Run Happy at Cherry Blossom

Post race with my bling

One week out from the 50 miler and my last long training run was Cherry Blossom 10 Miler.  I love Cherry Blossom.  Normally, I hate big DC races, but there is something about Cherry Blossom that is special to me.  It was one of the first really big races that I ran, and it was one of the first races where I felt confident as a runner and knew that I wanted to keep doing double digit distances.  I didn't know that I wanted to multiply that distance by 5!

We got great weather on the morning of the race, but I was sad that JD couldn't join me.  He wanted to take it easy on his knee after the Reston Marathon, and our babysitter got sick at the last minute so he stayed home to take care of the boys.

Muti Chapter Photo

I met some friends on the way in at the Vienna metro and then met up with a massive multi chapter group from all over Maryland and Virginia for the Moms Run This Town photo.  We had so many people there, and it was so awesome to see MRTTer's all over the place.  After our photo in front of the Smithsonian Castle, we hit the porta potties.  Cherry Blossom always gets an A+ for awesome porta potty quantities so the line moved really quickly.  I got into the blue corral, and then it really started to get exciting as the launched the elite women and then the elite men shortly afterwards.  We were getting play by play of the race as we were waiting in our corrals.  I was getting so excited about how the women's race was playing out that I was almost disappointed when it was time for our corral to go.

Woodbridge/Manassas chapter acting crazy pre race

My plan was to just run easy, have fun, and enjoy the race.  I stayed pretty much in the 10:30 range at the beginning of the race.  Water stop #1 was awesome because it was our MRTT water stop so there were lots of cheers and high fives. 

Crossing Memorial Bridge

It was also awesome seeing moms from different chapters in their gear all along the course and calling out Moms Run.  Random spectators (who must have had family members in MRTT) would also call out Run Mom or Go Mom.  Cherry Blossom has an awesome crowd atmosphere, and I was soaking it all in.  Early on we got to pass by the elite men, and wow were they going fast!!  It was amazing to watch them. 

As we headed out to Haines Point we were treated to some terrific drummers.  Haines Point was a real treat this year as there was no wind.

 I picked it up in this section and run a few sub 10 minute miles, and then I forced myself to shut it down after mile 8 to do the rest of the race as a cooldown.  This was really hard as I really felt terrific and wanted to pick up the pace even more.  I was getting passed by a ton of people because I had slowed my pace by almost a minute per mile so that kind of sucked.

 I hit the final stretch with the little "hill" that everyone always complains about, and I had to pick it up a little because I didn't want to just jog out the finish.  I ended up running a 1:43 with minimal effort.  It was a great run and a beautiful day.