Nov24
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The Good: It was super easy to get to the race start using the Metro.
The Bad: We missed our planned Metro train. Hence….the upcoming bad.
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The Good: I got to use the porta-potty before the race.
The Bad: While waiting in line, I missed my assigned wave and had to start with the 11:00 min/milers instead of my assigned 8 min/milers. And people using khakis – clearly not runners – were using the porta-potties with the in-a-hurry racers.
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The Good: I ran a great time, 1:19, an average pace of 7:54 min/miles.
The Bad: I didn’t meet my goal of 1:18 and honestly believe I could have had an even better time if I didn’t have to run 9:30 min/miles the first two miles because of the crowd. But hey, I only missed my goal by a little over a minute!
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The Good: I ran intervals, including some low 7 min/mile segments.
The Bad: The intervals were forced because I had to slow down a lot because of the crowd and then tried to dart ahead when I had some free space.
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The Good: I ran 10 miles and felt strong!
The Bad: I think I ran an extra 3 miles laterally from darting around people.
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The Good: It was a beautiful course.
(That’s me on the right with the orange headband. I’m a shortie.)
The Bad: I didn’t see much of the beautiful because I was too busy trying not to run into others.
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The Good: The race went by quickly because there were soooo many people around. Crowd energy!
The Bad: The race was sooooo crowded. But I knew what I was signing up for. 🙂
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The Good: An amazing Bloody Mary post-race that came with a beer chaser.
The Bad: It was gone too quickly.
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The Good: I ordered a second Bloody Mary.
The Bad: It was gone too quickly.
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The Good: Running the 10 Miler with wonderful ladies and hanging out with a few who weren’t able to run with us.
left to right: Allison, Leslie, Crystal, me, Gabi, Jill, Allison
The Bad: Nothing outweighs that good. It’s been a great weekend with these ladies. I’m lucky.
Lessons learned:
- I’m way competitive with myself about goals I set when racing and get super frustrated when things outside my control slow me down.
- Achieving a lofty goal (I wanted to run the race in 1 hr, 18 min) is very difficult on a very crowded course.
- I should have started with the pace wave that I wanted and stop complaining about dodging others. It probably wouldn’t have been so bad if I’d started with the right wave.
- Not meeting a goal is OK when you are with friends you are super proud of – this was Crystal’s very first race!!!! CONGRATS CRYSTAL!
I hope to come back and run next year! And ALL of us will be able to run – no more Boostie Allison! 😉
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14 responses to “The Good & Bad of the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler”
Awesome speed! Congrats on the race! At first I was thought the people in khakis were running in the race. ha!
Sounds like the good definitely outweighs the bad – congrats!
girl, i’m crazy impressed with your time…i don’t think i’ve run a sub-8 minute mile in my life!
Oh my gosh, I would have been so annoyed to be shuffling around for 2 miles!! At least you can see the good and the bad :). Glad it was a great race and your time is still pretty stellar!
I ran my first half marathon this weekend and was initially frustrated with my 2:01 time. My goal was under 2:00, I realized having a goal was great to push me through the race but finishing in good spirits and with good company was more important. Best of luck on your future races and achieving your goals!
I think this will be similar to my experience with the Broad Street 10 miler in Philly. It’s going to be super crowded and crazy on race day. I will try to remember not to stress out about the crowds. I’m not super fast, so I won’t be starting super early in the pack, but hopefully I’ll be able to get there on time to start with my group either way.
Congrats on your race and a great weekend with friends!
So glad you had a mostly great race! It’s definitely one of those scenic but not so much PR kind of races. And it seems like it was such a fun weekend with the girls!
Thanks for the shout out! 🙂 I’m still sore but I had SUCH a fun time with you and the ladies. First race of mannnyyy to come!
Way to go Crystal on your first race and way to go Teri on a great race time! Oh and Teri I love the shirt you ran in! 🙂
I can’t wait to head down to DC to see the Cherry Blossoms! DC is always so pretty!
I am super competitive and would be frustrated (have been frustrated) when I have to waste my energy dodging others. And it does seem kind of inconsiderate that non-runners were waiting in line for the port-a-potties. As a runner, prior to a race: when you’ve gotta go. . . you’ve gotta go!!
Wow I am still massively impressed with that time, congrats! Reading things like this always makes me wish I could run, I feel like I’m missing out on something 😛 Especially as I would say the good here definitely seems to outweigh the bad! And I reckon you could easily make your target or better next time plus it’s lovely that you got to run with friends 🙂
Thanks Emily!
Nice time! It was a great day to run that Sunday. I wish I’d done what you did and used the port-a-potty and started in a later wave — smart 😉 Do you have a Garmin? I bet your pace was even better because you seriously have to run so much extra to get around people in DC races!