Lindsey Mastis is the Bureau Manager for Feature Story News’ new Los Angeles office. She shoots, writes, and edits, and reports for FSN’s international clients.
Lindsey Mastis uses social networking as a news-gathering tool to curate information and share news updates.
I’ll never be able to get enough of Andy Rooney– one of America’s most interesting, intriguing, and sometimes accidentally controversial (after all, who doesn’t like chocolate chip cookies) curmudgeons. He considers himself to be a writer. I agree. But I feel like there’s a better word for it. Maybe it’s a style we should just call “Andy Rooney.”
Several of my friends participated in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure in Washington, DC:
Kim Oser — AKA @PutItAway
Santa Steve and the North Pole Endurance Team
Marshall Moneymaker — AKA “The Pink Firefighter“
I did it! I ran a full 21 miles. I started at Fletcher’s Boathouse at 7 a.m. with the American Cancer Society’s DetermiNation team. It rained the day before so the first three miles were difficult. I was constantly running through mud and jumping over puddles.
I felt confident because I ran a portion of this trail last week. I knew where to go… up to a point.
By the time I got through running the C&O Canal trail and started to veer onto the Rock Creek Park Trail, my preparedness was causing me problems. I packed my water waist-belt full of chewable energy bites. So full that when I rounded a corner, the bag fell out (along with my car key). I had to stop and re-pack the entire waist belt. As soon as I started to run, it all fell out again. I had to walk for a few minutes while I figured out a way to re-organize the belt. By the time I started running again, almost everyone passed me up…
I was standing in the newsroom and was just about to get into a lengthy conversation about Libya and whether the “rebels” would eventually be called “liberators” when someone said “the windows are shaking.” I thought that person was losing her mind until I felt the earth start to shake. I knew it was an earthquake.
I ducked under my desk and waited to see whether the shaking would get worse or stop. I noticed that no one else was getting under their desks. Instead, they stood around wondering whether it was a Metro accident, a bomb, an earthquake, or something else.
This was my third earthquake, and I’m pretty sure it lasted the longest. Every single phone in the newsroom started to ring. I grabbed my IFB (that’s the thing reporters and anchors put in their ear so they can hear the producers) and asked whether I needed to get on air. Then I saw JC Hayward.
She told me that she was in her office when it hit. She was then trying to leave. But she wasn’t going anywhere. Instead, she would be anchoring for the next few hours.
I was ushered out with a photographer in a live truck. At the first stop light we switched seats so he could film all the evacuated people standing near the roads. I drove directly to the US Capitol. Hundreds of people were standing around. People that work on the Hill were wondering whether it was an earthquake– or a repeat of 9/11. Tourists wondered whether they could get on the Metro.
We were up and running in a matter of minutes at the corner of Maryland and 3rd. It’s right in front of the Museum of the American Indian. One of the kids that was in the museum at the time told me he pulled a lever and thought he caused the building to shake…
I arrived at Fletcher’s Cove a bit late and unprepared. My weekday training runs were both disasters. My “runs” became painful walks. My feet aren’t getting better. But I wanted to push myself Saturday. I wanted to run the full 15 miles. So I ran alone, with my music and my mind.
The first four miles were about running with pain. I stopped on several occasions to stretch my calves, re-tie my shoes, and shake the feeling back into my foot. I tried to zone out– and mentally move the pain out of my feet and into thin air.
I don’t know what I thought about. I do remember listening to the Cee-Lo Green channel on Pandora. (Thanks to my husband for the subscription so I can listen commercial free). The music was blues and hip hop. I loved it…
