One of the awesome things I have been loving about doing races is the travel. I have been running for just under a year and I have only run in four states, including my own, but I am loving going places I have never been and maybe would have never considered going otherwise. On a side note, I need to design a U.S. map to chart my travels as well as some way to display medals, but that's a post for another day.
This year I did two races that required overnight travel and both were artistic adventure gold: Corning, NY for the
Wineglass Marathon and Half Marathon and Philadelphia, PA for
Marathon Weekend. Corning is home of the
Museum of Glass, quite possibly the coolest museum I have ever seen. In addition to awesome work on display, they offered demonstrations of various glass making techniques, which is way more mesmerizing than the newest
Twilight movie (not that I've seen it) or bowling or whatever one might do for entertainment on a long weekend. They also offer various
workshops, so a visitor may do actual glass blowing, bead making, sand blasting etc., with the comfort of a teacher who knows stuff, guiding your hands who will not allow glass to explode in your eye or a blowtorch to light your hair on fire, which is a nice way to work with glass the first time. Oh, AND runners got a two day pass to the museum for just six dollars!
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| some of the work I liked in the museum |
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| bead I made |
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| Finishers' Medals at the race are also glass |
Last weekend I attended
Philadelphia Marathon Weekend and ran the half marathon. It was the biggest race I have been in yet. Last year had 23,000 runners -- I don't know how many this year, but it took us about 25 minutes from the gun to cross the starting line due to all the people who needed to cross it. Although we started in front of the Museum of Art, we did not get discounts at that museum. How rude! (We went anyway.) Runners did get a discount to Isaiah Zagar's
Magic Gardens, however. It was the first time I have ever seen something that made me feel like crying for no recognizable reason. It was powerful. I know the Philadelphia Museum of Art is rated as the second best art museum in the country and tickets cost more than double the entry fee to Magic Gardens, but South Street is where it is at for this chick. I am inspired.
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| Magic Gardens |
And the murals around town were AMAZING! I really would love to live in Philly. Seems like a great place to be an art therapist.
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| Murals of Philly |
Places to come: Virginia, Utah, Wyoming and New Hampshire. Having a job is good. Too bad I don't get more vacation time.
