marathoner452

I'll be working at the Staff Deployment center in downtown DC starting tomorrow at noon.  I'll be there for at least a few days, maybe longer depending on what Ernesto does before it makes landfall.  Right now it's breaking up over eastern Cuba, it's barely a tropical storm, and the prediction cone keeps drifting farther east.  So if it brushes Florida with a few inches of rain and 40 mph winds, then I'll be home by Friday.  If it's much worse than that, I might not be home for awhile but it won't be any more than 3 weeks.

I'll get to stay in a motel in downtown DC and work with a bunch of cool Red Cross people for a few days, if nothing else.  Given that otherwise I'd just be sitting around the house catching up on my reading and staring at the wall, it works for me.  Life is good.

In other news, I had more fun running the Annpolis 10-Miler (I'm finisher #2571) yesterday than I've had with any race in a long time.  I'd forgotten how much fun big races (this one had 5,000 runners) are.  Lots of music, lots of excitement, always lots of people around, and dozens of residents out there with sprinklers and hoses to keep us cool.  Yeah it was hot and humid and rather hilly, just like Maryland distance runners always say, but I'll definitely do it again.  We got nice fleece pullovers and icy cold towels at the finish and we got to run over the Severn River.  The hills aren't THAT bad either, no worse than Bachman Valley (though that's not saying much).  I'm kinda sore today, but not too sore.  Marathon training continues on.

~Bethany

For one thing, I registered for the Annapolis 10 Miler last night.  It's a rather infamous race around here.  It's run at the end of August, so it's always hot, humid, and hilly.  Just look at the elevation map.  Brings to mind what I've heard about the Dreaded Druid Hills 10k (which unfortunately I'll be in New Orleans for this year)-"I like running hills but that was mean and totally uncalled for."  Regardless, I'm registered and that meant it was time to celebrate in the way that only runners celebrate, with the longest run I've done in months.  6 miles, and I would have gone farther had it not started storming.  I'm not even paying for it all that horribly today.

I had two AmeriCorps interviews today.  One of them was with Volunteer Southern Maryland and the other was with Maryland Conservation Corps.  VSMD will contact me later in the week and let me know if I have a position, but MCC offered me a position.  I'm the first one to be offered a position with the Patapsco River State Park Conservation Corps, as this is the first year of the program.  I'm pretty excited about that in itself.  That's 4 positions so far, though unfortunately no offers or even any contact from positions down in Louisiana.  Now I just need to decide by the time I get back from New Orleans.

I also need word from the NPRC in Baltimore as to whether I could start in August (when my current term is up) instead of July.  If I can't, that all of a sudden makes my decision a lot easier.

~Bethany