Race Report: Cherry Blossom 10-Miler

Official Time:  65:57, or 6:33/mi.
Ranks:  416/17,530 total, 343/7,209 men, 44/1141 men 35-39.

While I have not been blogging as often lately, I have certainly not stopped training for the random mix of races I have signed up for this year.  I had an opportunity to buy a bib to Cherry Blossom 10-Miler about 6 weeks before the race.  Although I had earlier declined to enter the lottery, that was before I signed up for 30 miles of Ragnar Trail running.  So it made sense to set an intermediate running target.  Here I am with Owen, the friendly competitive runner who works in an adjacent office.

This course gave me my previous personal best -- just over 67 minutes.  It's flat and beautiful.  Unfortunately, this year the cherry blossoms had not yet popped, so the trees were not as pretty as usual.  And while it was warm, there was a very cold wind whipping off the Potomac.  I couldn't quite decide how to dress for the weather, so I decided to dress like a woman.

I wore Alisha's Garmin watch in order to "keep a lid on" my first mile (as I have a tendency to go out too strong), and to keep a relatively consistent pace.  Two years ago, my fastest mile was sub-6 minutes, and my longest was 7:30.  This time, my fastest mile was 6:18 and the slowest was 6:48.  For a 10-miler, that's pretty consistent.  The biggest challenge was between miles 6-8, when the course ran straight into a cold 20mph wind on Hains Point.  It sucked a lot of energy out of me to maintain my pace in that wind, and the result was that I didn't have a significant finishing kick at the end.  About mile 9, I was completely out of gas and ready to quit running.  Forever.

But that is the nature of these races.  I was glad to not be swimming and biking before the race, and I enjoyed just focusing on a single discipline for a change.  I was able to let my mind wander free while I ran.  After the race, I loaded my arms with post-race treats and let the kids pick what they wanted.  They were quite disappointed that I didn't get a medal for this race.

I have the best wife in the world.  She is very methodical about taking photographs, and she has figured out the best spots from which to watch the race.  I say this every time, but I think this is my last PR in the 10-miler.  I just can't get any faster without hurting something!