Completing the DC Metro Marathon

Yesterday, the kids and I spent nearly 10 hours completing the DC Metro Marathon.


What is the DC Metro Marathon?

It is accomplished when you have been to all 91 Metro stations in one day.

We didn't do the "Ironman" -- visiting all of the stations without departing the system for bathroom or food breaks.

We also didn't do a "Perfect" marathon, which is riding the entire system with no breaks and then getting off exactly one stop away from your originating station.

Still, we did pull it off with (roughly) the following data points.

• time in system: 8 hours and 55 minutes
• total time elapsed from beginning to end of marathon: 10 hours and 10 minutes
• door to door: 11 hours 5 minutes

We changed trains 20 times. 

Our most visited station was L'Enfant Plaza.

The longest we had to wait for a train was 11 minutes.

The kids had a great attitude and particularly loved when they had the entire car to themselves, allowing them to engage in some Israeli dancing and relaxing.

This wasn't my first effort at this feat. I did a Metro Marathon by myself 30 years ago when there were fewer stations in the summer before 9th grade.

Anyway, I am sure our route could have been more optimized, but here's what we did. Map below. 

• Glenmont->Fort Totten
• Fort Totten->Greenbelt
• Greenbelt->L'Enfant Plaza
• L'Enfant Plaza->New Carrollton
• New Carrollton->Stadium-Armory
• Stadium Armory->Largo Town Center
• Largo Town Center->L'Enfant Plaza
• L'Enfant Plaza->Branch Ave
• Branch Ave->Foggy Bottom
• Exit of system with late lunch at Char Bar
• Foggy Bottom->Vienna
• Vienna->East Falls Church
• East Falls Church->Wiehle/Reston East
• Wiehle/Reston East-> Rosslyn
• Rosslyn-> Franconia-Springfield
• Franconia-Springfield->King St.
• King St.->Huntington
• Huntington->Gallery Place
• Gallery Place->Brookland-CUA
• Brookland-CUA->Shady Grove
• Shady Grove->Twinbrook

We got picked up at Twinbrook by the NFO.

We had a great time, read a lot, used our various devices, and explored the DMV to the fullest.  It's not for the faint of heart, but it is fun.

The most undervalued play in basketball?

I love the concepts behind Moneyball and all of the stats behind sports.

Recently, I was thinking about the idea of taking a charge in basketball.

If you are a basketball fan, you might like this. If not, skip over.

It occurred to me that it might be one of the most undervalued skills in the game, particularly if the charge:block ratio is high.

Think about it..when a defensive player takes a charge, the following happens:

• the other team doesn't score
• the other player gets a foul
• the other team has a foul added to their tally
• your team gets the ball
• and depending on the situation, it can be a huge momentum changer and adrenaline kick

Here are some great NBA charges 

What's your (pass)word of the year?

I was talking to someone on her birthday the other day and she said that every year, on her birthday (in December), she comes up with a word for the following year.

Well, she doesn't invent it, more like "this is the word that I am going to focus on for the year."

Say "gratitude" or "compassion."

I told her I kind of do the same thing and then update many of my passwords with that word.

So, you could do something like:

2019=Gratitude:-)

That would be a relatively strong password and allow you to refocus on it whenever you log in.

What kind of person do you want to be?

I'm listening to a really interesting book on Audible now called  Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results.

My friend, Derek Coburn, founder of CADRE brought it to my attention.

It's a really practical guide for how to identify the bad habits in your life and change them and implement good ones.

The idea is that the more you "automate" your choices, the more likely you are to achieve your desired outcome in whatever categories you want. Health, relationships, career, tc.

The first step is to identify the habits you already have, many of which are unconscious.

Then, you need to ask yourself, "what kind of person do I want to be?"

Then, ask yourself, "what kind of habits would that person have?"

Go from there.

It's a tough question though, "what kind of person do I REALLY want to be?"

Would love thoughts on how to figure that one out.