On November 11 we observe Veterans Day to honor and celebrate those who served in the U.S. military. Like most holidays these days you are more likely to hear about Veterans Day sales than Veterans Day ceremonies, but at least many stores are offering special discounts to current and former service members.
The Marine Corps War Memorial At Dawn
In the D.C. area, there are a number of events marking Veterans Day. One of my favorite things to do is visit the different memorials around the National Mall.
Observing Veterans Day
A few years ago I took a self-guided running tour of the memorials, running through Arlington National Cemetery, by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, World War II Memorial, and Korean War Memorial, and ending at the Marine Corps War Memorial–near the finish line of the Marine Corps Marathon.
Each memorial is so different and so powerful, but I find the Korean War Memorial particularly haunting.
We prayed for service members in church today.
Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad.
Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace;
strengthen them in their trials and temptations;
give them courage to face the perils which beset them;
and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be.
Weekly Wrap
Now that OTF Hell Week is over, my workout routine was back to normal with a little bit of everything. Here’s my recap for the Weekly Wrap hosted by Holly and Wendy.
Monday: Strength Workout
Scooby thought I was on the floor to play with him so I had to shut him out of the basement to get my workout done!
Tuesday: Cyclebar
Aimee’s inspiring words –whatever they mean!
Wednesday: 5 mile run
I took advantage of the earlier daylight and ran from my office around the Washington Monument. It was a brisk morning with clear skies.
Thursday: CPY2 at CorePower Yoga
Our peak pose was peacock–I may have gotten both legs in the air for a hot second, but it wasn’t graceful.
Friday: Orange Theory Fitness
After 8 days off, I was ready to face OTF again. The floor workout was a good mix of power leg moves and core moves. The treadmill workout was short but challenging with mostly “push” and “all out” intervals, which I do at 7.5 and 8.0 mph.
My HRM was acting up–I don’t think my heart rate
really was in the “red” zone for so long.
Saturday: 8.2 miles run with Scooby!
This was a huge personal distance record for Scooby, but he did better than I did on our last hill. I ran two different loops around my neighborhood in case he got tired, but he trotted along happily the whole way.
It was a beautiful November morning!
Sunday: 30 very cold miles cycling
It was sunny and in the mid-40s but the bike path was shady and there was wind. And, I’m not used to cycling in cold weather yet, so this was a pretty chilly ride!
And that’s a wrap!
Do you have off for Veterans Day?
![The Ultimate Coffee Date](http://got2run4me.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Ultimate-Coffee-Date.png" "The Ultimate Coffee Date")
Gorgeous sunrise at the monument. Your point re: sales is exactly why I don’t want 9/11 to become a holiday
I want to see the Marine Corps Monument at sunrise/set some time. I always miss it.
Congrats on solid rebound week
Good point on 9/11. I think it’s more meaningful to stop what you’re doing and remember …. The views looking east are the best, so aim for sunrise. 😉
Yes. Conscious choice to remember.
Thanks for tip!
Today I saw one of my neighbors riding his bike with his retriever in tow. Actually, it looked like the dog was pulling him! I’m not sure how I feel about that. I think it’s safer to be running or walking with the dog. Glad Scooby is going the distance with you!
Oh, I think that is so dangerous! I’ve seen it on the bike path. Scares me to.death!
All of the memorials are pretty powerful downtown. This is the first year in a while that I did not run a race on Veteran’s Day. Congrats on that peacock post. I am too afraid to try most of those
I wish you could make it to one of Ann’s classes. I think her sequences make all the difference — although my peacock did take a nose dive a few times. 😉
Love those Scooby miles 🙂 I need to start calling mine Matilda Miles.
That self-guided tour looked lovely. Thanks for sharing the pics.
Yes, Matilda Miles has a nice ring to it! 😉 Glad you enjoyed my photos.
I love all your DC memorials pics. The Korean Memorial is especially powerful…We walked around all of those when we were there in April 2017, and I had not seen that one before (it had been more than 30+ years since my last time seeing the sights up close & personal like that). I’m envious it’s right there at YOUR footsteps 😉
I have discovered so many “minor” memorials running — they are tucked into nooks off the main path but worth a detour.
When I was in DC for MCM there was a group of veterans visiting the monuments. SO powerful. Congrats to Scooby on that mileage PR. Its very cold here and the bikes are totally absent from the paths now.
The bike path was much less crowded this weekend — not so many crazy people. When I was at the Vietnam memorial there was a small group gathering around a friend’s name and remembering …. such an experience to see and thank them all for their service an sacrifices.
You have done an excellent job coaching and training Scooby. The photo you captured Wednesday morning is stunning! My Dad served in WW2 and I know so little about what he experienced. We did go on a couple of trips to DC when I was young and he always had to read every.little.plaque. LOL. What I wouldn’t give… My bike is in our storage shed. It’s just to hard to keep out while we are showing our house. Sigh. Thanks for linking!
I don’t know anything about my Dad’s service either — except that he looked handsome in his uniform. <3 Scooby could use a lot more training, but he's getting there.
Allie’s pretty good with my workouts. When I’m around my parents’ cats, that’s when my floor workouts and stretching gets interactive. Since I use the living room, I can’t keep them out. I just know it’ll take some extra time to do what I want.
I need to go to DC sometime to see all the memorials. I stumbled across one here in NJ on the way home from one of my rotations a couple years back and it was a haunting experience.
Congrats to you and Scooby! I feel like I’d potentially run more if I had a dog, haha. S/he’d give me more of an excuse to go regularly! 😛
Love your Washington monument pic. I need to visit DC sometime and of course, run a race there.
I am working today but ran a race yesterday.
What a great idea to have a Veterans Day run around the memorials! And that’s great that Scooby is up to 8 miles already 🙂
That picture of the sunrise over the mall is just stunning!
Go Scooby! Wow, that’s a lot of miles for a dog. I bet he slept good after that. 🙂
He was tired for a little while!
I do have the day off for Veteran’s Day today. With you being in the DC area you have so many memorials to visit that are so eye-opening. I’m glad the Scooby miles are getting longer and he’s doing well! I’m not ready for the cold weather running, though I normally prefer it!
The memorials around the city are so varied — it’s a gift to be able to visit them easily.
We don’t get veterans day off, so we try to do something to honor them. My grandpa was a veteran, so a lot of times we will talk about what he did. Also, we are happy that Thanksgiving break is coming so we don’t feel too bad about not having veterans day off 😉
It’s great to remember your grandfather’s experiences. It’s so important to know what they went through and how important it is.
Great week for you. We did have off for Veterans Day. It was so nice to see all the flags flying this weekend and all the specials at the stores and restaurants. I”m so glad to see our honored service men and women receive these tokens of appreciation.
Yes, it is great that they are acknowledged. Hopefully they feel appreciated every day.
I really enjoyed reading this post and seeing the pictures of the monuments. It is so important that take time to reflect on this important holiday.
Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed my photos.
Lovely photos, particularly like the Scooby with shadow one, very clever! We had a quiet day on Sunday and I was very reflective as have been doing a work project transcribing war and national service veterans. A good solid week for you.
I love the slideshow of the memorials. Really powerful and I’m glad you marked the day in that way.