Last week, my physical therapist gave me the green light to participate in a three-mile race I had signed up for at work.

The ACLI Capital Challenge is an annual race that brings together teams from the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government as well as the media for a little friendly competition.


Me and Galen Rupp post-race. He was the official "whistle-blower" [Har har get it?]

This race was full of some insider DC/political humor. Hats off the race organizers who came up with some of the witty signs.







Some of the funniest signs were definitely on the porta-potties. They were all labeled things such as: Climate Change Deniers, United Airlines Customer Service Trainees, Real News Media, Fake News Media, etc. etc. (If you want to see some more photos of the funny signs, Dorothy over at Mile Posts shared some good ones on her Facebook page).

I've wanted to run this race since I read about it in Runner's World a couple of years ago, but at the time, I don't think my agency sponsored a team. This year though, our CIO pulled together three teams from my agency.

So we all headed out to Anacostia Park last Wednesday for the run.

It was a super hot day, and I was under strict instructions to just see how things went and not try to set any records.


Emily and me before the race

For me, the run itself wasn't anything to write home about. I ran the first mile and a half feeling pretty good (and probably harder than I should have). But then the heat and my hip got to me, and I walked a lot in the second half. My hip would feel kind of OK while running, but if I stopped to walk and then had to start running again, it really hurt.

The pain never got worse, and I didn't feel worse after I finished than when I started, so I guess there was that. I ended up finishing in 26:50.

One of the teams from my agency placed second overall, and we happened to have the first female finisher too. Turns out there are some super speedy people at my agency.

If you saw my post on Instagram right after the race, you know that a couple people, including a senator, went down because of the heat. One of the guys was in pretty bad shape and the medical staff performed CPR for what seemed like an impossibly long time before a helicopter arrived. According to some news reports that I read after the fact though, it seems like everyone is Ok.

I'm hoping my CIO will organize teams again next year because despite the heat this was a really fun race, and it was fun to spend some time out of the office with colleagues.