Nice Day for a Long Walk

This weekend I was supposed to do 15 miles yesterday and eight today. Yesterday I was in Richmond for an Alumni Board meeting and it was NOT a nice day for a a long walk.

I decided early in the week  after seeing the forecast the 15 miles was happening on Sunday and this is the route I ended up settling on:

This time I decided to take the bus to Crystal City and then join the Mt. Vernon Trail there. This was a good way to eliminate some of the boring trail walking! I took the trail to Memorial Bridge and then crossed into DC and basically played tourist. I went past the Lincoln Memorial (twice today!), down Constitution to the White House, over through Chinatown and then down Massachusetts Ave past Union Station and into the Capitol Hill neighborhood. From there I came down Pennsylvania, to Independence and over to L'Enfant Plaza.

The weather was SO nice, with a breeze that made it difficult to keep a hat on, but felt great. And while the sun was out it never really felt too hot as I was making my way around the city.


For the first 9 miles I kept myself entertained by tracking what I was listening to starting when I started walking and taking a screen shot of the song playing at each mile mark. Here's my diverse collage of songs:

I was actually feeling great, making good time with very few breaks and with no pain (thanks Advil!) when I reached L'Enfant Plaza, about 9 1/2 miles into my 15 mile walk. But I was still SO happy to have company meet me there to finish the walk! Last night I was pleasantly surprised to get an offer from Mike to join me for the second half. I didn't make him do quite that much, but definitely appreciated the offer as I knew the last few miles were going to drag for me and company would make them so much more tolerable!

Mike and I set out from L'Enfant Plaza over the Case Memorial Bridge (395 by the 12th Street Exit/over the SW Waterfront) and into East Potomac Park. We went along Ohio Drive back towards the Tidal Basin and walked along the water down towards the MLK Memorial and then made my second trip of the day to Lincoln and then down along the reflecting pool to the WWII Memorial. I took a break in the shade on a bench for a few minutes while Mike took in the Memorial, then we continued on, up past the Washington Monument and down Madison Drive along the National Mall.

Still smiling, while the wind whips my hair around, at mile 13 1/2. 

 At this point I was definitely starting to move slower and feeling the effects of the Advil wearing off. We walked to 4th street and then followed it over to Independence and started making our way back to the car. My knee was starting to hurt at that point and my feet were definitely making their presence known. I definitely believe that there's a mental element to the struggle at the end too. Just knowing there's only a few blocks to go tends to make them feel SO much longer.

In the end we returned to L'Enfant at 2:15, exactly 2 hours after Mike met me there and 5 hours and 45 minutes after I set out for my walk. I'm definitely happy with my pace, which was clocking at just under a 20 min mile for the most part, and the limited number of breaks I took (4 total, 2 around 10 minutes, 1 a lot shorter and 1 longer).

And I feel pretty good now, a few hours later. I'm a little hobbly, and my feet hurt a bit, but, I'm about to head out and run some errands and the fact that I can do that feels great!

Last weekend I was feeling pretty apprehensive about the Avon Walk and if I was going to be able to do it again. But today, my confidence is back and so is my optimism!