Running Through the 202
by Taryn Ottaunick (Fall 2016)
I’ve always believed that the best way to engage with a city is to run through it. Although I started running in my hometown in New Jersey, I did not really get into the sport until I began going to Boston University. There, I got in touch with the pulse of Boston by taking runs through different parts of the city: the Charles River, Boston Common, Fenway, Longwood, and around y neighborhood in Brookline.
When I arrived in Washington, DC for the fall semester, I was overwhelmed by this huge, political, bustling city and all of its unique neighborhoods. In my mind, Washington was all monuments, executive offices, and the White House. However, after a couple of jogs through the city, I realized the city held so many more surprises than I could even begin to imagine.
First stop: Georgetown. Once I had the exact address that was once home to John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy (my all-time favorite person) during his time as Senator from Massachusetts, I knew it warranted a run. As I passed their cheerful red brick townhouse, I recalled the black and white photos of the young couple I had seen in history books so many times: pictures from the Inauguration Ball, the campaign stock photos, and the casual snapshots that have made the couple – and now that townhouse – legendary.
President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, lived in this town house on N Street while he was a Senator. Credit: Taryn Ottaunick
A jog through Adams Morgan revealed a very different side of DC. Where Georgetown is red brick, white brick, and colonial, Adams Morgan was colorful and offbeat. My run around U Street, past the street art and Ben’s Chili Bowl, revealed a city unlike any part of DC I could ever concoct. Here, funky music played from store windows, and there was not a grey flannel suit to be found. And a jaunt through Rock Creek Park felt like an entirely different world, showing DC’s abundant natural life and respite from its urban atmosphere.
After our class field trip visit to the White House, where we were lucky enough to watch President Obama board Air Force One, I decided to finally take a run past the old mansion. As a jogged down Pennsylvania Avenue, I thought of the people who had walked that same path before me. Lots of tourists, sure, but also presidents, first ladies, foreign visitors, and the legends that have made our country the place it is today. Not the kind of feeling one could get in any American city other than Washington.
A view of the presidential mansion taken from the White House Lawn. Credit: Taryn Ottaunick
Washington, DC was certainly everything I imagined it to be: history, big white buildings, etc. We learned that DC was often called a two-city town, but each neighborhood felt like a different city altogether. My conclusion: DC is a global city, in both its embrace of multicultural attitudes as well as in its roadmap of diverse neighborhoods, each with a culture to call its own.
Taryn Ottaunick is a senior studying Public Relations and Political Science. She is examining the intersection of these two disciplines at her internship at Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications.
