soul searching

I know that I raved about the gorgeous grit of Petworth last week, but today I’m focusing on its hidden beauty!

Not only do I have a favorite tree, but I also have a favorite yard. This is it. You can find in on Kansas Avenue NW.
Other than a few pretty flowers, today’s run was mostly soggy circles.

I’m not complaining, though. After some seriously muggy days, I’m glad the humidity finally broke! Considering I had eight 800-meter dashes on the agenda, I was very thankful to not die of heatstroke. Because if I had, I wouldn’t be here to write this very important blog post.

No furniture today (surprising, given that it’s the start of a new month, when people usually move out…), but I did find these nice green loafers if anyone is interested.

During my long, repetitious laps today I thought about my first days on the track. I joined the track team my freshman year of high school, and lasted about three weeks into the season before I quit. I thought running was the most boring thing ever and decided it was the dumbest hobby I ever tried.

Sophomore year, my gym teacher made us run a mile during class one day. I remember I finished in 8 and a half minutes, and was sore for days.

For some reason, I picked up running again my senior year of high school — this time, completely on my own, outside of school — and slowly learned to like it. I began running 1-2 miles every day before school, and in a few months moved on to 3-4 miles. I remember running 6 miles for the first time, my freshman year of college. I felt so, so proud! In another year I would run my first half marathon… and two years after that, my first marathon.

I think that’s one of the coolest things about running. And life in general, I guess. If you chip away at it, you’re bound to get better. Given my early experiences with running, I would have never, ever guessed that I would run multiple marathons in my life. Sometimes big achievements — running or non-running related — seem completely out of your achievement range, but running’s helped me learn that they’re not. Just keep working at it and you’ll probably get there. And if not, at least you’ll have fun trying. And that is all the soul searching I have for you today.

Just kidding when I said no street furniture BTW. Miriam is on the hunt in New York this week and sent over this gem, located in Brooklyn:

Get ready for more out-of-state photos! We’re off to Tennessee tonight, so southern adventures are sure to come tomorrow.

• What’s something you slowly worked hard to achieve?
• What are your fourth of July plans?
• Do you have a garden? Want one? Don’t want one?

Of interest:

• Health.com: Best post-workout stretches 
• WashPost: Yelp-based map highlights DC’s cheapest and most hipster areas
• Runner’s World: Six moves to help prevent and cure knee pain