Hello and greetings to all from our nation’s capital! It has been quite an exciting day for us here in D.C. Our journey began yesterday in the early morning. Eleven of us athletes along with Assistant Coach Jenni Ashcroft and Director of Operations Nji Nnamani met up at the airport and made the trip across the country. I, along with Coach Jenni, Zoe Buckman, and Anne Kesselring are taking a brief leave from some awesome cross country training in Sunriver, Oregon. It was great to reunite with our current and former teammates after a long summer.

After arriving at our hotel and getting a quick bite to eat, we decided to go sightseeing a little bit before bed. Upon looking at a map, we realized that we were standing right across the street from the White House! It was quite cool to happen to “stumble upon” this historic and magnificent site. We took a few pictures and saw lots of security, whom, rest assured remain there 24/7.

After a good night’s sleep, we all woke up fairly early to start sightseeing and make the most of our time here. A few of us went for a training run around the area. This turned out to be one of those runs that I never wanted to end. The time seemed to fly by as we ran past the Washington Monument, up the steps to the Lincoln Memorial (our hill workout for the day!), over the Arlington Memorial Bridge to the Arlington Cemetery and past the Women in Military Memorial. We finally ended with some strides in front of the National Mall and the Smithsonian.