Welcome to Issue #261 of My Monday Memo
by Rachel Brandes
Quote of the Week
“Very few of us are what we seem.”
– Agatha Christie, British Author
Today is Monday, May 26, 2025
National Paper Airplane Day
Random Photo of the Week
The beautiful lupine flowers at Dune Peninsula in Tacoma, Washington are a favorite for the bees. Photo by Rachel.
Feline Tomfoolery
with Brady & Belichick
Dear Humans,
While Belichick prefers to sit calmly as the human prepares breakfast, I tend to be a bit on the impatient side. Sometimes I think she leaves that drawer open just enough so that I can watch.
Much Love, Brady
Dear Humans,
Might I point out that crazed look in Brady’s eyes? He’s such a werido.
Much More Love, Belichick
Brady & Belichick are Rachel’s adorable felines. Brady is a short hair and very dominant and athletic, much like his namesake (Forever Patriots). Belichick, aka Beli, the long hair, was the runt of their litter and is much more passive, until provoked. These two cute boys turned two on May 4, 2025.
Mental Health Minute
May is Mental Health Awareness Month
All resources shared in this week’s Mental Health Minute are located at SAMHAS.gov, The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Learn more about how to help someone by clicking on the link below.
2025 Capital City Marathon
Heck no, Rachel did NOT run a marathon. Let’s just get that out of the way first. The 2025 Capital City Marathon is the name of the event, which recently spanned over two days with several different races and distances. Rachel opted to run the 8k, also known as the 5-mile race. Prior to this, she had never run an organized 8k and thought it would be fun to try something new.
Pictured Above: Rachel joins race participants from the West Olympia, Washington Orangetheory Fitness for a pre-race photo. She was welcomed into the group by Coach Kaia (far left, front row), who also coaches at Rachel’s gym location in University Place, Washington.
She was not accompanied by any friends for this event but found her tribe in the West Olympia, Washington Orangetheory Fitness members in attendance. Brought together by Coach Kaia, who is a coach at the West Olympia gym but also coaches a weekly class of Rachel’s at the University Place location. Kaia is one of those people that brings light to everyone she comes in contact with. People gravitate to her energy. Rachel was excited to get to enjoy this experience with her and the others.
Olympia, Washington is 21 miles from Rachel’s home in University Place and is the capital city of Washington. Hence the name of the event. The below photo was taken prior to race at Sylvester Park with the old capital building in the backdrop.
A short walk from Sylvester Park is Heritage Park and Capital Lake. Rachel snapped the below photo of the current capital building across the lake.
The first group of runners to take off would be the full marathon runners heading out for their 26.2-mile race. Rachel captured a video of the start of their run below. This was a large group of long-distance runners. The half-marathon runners were next and then finally, the 5-mile runners.
One more pre-run photo with a handful of new friends. Check out those creative signs. Nice job on those, ladies.
From start to finish, no photos were taken during the race. Rachel was too busy enjoying the beauty of Olympia. The course took them through neighborhoods that were beautifully landscaped with such fragrant flowers, she couldn’t breathe in long enough, and she tried. Imaging trying to keep your breathing steady while running and also trying to take deep breaths in through your nose. Not so easy. She did her best and enjoyed what she could smell.
With hopes to finish the race in 50 minutes, she was pleasantly surprised by how good she felt during the run. She never did check her pace on her Garmin during the run and had no idea until she crossed the finish line how well she really had done. Not to downplay the fine job she did, but this course was relatively flat with a gradual downhill to finish things off. In total, this course only had a 200-foot elevation gain over the entirety of the course.
Once she crossed the finish line, she joined Kaia and a few others that had already finished and cheered on other runners coming through the finish line. She soon broke off on her own to explore the post-run booths and goodies available. First though, she pulled up her official race time at the iPad stand and found that she had placed first in her division.
She was pretty proud of herself for this accomplishment, given there were 41 women running in the female 50-54 age group. For her efforts, she was awarded a commemorative wooden coaster. The last stop, the food… There was a post-race food line set up with a good number of volunteers to serve up the goodies. Rachel opted for a few sweets and a cinnamon raisin bagel with Nutella. What a great post-run treat.
This was certainly a fun experience, and Rachel is glad that she signed up for this one. One additional photo to end the story, as it wouldn’t be complete without this sneak photo. Rachel has heard of this, but it hasn’t ever happened to her. So many times, you hand your phone to a total stranger and ask them to take a photo of you or your group of friends. They snap the pictures and hand the phone back.
Sometimes, Rachel has heard, the stranger that is handed the phone first snaps a quick shot of themselves without the knowledge of the phone’s owner and then takes the photos of the owner. This would be the funny guy that snapped Rachel’s post-run photo above. Seeing this gave her a good laugh when she went back to look at the photos. Thanks for the laugh, red bearded man, and until next time reader, be well.
