Is it November already?!

I don’t know where October went.  It was a busy month of work, giant meetings, Oktoberfests, roller derby, parties, races, cheese-stealing, Transformers movie shoots, and a few scary moments in DC.  But… there are 31 days in October still, right?

 

I currently have 272 pictures on my camera, most of which involve Alice.  Hopefully I’ll catch up with the stories this month (in particular, the cheese thievery).  Until then, I’ll leave you with one picture.

 

This past Sunday was the Marine Corps Marathon and 10K.  I really love this race.  The Human Male and I did it last year, but we didn’t sign up in time for this year’s run (the 10K.  Neither of us are marathoners yet/ever).  We did the Army Ten Miler a week ago and I was reminded how fun and motivating it is to see dogs along the side of the course, so we dressed up Alice in her Halloween finest (she went as a Fall Fashion Plate this year) and took her over to cheer on runners.

 

I’m really glad we did.  We parked ourselves just past the Mile 23 marker in the Crystal City neighborhood at a place where the course looped in time to cheer on the 10K runners (its course the last 6.2 miles of the Marathon course) and we saw a lot of smiles and heard several “Look at the dog!”s.  You could tell a few of the runners really needed the boost right then.  One girl actually stopped running to pet Alice.  She’s a pug owner.  :)

 

We sat around for a little while to drink coffee (we parked ourselves between a Cosi and a Caribou Coffee semi-intentionally), shake our cowbells, and watch the handbike marathoners and the lead marathon runners.  The runners began trickling in, and about 10 minutes after the first runners, we saw the first female runner (Janet Cherobon).  She torched a couple of the guys and as she passed our spot, a group of 30-50 year old ladies a few feet down started cheering and yelling “Run, girl!  Run!”  It was so cute.  I noticed one of the ladies had a stroller with her little daughter.  It was one of those moments when I just felt so good to be part of the girl club.

 

Alice was interested in the runners at first and stared at them, craning her neck to figure out why they were running and she wasn’t and what the people yelling, banging on pots, and ringing their cowbells on the other side of the course were doing (and if they had treats).  She then found herself a warm spot on the street and laid down to watch the runners pass by.

 

We stayed to cheer on some of the sub-4 hour marathoners and headed home.  Along the way, we passed a few other spectating dogs.  Two were too cute not to post.

 

Hope all is well with everyone!