Deceptively Active

I enjoy finding new ways to be active, especially when they don’t feel like exercise. Going for an evening walk or bike ride around the neighborhood, playing tourist in your own hometown and walking everywhere to do it, or trying out a new hiking trail just because it is a beautiful day, are just a few of the ways I’ve tricked myself in to exercise.

Another form of deceptive activity for me is kayaking. We used to go kayaking often when we lived down in Southern Maryland but sadly we had to leave our kayaks behind when we moved up to the DC area because we had no place to store them. Finally, five years later, we went back to collect our kayaks and took out on the Potomac River on Saturday.

It was a gorgeous day to be on the water: the sun was shining down from a blue sky with only a few puffy white clouds. We launched from a marina near National airport and headed toward the Memorial Bridge.

Kayaking on the Potomac, Memorial Bridge in the background w/ Rosslyn, VA on the left and Washington, DC on the right

As we paddled along, sometimes quickly racing ahead of Mike and then slowing down or stopping in order to enjoy the scenery and waiting for Mike to catch up. Race ahead. Drift. Race ahead, drift.

We paddled under Memorial Bridge with the goal of kayaking to Roosevelt Island before turning around and heading back to the marina. We made it to the island and saw a few herons and several small hawks (not sure what kind) along the shore and in the trees. We found a small inlet so we paddled in to the middle of the island. After check out the interior of the island, we headed back to the river.

As we started back toward the marina we spotted a turtle sunning himself on some driftwood in the middle of the Potomac. It is amazing how much wildlife you can see in a city if you look in the right places. It is one of the things I love about DC. While running I’ve come across deer and fox and now we’ve seen turtles and heron within earshot of the hectic citylife of the National Mall.

My arms started getting tired on the way back so I was drifting more than I was racing ahead and I noticed all of the runners and bikers using the bike path along the VA side of the Potomac. I run along this path once or twice a week for the past four years and I’ve often spotted kayakers out on the river. It was often a welcome distraction, something to think about, as I made my way through longer and longer runs. On hot days I would have traded places with those kayakers in an instant if someone had offered up the opportunity and now I was one of them.

It was one of the only times I can remember watching other people run and not feeling an overwhelming urge to join them. I only wondered how many of them spotted me and thought, “Hey, look. A kayaker. That looks fun.”

Me on the Potomac w/ the Mt. Vernon bike trail in the background

We ended up kayaking for an hour and a half and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn’t even notice that it was 90 minutes of exercise because it wasn’t. It was an hour and half of fun that happened to be good for me physically and mentally. And that’s the best kind of active.