Remember last month when I got to interview Cris Comerford, the White House Executive Chef?

Well I promised to share the video with you once it was live and now it is!


(If you're in an RSS reader you may need to click through for the video to work)

Kids.gov is one of the websites I work on, and as part of our career spotlight series, we do short interviews with people throughout the government who have cool jobs. Think people like the Executive Chef of the White House, the people who design U.S. currency and animal keepers at the National Zoo.

It's definitely one of the more fun parts of my job. I love getting a behind the scenes look at how people do their jobs and how things really happen.

In fact yesterday, we took a trip to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving and got to see how money is designed, engraved and printed.


Holding $320K. That much money is heavy!

Fun Fact: Did you know the designs on most of our dollar bills are drawn by hand by a team of artists?

The videos are mostly for educational purposes for teachers to use in classrooms during their lessons on careers and to expose kids to the wide variety of jobs out there, but they are a lot of fun to watch too. One of my favorites that we've done to date is our interview with the animal keeper at the National Zoo. (If you're interested you can check out that video on our YouTube channel.)

Our video career spotlights are a fairly new endeavor, so if you have feedback or thoughts on what we could be doing better, please feel free to share in the comments.

Despite the nasty, rainy weather D.C. had all last week, I tried not to let my training plan be a complete wash (har har, bad pun intended). In the end I only missed one run, although unfortunately it was a tempo run. Kind of a bummer, but not the end of the world. There's still plenty of training left to go.

Here's what my week looked like:

Sunday: 3 miles easy

Just a nice, easy recovery run after my speedy 5K on Saturday to loosen my legs up for a great week of training.

Monday: 7 x 400

My first taste of interval running in a long time. I did these on the treadmill because there's not a track near me and it's easiest to control my speed on the treadmill. I actually sort of love interval workouts in a training plan because they are a quick and dirty hardcore workout.

Tuesday: 3 miles easy

In the pouring rain.


Wednesday: OFF due to rain. Was supposed to be a tempo run.

Thursday: 3 miles pace

The run that killed my iPod. It wasn't raining when I left the house, but two minutes in it started torrential down pouring. My iPod died minutes later. I need to put it in some rice or something. I've heard that can bring them back to life. I think the rain made me run faster though.

Friday: OFF. Moved my long run to Saturday because of the rain.

Saturday: 90 minute long run + 9/11 Memorial 5K

My long run was excellent. I took it nice and easy and just enjoyed being out for the longest run I've done in months. It was a pretty nice day for a run, although it was a bit humid, which killed me toward the end. I managed to complete about 9.6 miles in 90 minutes.



The 9/11 5K was a complete last minute addition. Ryan called me at 11 a.m. telling me he had an extra bib and I decided to use the 5K in place of my easy 3 miles that I had scheduled for Sunday. My legs actually felt a million times less sore after the 5K than they did before it. Reason # 546 I'm really glad I did that race.

Total mileage: About 25 (not sure exactly how much recovery distance I did between intervals on Monday)

This was definitely a solid first week of training for me and I'm really happy with the fact that I only missed one run despite the rain. I was also really encouraged to see that I managed to keep a pretty steady pace throughout the duration of my long run. That's something I tend to struggle with, but I felt really strong the whole time I was doing that run.

I was also really happy with my ability to be flexible this week. The rain definitely could have put a much bigger damper on my training, but I thought I did a decent job of going with the flow and fitting in my runs as best as I could and shuffling things around when I had to. If I can keep that up through the rest of training, I think I'll be ready to go for this race.


Goals for Week 2:

• Fit in all my runs
• Make sure my long run happens on Friday 
• Get enough sleep to sustain 4:30 a.m. wake up calls 

Like most people, I can remember exactly where I was 10 years ago when the 9/11 attacks happened. I remember sitting in my sophomore year homeroom, when the vice principal came running in and told our teacher to turn on the TV. The first tower had already been hit and we watched as as the second plane crashed into the second tower.

It's hard to believe it's been 10 years since the attacks.

Until I moved to D.C., I always felt closer to the attacks in New York. I had friends whose parents worked in the towers. I had stood on the roof of the towers and felt on top of the world. And I had been to NYC countless times and seen the skyline with those two soaring buildings.


(Source)

To me, the Pentagon sort of felt like it was a world away.

That feeling has changed a lot since I've lived down here.

Now D.C. is home, and the Pentagon is only a few miles away.

I know everyone has their own way of reflecting on what happened that day, of honoring the victims and thanking first responders for the sacrifices they make to keep us all safe.

Personally, I couldn't think of a better way to do that than by running a 9/11 memorial race.



My friend Ryan was able to get me a last-minute entry into the sold-out 5K that starts in Arlington and loops around the Pentagon. Ryan's mom was running with some friends from the PG County police department and at the last minute a few people who were supposed to run got called in to work, so there were extra bibs.


It was a night race, kicking off at 6 p.m. and it had to be one of the most patriotic races I've ever attended.

There were members of the military every where.


People ran with flags and in a variety of red, white and blue outfits and the DJ was cranking some patriotic tunes.



I had no intention of racing this race. It was a run for fun with friends in memory of those who lost their lives 10 years ago. (Plus I had already done a nearly 10 mile long run that morning and my legs were toast.)

I ran the race with Ryan, since running with friends is more fun than running alone.

The course started on a downhill and we started took off at a good clip. My legs were feeling surprisingly loose, but I knew we were going way too fast.



When we hit the mile two marker Ryan looked and me and and said, "Only mile 2?!"


The Pentagon

As we continued to loop around the Pentagon, we passed a band playing Taps and Ryan thought maybe he was dying. Our pace had definitely dropped off. I was trying to get us to pick up it just a little bit towards the end so we could break 30 minutes. But it was hot and really humid and Ryan's stomach was bothering him.

We eventually made the final turn away from the Pentagon, ran under a giant American flag and crossed the finish line in 30:41.

Service members were handing out medals after the race.



I've never gotten a medal for a 5K before, but this is hands down one of my favorite medals ever.



After we finished we met up with Ryan's mom and several of the other people who ran the race. I stuffed my face with two pieces of pizza and Ryan downed some beers. Best post-race spread ever!



Running this race was a really small act, but it was my way to say thanks to first responders and service men and women everywhere for the work they do and to remember and honor the victims and the families who lost loved ones in the attacks.

*Major thanks to Ryan for letting me use his iPhone to take all the pictures in this post since my camera battery died!*