Cherry Blossom 10-Miler Recap

I ran my 5th ever race yesterday, The Cherry Blossom 10-Miler. I know that it seems like I run all of the time, but I don't race all of the time. I try to pick a couple of events here and there and train for them. I did mostly a good job following the free intermediate training plan provided by the race. Unfortunately, I missed 2 weeks of runs over 4 miles because I hurt my back and then was having foot issues. I figured it was better to rest than to hurt myself more. I think my training showed those missed runs. I wasn't quite as well prepared as I hoped I would be. 

Anyways, so here's how it all went. Friday, I dropped my younger son with my mother-in-law (Thanks, Mom K!) and took my older son down with me to pick up my race bib at the National Building Museum and then we visited the National Museum of Natural History. If you live in the greater DC area, that is a great place to visit. My little guy couldn't get enough of the dinosaurs and other skeletons. I think he could have spent all day there. 

So, I was a little disappointed in my grouping for the race. I thought I should have been in the corral prior to mine. Although, my placing ended up being correct. I was excited to have a bib with my name on it! 

I couldn't sleep Saturday night. I had to get up at 4am and walk the dog before meeting at my friend Danielle's house at 5am. When I walked the dog, I thought "Yeah, shorts will be tolerable in this weather when I start running." Yeah, I was wrong. We drove and Metro-ed down to the National Mall. We were able to meet up with some people who traveled separately, which was lucky since this was a race with 17000 of your closest friends ;)

Somehow I only managed to get one picture of the group, and I was missing a couple of members, but here are most of the Running Divas that participated (Sorry, Chris and Melissa).

Danielle was in a faster corral than I was, but since she is recovering from a marathon 3 weeks ago, she said she would pace me for the race. I told her I wanted to stay under 10. I did pretty well with that for the first 6 miles, then we hit Hains Point. We were on the water most of the race and I never got warm. My calves hurt and my feet cramped up. If you've never run with cramped feet, it's nearly impossible. Then there is the "My 2-year old brought home a cold" factor. For those of you who race, you know the first few miles are spent trying to dodge runners and figure out your pace. We weren't able to do that. In fact, Danielle and I crossed the finish line at the exact same time as 4 other runners. That makes it tough to figure how to keep yourself steady. I finished in 1:42:29, two minutes and 30 seconds slower than my goal. I'm not unhappy. I beat about 1000 people in my division and over 6000 people overall. I can deal with that.

So, thank you Danielle for helping me get through this race pretty close to my goal. As you can see, they are working on the Washington Monument after the damage from the earthquake in 2011.

I don't get down to DC very often, so here is the Capitol Building. 

The medal was an additional cost, but it's pretty. I am building up my bling wall, so it is a beautiful new member. 

My knee hurt a little. Milk Dud was so amused by the ice pack that he decided to sing to it.

My much-deserved refreshment for the evening. 

I would totally do this race again next year, but I'm wearing pants and not shorts if it is under 50 degrees at start time. Lesson learned. Time to train for my half in 5 weeks.