To be the best Wife, Mom, Daughter, Sister, Friend, and Runner I can be...God willing!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Cherry Blossom 10 miler

I simply cannot believe this race has come and gone.  When I registered for the lottery in December and then got in, I was so thrilled.  I paid a coach for a training plan.  I was happy to be running with Scott, Erin, and Matt.  I was so excited and now it is over....huge bummer.   Good thing for me, it went really well.

The race was Sunday morning and my day started way too early at 4am.  Jonah woke me up because he was coughing.  I tried to go back to sleep with no luck.  Finally at 4:45am I got out of bed and got ready.  We left for the Metro and arrived in downtown DC around 6:45am.  When we left the Metro station I so wished I had my camera.  The sun was rising over the Capitol, the sky was a light pinkish blue, and it was beautiful!  Oh, well...next time!  It was cold...so cold that I feel the need to say again that it was cold.  I was prepared and dressed appropriately so I was happy with that.

Everything was very organized which was good because there were runners everywhere.  It was the most crowded race I have ever run.  I originally thought I was going to be in the last wave of runners and was pleasantly surprised to discover on Saturday that I was in an earlier wave.  That was huge since the course was so crowded.

Scott took off as soon as our wave left and I did not see him again until the finish line.  He was so sweet to leave in my wave as he was grouped in a faster wave.  He finished in an awesome time of 1:17...a total PR for him!!!!  Matt and Erin ran behind me and we met up at the finish.  They did great as well!

I ran too slow during the first mile.  It was challenging to find room to run and the first mile was gone almost before it began.  Sounds weird I know, but is true.  I saw the elite men and women (I affectionately call them the Kenyans because most of them are Kenyan) pass by...pass by very quickly...and that was super cool.  They are just so fast and amazing to watch!

If I could redo the first mile, I would do the race again in a heartbeat.  I can't and I am happy with how I ran the last nine miles.  My splits were:  9:40, 8:22, 8:18, 8:27(probably the mile that I was totally pushed by a runner!), 8:19, 8:11, 8:15, 8:12, 8:07, and 8:05 for 1:23.57. That was my time according to my Garmin, which had me running 10.2 miles in 1:25.24.  My official net race time was 1:25.20. 

The crowd never thinned and I had to remind myself to look at the beautiful scenery.  The Cherry Blossoms are amazing and the course was very nice.  I was not expecting the uphill 3/4 mile finish, but I managed just fine.

Look at how pretty these trees are!  It is no wonder that DC is over-run (slight pun intended!) with people this time of year.

The Washington Monument with Cherry Blossoms in the foreground.
 We looked great after the race, I think!
Erin, Matt, Scott, and me....Cherry Blossom 10 miler finishers!!

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