37th Annual Marine Corps Marathon.

Sometime when I was at BYU, I decided that in the future, I wanted to run a marathon. Since it goes through DC/Arlington and I love Marines, especially my Grandpa, it was a no brainer to run the Marine Corps Marathon. I decided to wait until I moved back to DC and could train at the same altitude as the race. A month after I moved back my Grandpa Morgan moved up to Woodbridge to be closer to mom and dad, and we became very close. I have loving memories of my Grandpa from when I was a little girl: he called me "baby" because I was the youngest (and still does sometimes), he was the one who set up the VCR for me so I could watch "101 Dalmatians", he was the one who taught me the importance of doing genealogy, he knew how to fix anything, and he would always cook grits and bacon for breakfast when we would visit. But my Grandma was a very chatty person, so when we were all together, he would never have a lot of chances to talk. The past year and a half I have talked more with my Grandpa than the past 21 years combined. We've looked at pictures and documents from when he was in the Marines and he has told me so many awesome stories that I can't wait to tell my children some day.

I decided last summer that it was the perfect time to run the Marine Corps Marathon, and this past February, registered along with 30,000+ people. I have been so excited, because my Grandpa would be able to be there in person, and see me run this race in his honor.

Along with a troublesome knee, the week before my race I had a bad infection that almost led to bronchitis, and Hurricane Sandy was coming straight for the East Coast (we are all okay at my house) expected to make landfall the day of the race. Great.

Luckily, everything worked out-the race went on as scheduled with no storm yet, and my disease was gone.

Saturday afternoon I headed to the expo at the DC Armory to pick up my bib and mock shirt.

Sunday morning Britt put this sweet sign on my door before she left for Iowa :) hashtag sweetroommate.

G had to take his parents to Reagan at 5:30, so he came over after and came with me to the start line on 110 by the Pentagon...after stopping at Dunkin Donuts for coffee and driving around Crystal City looking for a parking place. Here I am after taking his coat, because I was cold. It was real early.

I wrote this on my wrist for some inspiration whenever things got hard.

Here is the shirt I made to wear. Special thanks to my mom, who really is the one who did all the work.

Slow flyover by Marine Ospreys during the opening ceremony.

As you can tell, I was pretty excited.

And we're off!

G was there cheering for me at Georgetown (mile 9), the Mall kind of by Lincoln (mile 16), and on the 14th street bridge (mile 20). Every time I would get to where he was, he would run a little bit with me LOL. This is in Georgetown on M Street.

There were definitely times where I struggled...mile 20-26 my back started hurting so bad I wanted to cry. I really thought I would die before I could make it to the finish line at the Marine Corps War Memorial in Rosslyn. When I got to the finish, I ran up the last little hill and I saw my parents and G waving at me, but I only really noticed my Grandpa, sitting in his wheelchair covered in a blanket. I ran up to him and started crying, half because I really wanted to die, and half because I just love him. After we got our medals, I met everyone and we took some pics.

 

I am so happy that I was able to run the Marine Corps Marathon in honor of my sweet Grandpa, Lloyd H. Morgan, USMC (Ret.). He is my hero.

Fall.

I love fall in VA. This season it has been particularly wonderful. Warm/moderate temperatures, no big storms...And this week, the trees finally started changing colors!

First off...this weekend, C came out to DC to interview at Georgetown! It was so good seeing her again. We go back all the way to our first dorm room at BYU, 216 Heritage Halls. I have been sick all weekend, but we still got to do some fun things and look at the beautiful foliage. I'm really hoping she gets accepted and comes out east to hang out with me :)

A large group of singles wards met at Arlington Cemetery this Saturday to do a service project. We went through all the gravestones and wrote down if any had an Angel Moroni symbol on them, which represent LDS servicemen and women. I worked through a section with Korean War veterans because of my grandpas, and called Grandpa Morgan as I was walking down the rows. The Cemetery is such a solemn place...

 

This soldier was a POW in Vietnam for five years, escaped on New Years Eve 1968, and was killed in the Philippines in 1989.

 11am changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

RFK.

I really have been amazed at how beautiful the colors have been the past week. I wish I have taken more pictures.

Around the Tidal Basin.

 Old Town Alexandria.

Sunday afternoon, Britt, Matt, Caity and I took a drive down the GW Parkway and stopped at a park along the river to walk in nature. It really was beautiful.

Matt got a little excited with this collage...

Summer will always be my favorite season, and spring a close second because it means winter is over and baseball is coming. But fall is right up there...especially at home in Virginia.

Natitude, Saditude.

A baseball game is simply a nervous breakdown divided into nine innings. -Earl Wilson

I didn't know if I'd ever be able to write this post, but it's my life and it needs to be documented.

Last Thursday, G and I had tickets to Game 4 of the NLDS at Nats Park. This was it. If we lost this game, we were out of the playoffs. Walking through the concourse, there was excitement, but there was also a blanket of nervousness hanging over everyone. Our season came down to this. But I would never miss this game. Ever.

Frank Howard, Washington Senators great from the 60s, threw the first pitch to Ryan Zimmerman. It was pretty cool.

The Washington Post handed out red rally towels for everyone to wave during the game. It was so cool to look out over Nats Park and see 44,000 red towels waving, hearing people screaming for OUR team, the Washington Nationals, on national TV, in a playoff game...AHHHH. I could barely take it.

When Adam LaRoche hit a homerun in the 2nd inning, the first run at Nats Park in a playoff game, I almost fainted from screaming and jumping. Honestly. Such an adrenaline rush...The rest of the game I held my breath whenever we were pitching and relaxed a little when we were batting.

Then. Bottom of the 9th, we were tied at 1 and Jayson Werth was up first. I knew RZ was up 3rd and thought, "Wouldn't it be cool if he hit a walkoff homerun?" I really would lose control. Then, Werth worked a 12 pitch at bat, and on the 13th pitch, he hit a walkoff homerun to left field. The stadium absolutely lost control. I have never, ever, EVER been in a louder place in all my life. Not at BYU, not at any other baseball stadium...it was absolutely incredible.

(last three photos via WaPo)

It is kind of difficult for me to put into words how completely amazing it was being in the stadium then. I will never forget how it felt to watch that ball fall in the left field stands and see MY team explode out of the dugout over the rails...after so many years of losing baseball, we won a playoff game at home. On a walkoff homerun. Absolutely incredible.

Up next: game 5. G and I met at the stadium the next morning at 8:15 to wait in line for standing room tickets. The box office opens at 10 so we made friends in line and time actually passed pretty fast.

This was at about 10 when G and I were moving through the line.

It was pretty chilly outside so I was wrapped up in my Nats fleece blanket. I guess I stood out so I was interviewed by NBC and ABC! Haha.

Not wearing makeup, so I probably looked a little ferocious on camera. But it was exciting! I always love the chance to speak about my team :)

The whole day I was stressing out about the night. I couldn't wait. I was nervous, excited. I met G, R and my dad on Cap Hill and then we walked over and found a spot behind section 304.

The first inning was AWESOME. 7 pitches=Werth double, Harper triple, RZ HOMERS!!! Unbelievable. So loud, SO LOUD.

We were up 6-0 so for a lot of the game we were feeling good! Just had to keep it up. It was 6-5 going into bottom 8 and then we scored so it was 7-5. Top 9, Storen in...only needed 3 outs. We all kept yelling at each other, "3 OUTS! 3 OUTS!" It was so nervewracking. 2 outs, 3-2 count TWICE and then ball 4 was called...to make a long, ugly, sad story short, it was 7-9 going into bottom 9, and. We lost. After being ONE STRIKE AWAY.

It was over. All over. I couldn't move. A lot of people couldn't. We just stood there, staring. I literally could not move. My dad had to come and pull me away.

Dad and I walked all the way to his office in Judiciary Square, so i got into bed around 3. But i couldnt fall asleep. All us Nats fans on twitter were commiserating together and i just felt like it didnt happen. Our season was over.

Ugh.

But, we had the best record in the majors. 98 wins. NL East Champions. Biggest thing I feel: we proved ourselves to be a serious threat in Major League Baseball. We are for real. And we will be even better in 2013. I know it.

People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring. -Rogers Hornsby

2012 National League East Division Champions.

When the Expos moved to DC in 2005 and became the Washington Nationals, they remained in the NL East division. Aside from a few "off" seasons, most teams in the NL East have been pretty successful in the years since. In 2005 for example, the Nats ended with a season record of 81-81 and STILL were last in the division.

The past few years the Phillies have been the team to beat. They have also become our most hated rival. Last Sunday the Nats magic number was still 1 to clinch the division and they were on their way home to play the Phillies on Monday night. I knew I had to be there-either a Nats win or a Braves loss would mean we were NL East Champions...and doing it at home against the Phillies? Yes please.

I drove to the stadium after work and had to wait for G because he FORGOT OUR TICKETS AT WORK. I was so mad. Luckily we only missed the first inning.

I have NEVER been so nervous attending a game before. We were losing 0-2 most of the game, so I was closely watching the Pirates/Braves score on the out of town scoreboard, along with the entire stadium. They were about half an inning behind us-it was the top of the 9th in Pittsburgh with the Pirates leading when people in our section began to crowd around a guy watching the end of the game on his iPhone. Baseball=uniting strangers for good.

As soon as the Pirates won/Braves lost, shouts went up of, "IT'S OVER!" and everyone was screaming/cheering. Gradually, everyone in the stadium found out via word of mouth, and a huge roar was building. When the players found out the dugout erupted, and they all started hugging/etc. The video guys immediately flashed the first picture on my post on the jumbotran and the game kind of stopped for a minute.

The next National to bat after the little break was Michael Morse-the PA announcer introduced him like this: "now batting for your Division Champion Nationals...". Ah. SO COOL. He was smiling real wide and pumping his fist in the air in the on deck circle. The best thing about this was for his last at bat every game, his walk-up song is "Take On Me" by the a-ha's and the music director stops after the "Take on me, Take me on..." part in the chorus and the stadium sings the rest of that line a-capella. It was kind of awesome having this at-bat be the first one after we clinched the division. I'll never forget that moment of singing "Take On Me" with the whole stadium of elated Nats fans.

We ended up losing, so it was kind of strange to look down and see the Phillies line up to shake hands, but then they flashed the Division Champs logo on the screen and everyone went crazy again. The team went to the clubhouse to spray champagne on each other and then slowly trickled back on the field (led by Gio Gonzalez, surprise) to spray champagne and throw beer on fans in the first few rows.

We stayed in our seats for a while taking everything in and watching player interviews on the jumbotran. One of my favorites was FP with the bullpen boys-R and I have a tender spot in our heart for them because two years ago Tyler Clippard waved at us from the bullpen LOL. And the whole group is just a show...they poured beer on FP during the interview and were being there usual selves. 

And of course, RZ. So happy for him-no one on the team deserves this more. He's endured a LOT of losing and still signed long-term deals/extensions with the Nationals.

As soon as we found out we clinched, and I mean LITERALLY 30 seconds later, G ran to the team store to get some NL East Champion swag.

I knew that eventually the Nats would be good enough to win the division and go on to the playoffs, but I wasn't positive we would get it done in 2012. I am SO glad I was proven wrong...It has been a long time coming and DC deserves it. Can't wait to see how far they can go.

Oh, and on the way home Lester got his first flat tire.

So thanks to G for helping me change it.

GO NATS GO!!!