The original span opened in 1952 and with a length of 4.3 miles (6.9 km), was the world's longest continuous over-water steel structure; the parallel span was added in 1973. The incline was a nice 3% and the highest point of the bridge is about 56m above water.

The run is capped at 25,000 people and it's very popular with both walkers and runners. We all decided to just do our best and walk if we had to. We stood there in the 'Start Corrall' and I looked at that beastly bridge, wondering if it actually got to the other side. It was so bloody long that I couldn't see it. I could see people running up the start and kept telling myself this would be over in an hour or so, gulp !!  This seemed like a good idea over breakfast sometime ago?

We headed off amongst the mass of feet and as always, there's a range of dress styles. I quite enjoyed a t-shirt that had this on the back 'IF YOU'RE BEHIND ME THEN YOU DIDN'T TRAIN EITHER'. Yep, that was kinda me.  Deb pulled away early and didn't look back. She says she did but I said nope, I saw ya' just trot off. 

So our friend and I jogged together as we are similar pace. It was quite frustrating to dodge walkers - you think they would walk on the side but no, they were all over the road making this physical challenge a real obstacle course. We chatted along the way about a range of things and I explained how in Australia, a sausage sizzle would be at the end of the race - how I would miss this at the end. And then a moron ran past quite fast at some stage trying to save 6 seconds off his race time and I commented that he was running for sheep stations. I had to explain that term to my friend also. We made it to the top of the bridge without stopping and it was literally all downhill from there. The last few km's were flat after the bridge and the legs were getting pretty tired. But we ran all the way and crossed the finish line to receive a serious chunk of bling (race medal).

The logistics for this race was outstanding. There were parking places away from the race start and school buses were ferrying runners to the start and back from the finish. It was highly organised and took away a lot of stress. 

 

While finishing was a great relief, the most exciting part was getting to ride on an a yellow American school bus. Wow, this is an icon of all things American. Our friend was surprised that we didn't have such buses in Australia. Wow, so another box ticked by taking a ride on a school bus. I was quite excited and waiting for everyone to burst into song with '10 green bottles, sitting on the wall, 10 green bottles....". 

So we came home quite tired and I had another few hours sleep. We have another busy week ahead but I'm glad to start the week feeling quite refreshed...I might rethink that tomorrow morning when the legs won't work.

Well the weekend draws to a close but this coming week will see Election day on Tuesday. It has been absolutely frantic here with trash, slander, bullshit, hype, promises and just a little bit of policy. Early voting has finished and I think this is the biggest turnout ever so I wonder how many will vote on Tuesday - note it is not mandatory to vote in the US. We are having a little election party on election night with some friends coming over to watch the results come in. I figure it will either be historical or hysterical, depending on who wins !!

And check out the bumper sticker. It's fair to know voters are fairly unhappy with both candidates and consider this election picking the best of the worst. Sound familiar??