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Monday, April 8, 2013

Race Recap: 2013 Cherry Blossom 10 Miler

This past weekend was spent in Washington, DC. I actually lived there for three months my sophomore year and nine months my junior year for various internships, so I know the city pretty well, but I hadn't been back in four years and it was fun to see the monuments again. Even better, now that I run, I had a new appreciation for the city!

I did not prep for this race as a race because I didn't want to allow myself to treat it as one. I knew racing it would have a negative effect on my preparations for the NJ Long Branch Half, so I wanted to force myself to just long run Cherry Blossom. 

(credit: Kim)
Hence starting off the afternoon in DC with a round of drinks! After the long ride to DC, we all had a drink before walking to the White House since several of the girls hadn't seen it and it was my patriotic duty to play tour guide and show it to them. Once we got back to our hotel, I headed out for a 2 mile shakeout run to see how my legs felt. 

I'd been having some hamstring pain and was worried it'd be a bad idea to run. While my calves were very tight, foam rolling seemed to help and I declared myself safe to run. Woot!

(credit: Kim)
We got ourselves beautified then had dinner at one of my favorite DC restaurants, Zaytinya. It's one of Jose Andres's small plates restaurants and it's Greek/Mediterranean. And SO GOOD. The pita, the crab cakes, the hummus, the... everything was fabulous. If you are planning on being in DC in the future, make sure you go there. 

Oh right, and the Brussels sprouts. GET THEM.
(credit: Kim)
An early bedtime obviously occurred because we are wild and crazy runners. After waking up at 5:15 hearing Beth get up, I lay in bed wondering whether Starbucks was open until 5:45, when I voiced my question to the room. I was laughed at because, apparently, I am kind of addicted to Starbucks. Why does everyone who spends time with me think this? 

We debated what to wear, Beth finally agreed that she was going to run Cherry Blossom as a long run (ongoing debate for a week and she didn't decide until 6 AM!), and headed out to the Washington Monument where the race corrals started.


Stephanie went to her much faster corral while I lined up with Kim and Beth. We started together but soon spread apart since Kim was racing (and killed it with a pace PR for a long distance) and Beth was taking it very easy since she'd had a fever all week. Stephanie also had an awesome PR, so those racing it had a great Cherry Blossom race!!

Plus, Abby was acting as cheerleader extraordinaire and popped up all along the course cheering since she couldn't run the course due to a stress fracture. Of course, she's so fast she probably would have finished with plenty of time to cheer us on even if she had been running!

I forgot headphones so was left to my own (lack of) devices, so I kept a sharp eye out for the race photogs and tried to do my best Gisele impression. And by that I mean I made stupid faces if I saw them in time.

Ahahaha hello cameras! I love you! How are you? I'm just running and having SO much fun.
This is my favorite. Austin Powers was my inspiration.
The race itself was a really pretty course, most of it going along the tidal basin or the Potomac River. I got close to the Jefferson Memorial, which was the one monument I hadn't seen up close, and also saw the new Martin Luther King, Jr., memorial.

While I enjoyed the views, this wasn't a fun run for me. My knee started hurting a bit around mile 4 and things never felt easy like they can on good runs.

Oftentimes a run just falls into place somehow, your body just picking a cadence and your mind zoning in. But that never happened, so by mile 4 I felt pretty fatigued. That plus the achey knee and a lack of music to pump me up meant that miles 4-9 were rough, mentally. I would try to pick up my pace and just couldn't. It didn't help that miles 6-8 had a pretty tough headwind!

How I felt at the end.
Running 10 miles after not doing more than 5 in 3 weeks is a little rough, not going to lie.
I was able to pick up the pace a lot in the last mile, however, since I was SO excited to be done and also wanted to finish under 10:00 miles. I've actually never run a race officially with anything over 10:00 as my pace and didn't want that to happen for this race. I ended up with a 9:55 average pace. I'll take it :)

Race swag. I haz it. I think I'm doing peace symbols but in a swaggy way?
Honestly, this run was never going to be good. It was the first long run after taking three weeks off due to illness, aches and pains, and just rest needed post-NYC Half. Getting to run it as part of a lovely course AND get a medal at the end? Pretty sweet.

Love this medal! It's my favorite of the three I have so far.



So, I finished a long run without anything terrible happening, I got a change of pace from the NYC run routes, and I got a medal. Pretty solid long run!

Oh, and I had an awesome girls weekend with some really cool women. I hadn't spent much time with Stephanie or Kim and it was so much fun getting to know them better. I'm envisioning lots of future training runs and classes together!

Credit: Beth
HUGE thanks to Beth's dad, who donated his Marriott points to us for a free hotel room, and to Abby and her boyfriend, Anthony, for trusting our motley crew in their car (and Abby for driving so much despite not being able to race). You ladies rock and made a wonderful girls weekend happen. Thank you!!!


Have you ever run a race as a training run rather than a race? How did you feel?

11 comments:

  1. That sounds like a great run! Glad you were able to do it and love the medal! My friend from Ohio ran it as well (he moved down there last year). I haven't done a race as a run but then again I haven't had that many races under my belt yet! I hope someday I can do this race!

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    1. Hope you can, too! And that it's as nice a day as it was in DC :)

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  2. So cute! These pictures are adorable. As for that restaurant... yes! I just asked my husband if he's been there (he grew up in DC) and he said yes and gave it his approval. So I think I'll have to go there sometime soon! Thanks for the tip!

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    1. Thanks! Glad to hear other DCers love it. I ate there multiple times when I was in DC for a while and I'm such a fan. All of Jose Andres's restaurants are fantastic!

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  3. Awesome pictures! Way to focus on the cameras - a girl after my own heart (so much harder when you are "racing" though) and love the medal!
    Sounds like a great weekend over all, and a solid training run.
    Pretty sure it is evident that I used races as a means to get through training runs for both the Miami Marathon and the NJ Marathon coming up.
    I find that it helps when you are staring down a 18 miler or such to have some comraderie along the way! I'm pretty good about pacing myself I made the mistake of deciding to PR a 4 miler before running the rest of my run in the fall. Lets just say those 12 miles after...sucked, and taught me a lesson :)

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    1. That makes so much sense! I'm going to try to add lots of races in to this summer when I'm training for the Chicago Marathon. I think it'll help a lot.

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  4. Oh I'm addicted to Starbucks too. So bad but great.

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    1. Haha it's practically a requirement in our profession ;)

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  5. That sounds like an ideal weekend! Glad you had such a fun girls weekend and enjoyed the fun run. That's a race I've always wanted to do!

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    1. You should definitely do it! I'm not sure how PR friendly it is because of how crowded the race is and how many switchbacks there are, but it's a lovely course.

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  6. Friend, let's be real--Starbucks would've been on my mind at 5:15 a.m. too. You can't run if you're still asleep, right? Your race pictures are the cutest! I almost don't want to post mind now, lol.

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