Bloomin' Terrific - Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Miler Race Report

When my alarm went off at 4:45 on Sunday morning, I'm not sure I knew where I was.  I dragged myself into the shower in an effort to shake off the last vestiges of sleep, and ran through a mental list of what needed to be done before I toed the line at the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler in DC. 

• Get dressed 
• Find watch and Road ID
• Eat something
• Walk the dog
• Figure out what metro stop I needed
• Find cash for the metro
• Tape up my shin
• Question my sanity

Once most of those got done (I didn't manage to walk the dog - she's old and sometimes just doesn't want to cooperate!), I got in my car and headed to the Metro station.  I still wasn't really thinking about the race.  I was just kind of on auto pilot.  Some part of my brain knew that I wasn't ready for this.  I hadn't been running as much or as often as I should have been, and hadn't run more than 7 miles at a time since October.  My calves were tight, my shin hurt.  I was running (literally!) on no sleep.  Blah, blah, blah.  But all that stayed in the back of my mind and mostly I was just calm.  

Then I got to the Metro, which opened early on Sunday just for the race, and I saw other runners getting out of their cars, talking, laughing, pinning on their bibs, and I started to get excited.  "These are my tribe," I thought.   We all got on the train and it was just us.  I think I counted two people who were not headed to the race, but the other couple of hundred that I could see when the doors opened were all going to the same place.  This is my tribe. 

Arriving at the race after a short walk from the metro, I immediately hopped into one of the super long lines for the porta potties.  I'd had an entire bottle of water on the train and knew I'd be hating life if I didn't take care of business before hand.  The line was so long that I was still waiting when the first runners started the race.  Sometimes it pays to be in the last corral! 

Once I was finished I popped over into the purple corral to wait for our turn to start the race.  Everyone around me was in great spirits, and I was starting to get more excited.  I turned on my watch and set it for 2/1 run/walk intervals since I knew I wouldn't get through the race just running, given how craptastic my training had been.  (Plus, I did this race last year doing 2/1 intervals, and it went pretty well.)  

We slowly started to move forward towards the start line and the announcer was doing his bit and then he said something along the lines of "Give it up for the party wave - these runners really like to maximize their racing time, it's the PURPLE WAVE!"   We all cheered and laughed, though technically not all of the runners in the purple corral are slower runners.  If you don't have a previous 10 miler time to give at registration, I think they automatically put you with purple.  But nevertheless, we did all seem like a fairly happy crowd.   And then... we were off. 

The first bit of the race is really crowded, so I didn't get into my run/walking until almost the first mile mark.  My pace for that first bit was relatively slow, though, so everything felt fine and my legs were cooperating.  At one point, there was a trio of young guys behind me singing "Do you want to build a snowman" from the movie Frozen.  I spun around and said "Please, oh please tell me you're going to do the whole movie!" They laughed and began a conversation about how they should bring a boom box next year.  Soon they passed me and I never saw them again, but the definitely put me in good spirits for the first part of the race. 

(I think this was near the Kennedy Center -it was just after this that there was a turn-around and I saw the local guy who juggles while he races.  This time he was juggling 2 small balls and 1 basketball, and he was bouncing the basketball as he juggled.  That guy is amazing, I should have taken his picture. I didn't want to slow down, though, because if he'd gotten ahead of me I would have been really mad. LOL) 

(Walking and taking pictures at the same time is not as easy as you might think!)

Along the way I was a little disappointed that the Cherry Blossoms weren't actually in full bloom (or much of any kind of bloom), but it's still a fairly pretty course (for DC).  It was the perfect temperature, and things just felt good.  I was tired, sure, but didn't really struggle at all until about mile 6.  Mile 6 felt really, really hard.  I didn't know why until later in the day (more on that later).

One of the great things about this race is the spectators.  Funny signs, people with dogs, little kids, etc.  Plenty of people out there cheering, giving high fives, etc.  Another great thing is that this race puts your name on your bib, so I got six (yes, I kept count) personalized shout-outs.  One of them made me really happy, actually, because it was towards the end of the race and I was really tired by that point and this little boy, maybe 8 or 9, said "Whoo! Diana! You can do it!" and gave me a fist bump.  Tears, people.  

My time for this race last year was 1:59:32, and my original plan (way back in the fall when I signed up) was to beat that time.  Race morning, I was pretty sure that wasn't going to happen, but somewhere around mile 8 I realized that it could happen.  Unfortunately, by mile 10 I was so tired that I let my walk breaks go longer than they were supposed to.  I ended up finishing in (an unoficial) 2:00:22.   Looking back, I'm a little peeved that I gave up on myself and didn't fight for a PR.  On the other hand, considering my lack of training, my painful shin, and the fact that I hadn't had a decent night sleep in a week, I am incredibly pleased with my time. 

(Man, I get red-faced when I run!)

When I got home from the race, I uploaded my Garmin data and I realized that I ran crazy inconsistent splits.  Not only that, but I realized why mile 6 felt so hard.   Check it: 

Uh, yeah.  Sub-11?  For me?  That's darn fast.  No wonder it felt hard. Also, it slowed me way down in the subsequent miles, but oh well.  I do find it kind of cool that I can bust out a 10:59 mile in the middle of a 10-miler, though.  =)

After going over my splits I got cleaned up and headed out to meet friends for Bingo.  Not just any Bingo, mind you, but Bingo where you win Coach and Micheal Kors purses.  And they serve booze!  Really, what more could you want after running a 10 mile race?  (Well, I would have liked to actually WIN something, but whatever.) 

(Both Cokes were mine, but only one of them had rum in in, I swear!)

When I got home from Bingo I pretty much collapsed. I was so tired that my husband says I was talking to him when he came up to bed, but he could tell I was asleep, and I made no sense.  I have no memory of that at all! 

Today I'm a bit sore, but mostly I feel good - and I am anxious to sign up for this race again.  Entry is based on a lottery system so I'm not guaranteed to get in, but I'll try.  Hopefully I'll actually manage to train next year.  Either way, I'm hoping that I'll be back in the fray, surrounded by 17,000 other people out to enjoy the day.  My tribe.

Countdown to Cherry Blossoms

Despite the 8 inches of snow that we got Sunday/Monday, I am hopeful.  Spring will come. Temperatures will rise.  Flowers will bloom.  I will run without gloves.  Weather.com is helping me be hopeful.  Look:

Those are Spring-like temps, right?  There are little drawings of the sun and everything! 

One of the sure signs of Spring in the Washington D.C. Metro area is the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run, which this year will be held on April 6th.

Held every year since 1973, this race now draws tens of thousands of runners, including some very elite names.  Katherine Switzer was the women's winner in the inaugural race with a time of 1:11:19. Since then, winners have all run well under an hour.  This is a fast race.  In 2012, a Kenyan by the name of Allan Kiprono was the overall winner with a time of 45:15.  Feel free to say "Holy shit" out loud.  It's ok.  

I ran this race last year, hoping to just finish in a time that would not get me "swept."  I was in the purple corral, which, if you're wondering, is the very last one.  Seeding times go like this: 

I managed to finish in front of some of the green corral-ers (I have pictures to prove it!) and squeaked across the finish line in just under 2 hours.  I was thrilled, since that race was my first "long" race ever, and I had never run more than 9 miles prior to that day.   I think I will be in the green corral this year, but I'm not sure.  I might start with the purple people eaters no matter what, so I'm not sure if I care what my bib says.  Anyway.  I digress. 

This race lets you run  past hundreds of cherry trees while they have their gorgeous white and pink blossoms, and if the sun is shining, it's a glorious sight.  In fact, the National Cherry Blossom Festival in DC starts tomorrow.  (See - Spring IS coming.)  

Despite my extreme lack of training this winter, and the fact that the last three runs I've had have been horrible, awful, and no good, I'm really looking forward to this race.  (I also have Annie in my head now, and a little birdie is singing "The sun'll come out, tomorrow...")   

Are there any races that mean SPRING to you?  

A Look Ahead

So, what do runners do when it's too freaking cold to run?  Why, we look for races to sign up for, of course!

A friend of mine and I were talking about races that I've signed up for in 2014 and she commented that it didn't seem like a lot.  I thought about it and realized that I didn't think it was very many, either, and maybe I needed to look around and see if I couldn't find a few more to sign up for.

Of course, going online I found about 80 that I could sign up for.

For reference, let's first look at the races that I'm already planning on running:

April 5th - Some 5K that I don't know the name of that some friends are running for charity
April 6th - Cherry Blossom 10 Miler
May 4th - Technology Trot (put on by my son's school)
June 8th - Another 5K that I don't know the name of that my friend is organizing
Sept 20-21st - North Coast 24 (Oh, did I not mention that I'm running a 24 hour endurance race? Yeah, we'll talk about that later)


Ok, so that's five races.  Incidentally, that's as many as I ran last year, after two DNSs.  (Also, I will have one DNS this year - the Rock N Roll half marathon in New Orleans next month)  In any case, 5 races is fine, it's respectable, right?  Especially considering that NC24 is one mama-jama race all by itself.   But it still felt kind of blah, so I was looking around online.

Found a couple 5Ks that I could do, but nothing that was getting me excited.  Then I stumbled upon the St. Michael's Running Festival.    Um.... yes, please!  13.1 on a flat, fast course with gorgeous scenery and a small town feel?  I'm in!

So now I'm up to 6 races, and will probably run the Frederick Women's Distance 5K again, too, and that's in August, so that'll put me at 7.  Not too shabby.  

Now I just need it to warm up to at least 20 degrees so I can go run and actually train for some of these things! =)

How about you? Do you already have your race schedule figured out for 2014? 

Cherry Blossom 10-Miler

Entirely too exhausted mentally as well as physically to bore ya'll with a full report, so here's the short and sweet version.

Today, I ran past a bunch of these:

Sorry for the blury, it's hard to walk and photograph.

After I finished running past all of them, I got one of these: 

My first medal ever! 

Super thrilled with my time, super bummed that I now feel like death warmed over.  Seriously, I feel like I have a hangover, and this happened after my last couple of long runs, too.  I am either not getting enough water, or not getting enough nutrition.  Either way, it's crappy.    

So, to recap.  Awesome race, totally thrilled...... except for the headache and nausea that I am currently experiencing.  Yay me! =)

Michelle also ran this race today, and graciously waited for me after she finished.  She kicked butt during the race, but I'll let her tell you about it. =)

Now, for a nap!