On the outside, I try to project an image of having it all together. But underneath that, I'm kind of a disaster. Hence... the name of the site: GlossyVeneer. Last month I had the opportunity to go to Washington DC. I won a contest from New Balance to run in the Global Race for the Cure. I wrote about winning the contest on my running blog. I took my mom with me as my “plus 1″ for the trip. It was truly an amazing experience. I wanted to remember some of the different things I did on each day of my “grand prize” trip, so here is my brief recap. (I guess we’ll see how brief this is…)
Wednesday, June 3
The day started super early, we had to leave the house around 4:00 AM in order to catch our super early flight. We had two flights to get there, the first one touched down in Denver, where we had about an hour or so before boarding the second flight that took us to Dulles International in Washington DC.
When we were outside to catch the shuttle to the hotel, a couple fat drops of rain started to fall. Unfortunately we arrived in DC just in time to hit rush hour traffic. So our shuttle ride was 2.5 hours! Ugh… While the shuttle was driving around, the heavens opened up and a massive downpour started. We definitely do not have rain like that here in the desert.
We finally made it to our hotel, The Liaison Capitol Hill, and we were starving at this point. Or at least, I was. I had to eat an emergency Luna Bar in the shuttle just because I was so famished. The rain had eased up for the moment, so we walked to Union Station to find some dinner. Based on crossing the time zones, we basically lost the whole day in the air. We were tired from traveling and wanted to try falling asleep at a normal time for the east coast, so we could hopefully switch to our new time zone quickly. So dinner was easy soup & salad at Au Bon Pain. By the time we finished that, the rain was falling again in full force. Thus we waited in a long line at the station and caught a cab back to our hotel.
Our cab driver told us that he was famous, more famous than many people in DC. This is due to the fact that at one point in his career somebody had left $22,000 cash in his cab and he returned it. I have no idea if that is a true story, but it was funny that he felt compelled to tell us that one.
Thursday, June 4
We had a breakfast meeting with the documentary director at 9:00 AM. Typically that would be kind of late in the day for me, but seeing as how that is the equivalent of 6:00 AM my time, that did mean a little bit of a rough waking period, but not too bad.
We met Paul, the director, at Art and Soul… the restaurant that was basically in the lobby of my hotel. The restaurant is owned by Art Smith who was Oprah’s personal chef for a long time and is still frequently in charge of her “events”. The meeting was mainly spent with Paul getting to know my mom and me, as well as learning more about our family history and story in terms of breast cancer and the Race for the Cure.
After our meeting we had some time to explore on our own. So we walked up to the Capitol and proceeded to make our way from there through the National Mall. We saw the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, the Korean War Memorial.
The day was overcast most of the time and of course, at the moment that we were thinking we should head back for an afternoon meeting with the documentary team and we were the furthest away from our hotel we got that day… the rain started again.
After rushing through the rain and then scrounging to find something to eat (we ate at the bar in the Hyatt across the street from our hotel because our hotel’s bar food in the middle of the day was too heavy for us), we had another meeting. This one was wardrobe and logistics. We had to pick out our wardrobe for the race and training run. We were given a whole wardrobe of New Balance clothes and shoes. Unfortunately I had given them the wrong size (I overestimated my size and told them I needed a bigger size than what I really needed), so they had to overnight new clothes for me. At the conclusion of the meeting we were invited to go out to dinner with the team. We had tickets to go up the Washington Monument that night, but it was raining anyway so I don’t feel too bad about missing that.
The dinner out was really good. We went to some steak/seafood place. I’m so glad I didn’t even have to look at the bill for that meal… the food was fairly expensive and with appetizers, desserts and the amount of booze and cocktails ordered at our table… I can only imagine how costly that was.
Friday, June 5
8:30 AM call time for a full day of shooting. We started out with hair and makeup. I really don’t like wearing that much makeup and they really caked it on thick. Then we went through a period of take after take of us: laying out our clothes, tying our shoes, pinning our race numbers on to our shirts. Often they wanted us to banter back and forth with each other. But the second we were asked to do that, our conversations became awkward and stilted. I don’t foresee an Academy Award in my future anytime soon.
We got to take a break midday because my mom had arranged for us to get at tour of the US Capitol through her congressman’s office. That was a really smart way to get in to see the building as we got to bypass the general wait line outside (in the rain).
It was cool to walk through the Capitol and see offices for people whom you often hear about on the news. And in the Statuary Room there is a really cool spot where you can whisper and that soft spoken word can be heard on the other side of the room, almost as if it’s going through a microphone.
Food was a challenging issue during this trip because it seemed like we had strange schedules and then it was hard to find places to eat. We fortunately stumbled on a little shop called Firehook Bakery where we were able to get sandwiches and cookies. Yummy cookies.
Post food we had to be back at the hotel to get in “costume” and meet our crew for a training run. This training run involved running stretches of a block over and over while they got different shots. And getting our makeup refreshed after each “run”. The rain had slowed at this point, but there were massive puddles everywhere and we spent a lot of time running on a trail, so it was pretty muddy.
After doing this for a while, we were released for the day. Good thing because we were getting pretty tired and had an early start for the next day!
Saturday, June 6
Call time for today was even earlier, 6:00 AM in the lobby. From there we were driven to the start line. We got to make a quick pass through the Survivor’s tent, which was nice. At these events they always have a tent just for breast cancer survivors and a guest. They provide some breakfast snacks and a gift to the survivors. My mom got a pink canvas bag, a pretty nice one at that.
Then it was back to being “the talent”. We had to do some light stretching and listen to the speakers while our camera crew recorded every moment. There were times when people would pause as they walked by and take our picture. I’m sure it was because they thought we were actually “somebody” since there were cameras following us.
Then the race started. We had two different cameras running with us at the beginning, as well as a production assistant running with us the whole time. This wasn’t a traditional “race” for me in any way. Usually my mom and I line up at the start together, once the gun fires and the race begins we say to each other, “See you at the end.” The producers wanted us to run the entire race together though. That’s fine, I feel I got to take in more of what was happening around me when I took a slower pace. Plus we had moments where we were supposed to “act” during the race. “Slow down here.” “Run 20 feet past the camera, then turn back and wave.” Those kinds of things, very different from the real way of doing things.
After we were ushered away for post-race interviews. The makeup artist kind of stabbed me in the eye with the brush while trying to cover up all of the variances in my complexion that make me a human being and dislodged my tear duct plug.
Once we were dismissed we headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up and hit some more sightseeing. We had lunch at the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian. They had a cool cafe where we got to sample yucca fries, chayote squash, pulled buffalo and pupusas. We took the metro to Arlington National Cemetery and then walked back from the cemetery when we realized it was only about 3 or 4 miles from the hotel. We found a little thai restaurant for dinner that evening too. It’s amazing how much you can cram into a day sometimes!
Sunday, June 7
The day started with a quick breakfast at Starbucks. We wanted to hit some spots at the Smithsonian before our long flight home.
It’s amazing how much you can cram into one day, especially when you have a plane flight going from east to west.
First stop was the National Archives. I wanted to feel like I was living in the movie National Treasure for a moment… or something like that. However, they make everyone stand in a line before letting them into the rotunda where the Declaration of Independence is kept, but once you’re in all bets are off. It made me angry that they didn’t just make a queue and send people around the most famous documents in an orderly manner. Then if people were interested in seeing the other documents around the room, those could be viewed at your own discretion. There were some people who wanted to analyze and read every bit of the documents and others who just wanted to shove in there, pose next to it and move on. There needed to be some kind of order. ORDER!!!
We also made a quick pass through the Natural History Museum to scope out the dinosaurs and the National Art Gallery. A return trip is definitely in order so we can take more time to view the various museums at the Smithsonian.
We had lunch before returning to the hotel and catching our shuttle back to the airport. And before we knew it, we had to board a plane for a 5 hour flight back to Vegas. My husband picked us up at the airport and life was returned to normal.
It was an amazing experience, something I will remember for the rest of my life. I’m so glad my mom shared the trip with me and that we got to experience this together. We both equally won the prize, even if I was “declared” the winner. I think it’s the combination of our stories that got us recognized.
You can view our contest entries on the New Balance site now.
