National Running Day: make it two days!

June 2nd, 2010 was the official National Running Day this year. It was also the day Alex had his Congressional Page program departure ceremony in DC, so this is where I celebrated this special occasion to run. On the famous Washington National Mall, with temperatures above 80F at 7:30 in the morning... At least a bit of heat training, at last...

I didn't see that many runners unfortunately despite the occasion, and I don't think the national day was such a hit overall. Besides, while the prospect of running on the Mall again was exciting, having to stop at every intersection makes you lose quite some momentum. Not to mention the opportunities to stop to take pictures of the monument for this tour of the Capital. Quite a few shots from these two days actually, follow my picture "tour" on Picasa!

Apart from running and visiting the city again, it was actually quite an experience to see Alex so at ease in this most official environment and being able to visit non public areas of the Library of Congress, the Congress itself and the Senate, both above and under ground!

Anyway, back to the title, I doubled the celebration by organizing a run at the IBM site I'm attached to on North First Street in San Jose. I created a flier to advertize the run set for June 8th and contacted the local event coordination team so Bev could post the date and location in the weekly newsletter. Out of about 450 employees, 7 responded to the call and registered. Not many, but an opportunity to make new connections and spread the word about the benefits of running. Unfortunately, a last minute all-hands meeting for one of the divisions prevented 4 to join us, and another one bailed out, so we were left with my colleague and running buddy, Michael, and another participant, Wendy. Michael and I were happy to make her discover the nearby Alviso Marina County Park at the bottom of the Bay, an amazing park and wildlife refuge for birds. We ran 5 miles for this inaugural Company run.

Hope the National Running Day will be more popular, more... National, next year to see many more new faces on the roads and trails to experience the joy of running! In the meantime, all, Run Happy out there! :-)