RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Now, from driving to a fun run - well, a run with a touch of sarcasm.
BETH FLORES: Federal Furlough Five-Mile Fun Run for Freedom: Doing Our Best Four Days a Week.
MONTAGNE: That's Beth Flores, one of the creators of the Facebook group How I Spent My Furlough Day. She's a Defense Department worker who's idled one day a week until September because of the sequester. Last night at the starting line at the Pentagon, runners pinned on race bibs printed with lines like I'm running instead of combating terrorism in Southeast Asia, or I'm running instead of providing world-class military health care.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
And much like a furloughed employee's workweek, the run came up short. Billed as a five-mile race, the finish line was actually 20 percent shy of that, just as the workers' pay checks are 20 percent short these days. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.