Xmas Trees

Before I was forced to involuntarily retire due to pernicious ageism discrimination at my agency fostered by the new breed of managers there, ambitious, callow persons all a full generation younger than me who only saw their own advancement as paramount, I used to lead an annual Christmas tree run around the Mall that took in as many holiday decorations as we could run by and that stopped briefly at some to admire them. Because of the current cultural wars climate, where the true description of what you're doing can't be hurtful to somebody somewhere, we called it the holiday lights run.  (Union Station tree.)

The organized noontime running club at my division within the agency has fallen into disuse since I left last year via forced retirement, so no more happy, fit workers returning to their desks in the afternoon ready to put in a full closing flourish to their workday. But I went into the District this week to go by my personal favorite spots to view Christmas trees for my own gratification. (Canadian Embassy tree.)

I didn't see all my favorite spots but I did the best I could in the limited time I had downtown before new toll-road considerations, based upon expansive and expensive rush-hour electronically monitored charging via a windshield transponder, kicked in to make my transport prohibitively costly, basically surge pricing called dynamic flow that allows for only a few free hours of use midday of the main traffic artery into DC, which severely restricted my ambulation downtown. I saw old and new favorite examples of Christmas trees like the National tree, the Capitol tree, and trees at the Willard Hotel, the Trump Hotel, Union Station, the Peace Officer Memorial, the Navy Memorial and the Canadian Embassy. (Willard Hotel tree.)

I didn't get to the Botanical Garden tree or other pretty trees that I know of but my circuit, for as rushed as it was, was pretty comprehensive.  I'm so currently out of shape due to lingering injuries that it was an exhausting, but fulfilling, journey largely by Capital Bike Share. (The National tree.)

The Annual Christmas Tree Run 2016 Version.

I no longer work there, but I certainly have friends there and so yesterday I led a noontime Holiday Season Decorations Run on the Mall, as I have every year for the last decade and a half.  Here is a group I led in 2008, at the National Tree on the Ellipse.

Here is the 2016 version of the same scene.

I had tried to lead the same run earlier in the month but the Ellipse was blocked off for some reason and this was as close as we got the the National Tree that day, plus there was no Menorah erected yet, so I rescheduled the run.

The run yesterday  got off to a rocky start.  We skipped the scheduled first stop, at the Botanical Gardens, once we saw that the line to get in to see it snaked out the door.  Here is a picture of the tree from last year''s run, with its cute little Thomas the Engine running around the bottom of the display.

We had better luck at the nearby Capital Tree outside the Capitol.

From there we ran up to Union Station to see the tree inside its cavernous interior.

We were the beneficiaries of melodious singing from a high school choral group from Catonsville, Maryland.

The little Norwegian mountain village display with trains running through it on multiple tracks had been set up behind the chorus.  When my children were young, three Christmas seasons in a row I brought Jimmy, then Johnny, and then Danny to Union Station to see the trains and have lunch.  Merry Christmas, boys, and also to you, too, Laura!

Resuming our tour, we ran by my favorite but mostly unknown Christmas tree, the Peace Officers Tree at the District's courthouse.  You might know that I was a peace officer for nine years in the eighties.  The tree's ornaments are photos of local police officers, including slain officers from the DC police force.  A strong wind the day before had blown several of these tiny, light ornaments off the tree and we collected them all and re-hung them.

Here is a picture of the same tree from the run a few years back.

Last year I participated in the Christmas Tree Run organized by my former running club one weekend.  Here is what the Peace Officers Tree looked like a year ago.  This stop was not on the club's schedule that morning but I told the group about it and insisted we run by it.  This living tree seems to have become more scrawny each year.

Then our tour resumed and we ran by the full, big tree at the Canadian Embassy on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Here's a view of the same stop from the 2014 run.  A mountie came out and snapped our picture that day, and offered to take my running mate's hockey team on a tour of the embassy.  She never took him up on the offer.

Now the run became a little unmoored.  We went into three establishments along Pennsylvania Avenue that might or might not have had a Christmas tree inside and we were rewarded each time.  The first was inside the Navy Memorial's data room.

As a bonus, we got to pose with a doughboy outside the Navy Memorial's visitor center entrance.  He's a tall boy.

Next we ran up to and went into the recently-opened Trump Hotel, the old Postal Pavillion.

Here you go.  Make America great again (so when did it stop being great?).

We ran across the street to the Willard Hotel.

The Willard Hotel had this tree in its lobby.  Which do you like better?

The Willard also had a tree tucked away in the Nest, behind the Round Nest Bar.

Outside again, we the group posed by another tree at the Willard.  When I asked where the agreeable tourist who snapped the picture was from, he sheepishly said, "I don't know if I should say so, but we're from Texas."  One group member briefly chatted up the man and it turned out they both had some connections to southwest Texas so hopefully we allayed his feeling of being an outsider here.

The run was more than just a quest for every Christmas tree we could find.  We ran by people bedecked out in the holiday spirit.

Here's a picture from the last decade when I conducted the run from work in the evening.  I remember how bitterly cold that night was.

The holiday decorations in front of the White House was our final stop.

We passed by the Menorah on our way back to my running mates' office, where I peeled off to return home.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Reversing course

When I want to run a hard, quick two miles downtown during the lunch hour, I run down NJ Avenue from Georgetown Law School to the bottom of Capitol Hill, turn left and run up the hill on Constitution Avenue to Maryland Avenue, down Maryland to and around Stanton Park, and then return to my starting point via Mass Avenue. As I finally try to come back to running after my ankle injury, yesterday I decided to reverse this course to make it easier by reducing the severity of the hill climb.

Of course elevation gain is the same on a circular course no matter which direction you run it. By reversing course I was trading the severe third of a mile climb on Constitution a mile into the run for a more gradual but longer and immediate climb on Mass Avenue.

I set off at an easy lope and passed by Union Station, where it became clear to me that something was terribly wrong. Only five minutes into the run, I was totally fagged and wanting to stop and walk.

I obviously have no conditioning left. But I persevered and finished the run in 19:30, a leisurely pace indeed (9:45), a satisfactory start to my return.

A Wonderful Winter Workweek Run

The weather in DC has been glorious this week with a series of dry, sunny sixty degree days. On Tuesday I took advantage of it by taking an extended “lunch” break and going on a long mid-day run, 14-miles, running the bridges plus Haines Point. It took me 2:06:50 (9:04) to go the distance.

Clad only in a technical shirt, shorts and shoes, I ran from my building near Union Station to the Mall, about a mile. Running to the Lincoln Memorial, I passed by the Washington Monument on my left and the White House on my right. Traveling up Rock Creek Park a short way, I ducked down along the Georgetown Waterfront, passing by lunch hour diners enjoying outdoor seating with a view of the Potomac. Making my way up to M Street, I ran down the bustling center of shopping for Georgetown, being forced to stop several times by traffic at street corners or gaggles of students on the sidewalk.

Loping over the Key Bridge into Virginia at an easy pace, I was passed by another runner. I kicked it up a gear with reluctance, passed her back and turned south down the open stretch of parkland along the Potomac.

I made my way past the Roosevelt Bridge and Memorial Bridge to the 14th Street Bridge, using mile markers 13 and 12 on the Mt. Vernon Trail to run a “tempo” mile at 8:20. I caught and passed 4 other joggers along this section and was passed by a multitude of bicyclists. I used the 14th Street Bridge to regain DC near the Jefferson Memorial.

I circled remote, windswept Haines Point, running through the middle of The Awakening statue at the tip of the peninsula. Here I came the closest I have come in years to getting hit by a car when a reckless driver came barreling down the roadway with his car’s wheels a mere 18 inches off the curb. Being forced to jump out of the roadway as he passed by so closely that a nearby bicyclist shouted out in alarm, I gave the driver an appropriate angry salute and paused to see if he would stop. He didn't. The age-old conflict between motorist and runner. Fortunately the car had been coming at me and not up behind me. (Above: Arghhh!)

Now thoroughly tired and starting to get sore, I left Haines Point by the Case bridge which allows you to look down upon the Washington Waterfront. I was wearing brand new Asic Evolution II shoes which I was not happy with, as they were too big despite being my exact size (13). They were causing my left heel to hurt.

Attaining L’Enfant Plaza Promenade at Benjamin Banneker Park, I passed by government workers out on the Plaza wasting time taking smoke breaks. They were being more efficient in their work day than I was though, because they weren't playing hookey like I was as my watch sounded its second hourly chime during the run. (Above: The Bartholdi Park Fountain at the U.S. Botanic Garden.)

I passed the Air and Space Museum, the new American Indian Museum and the U.S. Botanic Garden. Tourists abounded on the sidewalks along here. Turning north on 1st Street I ran by the Capitol, passing statues of presidents Garfield and Grant on my left. A charge up Capitol Hill, a daunting obstacle this deep into a run, brought me to Stanton Square with its statue of Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene. (Above: Who is it, Garfield, Grant or Greene?)

Heading back to Union Station, I sprinted past harassed travelers wrestling with baggage and ended my run at the great hall’s front door amidst the queue of jostling taxicabs. I had made a huge circle around the heart of downtown DC, encountering many different types of people along the way.

I rewarded myself by purchasing lunch amongst throngs of schoolchildren still on break in the food court and took it back to my office to eat. Sometimes working for the gumint has its advantages. This had been a January workday run to remember for many years to come.