All walked out

I'm all walked out.

I awoke far too early after an uneasy night's sleep, of waking and seeking the alarm clock only to discover I'd been asleep for an hour or two. After a while, I just got dressed and climbed into my car with a thing on my shoes for tracking my time. A thing for which I do know the name but it escapes me now. Hours later. With my sunburnt face and aching legs.

It wasn't the 5K that did it, that erased my memory and pained my legs; though, that didn't help.

The morning dawned clear and cool and I found myself in Oronoco Park an hour or so before the race. I sat on a bench and watched the crowd – from infants in strollers to octogenarians. Puppies. Parents. Teenagers.

As the participants queued at the starting line, I stood to the side, trying to keep out of the way of the runners.

"Are you walking or running?" I asked a pair at the curb.

The woman laughed. Her teenage daughter flashed her braces and said, "Walking."

"You can join us," her mother said.

She expected to walk with her coworkers but found that most were working the race, standing at the sidelines and making sure people went the right way. They cheered for the woman at every checkpoint and I cheered along with them. They made the walk fun.

By the time that we'd finished, we'd lost the teenage girl who jogged the last mile or so, but the coworkers assembled and clapped.

"Should we run?" asked my new friend and I nodded. We ran across the finish line to cheers of "Go, Natalie!"

After the walk, after saying goodbye to my new friend and giving back the thing tied to my shoe of which I can't remember the name, I ran errands, picking up some new towels. The crate. And headed back into DC by way of I-295, knowing I wouldn't have much luck with 395 as it was closed at the 14th Street Bridge. A closed highway, track work on the Metro and walking tours in DC. I think there was a home ballgame, as well. The city just seemed backed up.

I had more errands to run. More things to do. To act like a grown up. Instead, I walked a mile or so to the Congressional Cemetery for my first visit and a docent-led tour as part of WalkingTown DC.

Congressional Cemetery Civil War Tour
History comes to life at the 201-year-old Congressional Cemetery, the final resting place of more than 700 Union and Confederate soldiers, local residents, and military and cabinet officials with close ties to Abraham Lincoln. The Lincoln connections include his personal valet; the door keeper and usher at Ford’s Theatre; and the bartender who served Booth his pre-theatre drink; among many others. Led by Congressional Cemetery docent Steve Hammond and presented by Congressional Cemetery.

For an hour, an hour and a half, we wandered the cemetery, listening to stories of the city and the people who once lived here. I wanted to go back and snap pictures of the chapel. The gravestone for Leonard Matlovich with its inscription of "When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one." The angels. The stones leaning sideways. The pared back rosebush. But I ran out of time and I ran to the Metro to make my way to Southwest DC and a second tour.

Washington Waterfront
Since Pierre L’Enfant drafted the first city plans for the District of Columbia, the Southwest quadrant has been home to a diverse community that has included wealthy speculators, free blacks, and European immigrants. Learn how urban renewal brought reinvention as you visit the Titanic Memorial, the city’s oldest row of houses, a marina, and a colorful fish market. Led by Carolyn Crouch and presented by Washington Walks.

While the first consisted of 20 or so interested walkers, the second tour seemed closer to a hundred. Though, as many times as I tried to count, I couldn't pin down the number. Toddlers playing and being chased by their parents. People coming and going. Neighbors walking through the group.

The stories from one tour overlapped with the other and I heard different views of the same events. I saw places and statues that I didn't know. I made new friends – a couple from Reston – and walked with them, talking during the walking and standing together during the lecture.

For two more hours I walked, almost three, three and a half by the time I got home, touring a neighborhood not too far from my own yet one that I seldom visited outside of baseball games. A lifetime ago, I visited the waterfront fairly regularly as I loved a man who lived on a boat but those days had past.

By the time I got home and thumbed through my mail, through my bills, and swatted at the mosquitoes that found their way into my apartment, by the time I crashed on the couch, I was tired. Exhausted. And grumpy. But I needed to clean up to meet up with friends. I needed to check out the schedule for Sunday to see where I'd walk in the morning.

I couldn't pass up the free tours.


Tag: Washington DC Walking