National Marathon

Today was the National Marathon in Washington DC. Kathleen was doing the half marathon, so I went with her to spectate and get a ride in. Now it's rant time. The race started at 7:00AM, which was actually before sunrise. This meant we were up at 5:00AM. Those of you who know me know I am not a morning person, and my question is this. Is there any real reason that this couldn't have started at 8:00AM? At any rate, here is Kathleen at the start, there were 16,000 runners in the race, and the half & full marathon people all started together, so by the time I spotted her she was already passing.
So I scooted up the road and got a better shot here.
Then I went ahead and caught her as the course passed behind the Supreme Court building.
Then a few steps later making a funny face.
I scooted ahead to over in front of Union Station where Kathleen tossed me her gloves (it was about 32 degrees when the race started, another good reason to push the start time back)
After that the race went over towards Constitution Ave, and I rode parallel to it on F street when I spotted this cool building, it is super narrow and triangle shaped.
I then cut over to Connecticut Ave above Dupont Circle to wait for her there. I may have mentioned it was cold, but by the time I got to Dupont Circle I had warmed up and my hands were beginning to not feel like ice cubes. However I mis-timed the catch, and as a result stood around there for about 20 minutes, and froze up again. Eventually Kathleen came through though.
By then I was frozen, and decided to head back towards the finish line to warm the car up and catch Kathleen's finish. Unfortunately I had the timing off again, and missed her finishing. But we eventually reunited at the car and headed for home for a shower and breakfast at the Red Star in Fells Point. When we got back from breakfast Kathleen opted to take a nap (and who could blame her?) and I went back down to DC for work.

Farking cold again

Well, in our usual spring manner, it was farking cold again this morning, 38 degrees when I rolled out, and it had been rainy overnight. But I really needed to get out for a ride again, I have been feeling like a flake with so few rides this year. So I took off at sunrise and headed out towards Canton. I went all the way out Boston Street to the freeway to play dodge with the commuters, then looped around to Greektown. Then it was back in on Eastern before cutting over to Pratt Street. As I topped the hill on Pratt, the city skyline loomed in the mist.
Then it was into Patterson Park, where I spotted this on the bike path there.
I have seen it before, but I never really looked at it. I am not sure what it is the end of, but whatever it is, that is it. After that I rode through the park and up misery hill back to the house to get ready for work. Tomorrow is supposed to be about 35 degrees at ride time, yay.

Springy Saturday

A nice day today, and Kathleen was at the HAT 50K trail run volunteering, so I got up late and then went out for a ride. I went around the Inner Harbor, then stopped by the new Race Pace Bicycle shop in Federal Hill to check it out. It is very swanky, and like all of the other Race Pace shops, staffed by friendly people. After checking it out I went out to Fort McHenry. I was hauling on my way out, thinking to myself that I must have pretty good legs, then I turned around to come back and discovered that in fact what I had was a tremendous headwind. I cut through the neighborhoods in Locust Point, and I spotted this groovy car parked on the street there.
I continued on back up Key Highway and then up Calvert Street, eventually ending up at Lake Montebello, where I saw and heard this guy playing a little sax on the side of the road there.
Then it was back around through Herring Run Park and back towards the house. A fairly innocuous ride, but there was an upside.
Shorts season seems to be back :)

Ahhhhhhh

A nice morning, and much warmer than Boston was. I managed to drag my butt out of bed and get out for a ride this morning. With the time change it was just before sunrise when I left, but by the time I got over to Fort McHenry, the sun was just coming up over the harbor.
A gorgeous morning, but then back to the house and off to work.

Friday

It was a nice morning this morning, after a day of pounding rain yesterday, so I went out for a ride this morning. I rode down Lombard towards downtown, then up Charles Street. I woke up with this song stuck in my head, I found myself singing the chorus to myself.

I suppose an explanation is in order here. A couple of weeks ago I started a Pandora radio station with Katy Perry as the starting artist. It picks out related music and you can tailor it as it goes along by clicking the thumbs up or down on them. Theoretically it learns what you like and adds new stuff as it goes. Since I had started with a pop artist, it has been throwing lots of pop at me, and when I am listening at work I'm not really paying attention so I check thumbs up on alot of stuff. This happens to be one of those tunes, and that chorus is darn catchy. So I imagine I must have heard it right towards the end of the day yesterday, and here it is this morning still there. At any rate I continued on, with a little side detour to climb this hill between Calvert & St Paul Streets.
Now I know it doesn't look like much, but the Garmin says 10% so reasonably steep. I successfully scaled it, and continued on up Calvert. I looped around on 25th street, cut across on Sinclair to Patterson Park back towards the house. As I came down Patterson Park I spotted this building being dismantled.
I had driven by this about a week ago, and it appeared to have collapsed at that point. Alot of the rowhouses here in Baltimore were built on compacted dirt instead of traditional concrete footer (ours is) so if you don't maintain the foundation they can collapse. A lot collapses are from digging out the basement to make it deeper, and the contractors undermine the foundation in the process. At any rate, it is being reduced to rubble now. I realized as I stopped to take the picture that I was still humming the April Lavigne song to myself, and decided that had to stop. So the next thing that popped in to replace it was this.

Ahhh, the 80's return in a cover. Then it was back down Patterson Park to the house to get ready for work. No rides this weekend, I am off to Boston for three days for a gig.

Quick Morning Ride

I have been super lazy, and the weather has been suck (except for last Saturday, but an emergency came up at work so I lost the day to that) but this morning, I got up and enjoyed a ride at 38 degrees. I went out around the Inner Harbor, then up into Federal Hill. Nice morning overall, the relative humidity was a little higher than it has been, so not as bitter. On the way out Charles Street I spotted this sign, so after my little loop through Riverside Park, I shot this on my way home. I am pretty sure this is another church.
A little further along I spotted this very modern redo of a rowhouse, all the windows overlook the harbor (which would be behind me here).
A little further along I spotted this at the AVAM building, quite the weathervane.
Then it was back to the house to get ready for work. I had forgotten how much better I feel and my days go when I go for a ride in the morning, I am going to try and get my act together and start doing it everyday now that spring is coming.