Maryland!

 

On August 13, 2023, I ran my 18th state, Maryland!  It should have been an easy run, and I was using it as a training run for my marathon training, but it was tough for me!  I have been recovering from a torn muscle and was not quite ready to run a half marathon, but I did it anyway.  And even though it was my slowest half so far, it was finished!  Camden ran it with me, and his time was 2:03:05 without trying.  Oh, to be young!  It was a small race, and I did not finish last!  So that was a plus for me.  The scenery was decent, although the canal we ran beside was stagnant and stinky at times.  The Potomac on the other side of the trail was pretty though!  The hardest part for me was the very slight hills, if you could really call them hills, that bothered my recovering muscle; and the rocks on the trail that hurt my tired feet.

We ran on a National Historic Park Trail

The canal

On this in and out course, I passed Camden on his way back.

The Potomac River

But the best part of the race weekend was spending it with my boys!  When Nathan was growing up, we would learn about different states, eat food from those states and sometimes visit them.  My running all the states is kind of like that and it was nice to take a road trip together again! 

Highlights of the MD part of the trip was visiting Fort McHenry....

A row team in the Baltimore Harbor

Amy and Camden got to help with raising the Star-Spangled Banner.  And they found out that the slight tilt of the stars on the flag they had back then is called spangled...thus the name!  

The inedible cherries on Japanese cherry blossom trees

....visiting Inner Harbor.  Well Inner Harbor does not have much except a really good restaurant for blue crabs and an aquarium that we skipped because it cost $50.  We used our budget on lunch!

Phillips Seafood Crab Deck!  Inside the restaurant looked cool, but they did not have crabs inside.  We opted for the deck and were glad we did.  We have cream of crab soup and blue crab, shrimp and mussel boil.  It was excellent!

  ...And of course, visiting Glen Echo Park to ride the carousel and tour the Clara Barton house was another fun stop.... well the boys tolerated it for me!

We found a little waterfall in the park

The historic carousel

Camden said the park reminded him of the Twilight Zone!  Most of the buildings were deserted.

We also had some really good pizza in Bethesda, stayed at a nice hotel, and got ice cream in a really fun shopping area!

The pizza place was run by true Italians, but it was takeout only.  So, we found an outdoor table to eat our dinner.

Good ice cream!

Since Bethesda is right outside DC, we also spent time there.  We went to a Nationals Game where they beat the A's....

View from the Nationals stadium

Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt.  I missed getting a picture of Washington and Jefferson but did see them race!

...and we toured three museums.  American History, Natural History and Air and Space.  PSA, you have to have a timed ticket to the Air and Space Museum.  My favorite is seeing the pop culture section of the American History Museum, even if Fonzi's jacket was not there!  But Dorothy's ruby slippers were there!!  And the Hope Diamond is also a favorite to see!  And of course, we had to see the original Star-Spangled Banner!

Riding old timey bikes at the American History Museum

A dinosaur humerus at the Natural History Museum

Outside the Air and Space Museum

The first plane

A lot of rooms at the museums were being renovated during our visit, so it really didn't take us long to tour them.  
 

...and we saw some memorials, or at least tried!

Jefferson Memorial

George Mason Memorial

We had 1:00 tickets to tour the Washington Monument, but they shut the monument down at 12:45 due to high temperatures in the monument!  So, we walked to the Lincoln Memorial instead.

World War II Memorial

Lincoln Memorial...under renovation.  It seemed as though many things in Washington need to be renovated!!

The last fun thing we did on our trip was to have a great dinner at Peking Gourmet Inn in Falls Church, VA.  We have been there two other times and try to always go there when we visit DC!

We got duck, soup, and two other entrees to share.  Too much food, but so yummy!

The duck is cut up by the table and you eat it in a rolled-up tortilla like shell.  We only got half a duck, but next time a whole duck instead of other entrees!

It was nice to get away with my boys as this is hard to do with them getting older!  And it was good to knock out one more state!  Now to keep training for my marathon in October which will be back in DC!  

 

Ohio for state 17!!

 On April 8, 2023, I finished my 17th state half marathon!!  Camden and I left Thursday after school to start our weekend running vacation!

We drove straight to Charleston, WV for our first hotel stop.  We couldn't see much of the WV mountains because of the dark, but we did have to pay the $4.25 toll three times to get there! What we did notice, though, was that spring had not reached WV or Ohio.  

Friday morning, we left for our Ohio adventure!  Our first stop was in Canton at the First Ladies Historic Site.  It was a small museum, but very interesting.  The main focus was Nancy Reagen, Jackie Kennedy, and Abigail Adams, although other First Ladies were mentioned also.  

The First Ladies Quilt of the ladies in their Inaugural Ball Gowns

Jackie Kennedy and Lady Bird Johnson

After a quick lunch at Bob Evans, we headed to the National Park in Ohio...Cuyahoga Valley National Park.  

This park is centered around the Cuyahoga River and the Towpath Trail along the Ohio and Erie canals.  We were able to take the short boardwalk to Brandywine Falls....

and hike the Ledges loop.  This trail led us past interesting rock formations that were fun to explore.

After the park, we made our way to Coshocton, OH.  With a quick stop for milkshakes at Swensons Drive-In!  They were very good!!

Coshocton is a very small town but had some pretty spots.  And the Coshocton Village Inn and Suites was very nice with a good view from the room!

Saturday was the race day and the weather was predicted to be very cold!!  Although I had looked at the weather, I had not packed my warmest running clothes and was nervous.  When we left the hotel, it was 32 degrees, but right before we left the car, it was 28 degrees!!  I wore a short sleeve shirt, a long sleeve shirt, a fleece vest and a fleece jacket!  Along with leggings, gloves and a headband!  

The race was Friends of the Park and supported the park in Coshocton.  Camden and I had both signed up for the half, but he dropped to the 10K due to his coach wanting him to keep his legs fresh for track.  This was a very small race, about 250 people.  Most were local.  The course ran around the park and fortunately went by my car after the first mile so I could drop of my fleece jacket.  Although it was still cold and I kept my gloves on most of the race, the fleece was too much!  So I was glad to get rid of it!

Houses along the race route.  These were really cute!

Camden, of course, finished way ahead of me!  I may have finished last!  My time was definitely slower by about 20 minutes than my OK and AR races.  The main problem with small races, and ones with 5 and 10k options, is that there aren't too many walkers to bring up the rear!!  From about mile 3 to 6, I did have some numbness issues with my foot.  But that went away. Then my glute/hamstring started hurting!!  I had pulled it a few weeks before and apparently it was not healed.  It was really hard to keep running and especially hard to step down from curbs during the downtown portion of the race.  So I had to walk a lot and concentrate on keeping on moving!  

Camden with his 10k medal.  He said he felt good and could have done the half!

After I finished and had a quick clean up at the hotel, we got Mexican for lunch.  We had run through the Roscoe Historic Village, so we went back to look around and support the local economy!  I actually didn't buy any soap but did get some Ohio buckeyes!  

Historic Roscoe Village

Our next stop was Wytheville, VA for our last night on the road.  We both felt like we had not had any really good meals yet, so Camden found a place called the Log House 1776 Restaurant.  We called and got a reservation and were very happy with our choice!  We were able to have a relaxing time at our last hotel...playing pool, swimming in the pool and using the fitness center...before we headed home.  

With one last side trip to Mt. Airy, NC to see the Andy Griffith Statue.  The museum and most of the downtown area wasn't open, so we saw the statue and headed home!

It was a super fun time making memories with Camden and finishing state 17!  I also learned that after having numb foot issues at both DE and OH, which were both run about 4-5 weeks after another half, it seems as if running another so close is hard for me.   I don't know how bad it is for me, but definitely hard.  Also, running with a pulled muscle is very hard and I now have to rest and heal it.  Such a pain in the butt literally!!  My next scheduled race is a full marathon in October.  So I have time to heal.  But hopefully I will heal sooner and be able to get state 18 finished before October!