Relay for Life was a lot of fun last night! In sum, I raised $365, and my team raised close to $2,500--thanks to everyone for your support! The Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy was out in force, handing out pamphlets to educate students on the connections between cancer and poverty. We even met President DeGioia, and gave him a copy of the journal. Heh, we also "met" Scruff McGruff the Crime Dog. And, while wearing my Cal baseball cap, I discovered that there are a lot of people on main campus who are Bear fans for one reason or another. Go Bears!Matt and Bryan (two of my GJPLP teammates) and I decided to attempt to walk a marathon while at Relay! The event was on the football field, so we didn't have the benefit of an actual track, but we figured that six laps around the field at 300 yards per lap is a mile (300 yds x 6 laps = 1,800 yds; 1 mile = 1,760 yds).
By the end of the event, we had to revise our goal to 20 miles, which we completed! There were several factors that contributed to our inability to finish the full marathon:
- Interruptions for ceremonies (the event was only 12 hours long)
- A narrow and crowded pseudo-track
- A thunderstorm with 25-mph winds
- Lack of energy from staying up all night
- Blisters on our feet and aching knees
- No actual preparation or training
I had a big blister on my right foot, so I ended up walking the last 10 miles barefoot, which was actually kind of nice on the AstroTurf. Unfortunately, it rained pretty much the entire time, but at least that kept us from getting too hot while speed-walking. 20 miles is definitely the farthest I've ever walked, and gives me a new appreciation for the sheer madness of people who run marathons.
The other neat thing about Relay was that I came home with a goldfish! Matt won the fish, but realized that it wouldn't be very compatible with his cat, so Jess and I have adopted it for now. The journal decided to name the fish Tracy Chapman (a reference to a song played at our journal's orientation). If it survives the summer, maybe we'll keep it in the journal office this fall?!Anyhow, after Relay, I got home around 6 am, slept for some of the day, and spent the rest of the day hobbling around the apartment (my legs are so stiff!) and studying for finals (two weeks away, eek!). This evening, Jess and I headed to the law school to watch a Georgetown Gilbert and Sullivan Society production of H.M.S. Pinafore, which was excellent! I had a bunch of friends in the show, and laughed so much.
Before the show started, I happened to notice a man sitting four rows in front of me who looked somewhat familiar to me. "No way," I thought to myself. "Why would he even be here?" I looked up a photo of him on my iPhone, just to make sure, and then turned to Jess excitedly and said, "Look! It's the Chairman of the Fed! It's Bernanke!" And, indeed, it was:
Do you see the back of his head? Balding, blue shirt, center of the photograph. I'm sorry for the terrible quality, but it was very dark in the auditorium. It was definitely him, though! He did turn around at one point, and I caught sight of his distinctive beard. I have determined that people like Bernanke are my celebrities. I may know nothing about pop culture, but I absolutely freak out when I spot the people who run the government. D.C. is my Hollywood.Speaking of D.C. "celebrity" sightings, I failed to mention that when David visited a couple of weeks ago, we saw Nancy Pelosi during our tour of--where else?--Congress. We were in Statutory Hall when, unannounced, Pelosi and a bunch of staffers walked right by us! David and I gawked at her, mere feet away, and she smiled at us. I was unable to respond, and just continued to stare at her, slack-jawed. Once she had exited the room, I was very frustrated by the rest of our tour group for not even noticing her, but I suppose most middle schoolers wouldn't recognize the Speaker of the House. Sadness.
