Ok. Finally time for the full report!
The Cherry Blossom 10 miler rolled around at a very busy time of year once again. I had company in town and was a bit strung out about some presentations I would be giving for work the following week. This, coupled with the fact that I was running under the alias of my roommate (free entry!), made it rather difficult to take the race too seriously. When I came home saturday night under rainy skies and saw a weather report that promised no change, I seriously considered bagging it and having a lazy, rainy sunday morning. But alas, the alarm sounded at 6:00 and I jumped right up, despite a measly 4.5 hours of sleep. I downed a bit of oatmeal and a banana and started the long, sleepy metro ride to the race with my roommate, Roger, and a couple friends.
The race start was partitioned off from elite -> yellow -> red -> blue -> green. Jon Strong (I) was placed in the "blue" group, which started ~5:00 after the actual race start. I went out rather hard with Roger, running just over 6:00 for the first mile. But I had to pee. Badly. So I stopped at some porta-potties, waited about a minute in line, and then realized that they were all pad-locked except one! (jerks)...so I ran another mile or so and ducked behind a large electrical box, where I stepped in ~5" standing water. Soaked. I left the puddle and some curse words behind with super-saturated shoes. I almost gave up the race attitude at this point, but then laughed at the whole scene and decided to push through a bit longer. Problem is, I was still basically asleep. I think I was asleep until I was well into mile 4. But then something happened at around mile 5 (I woke up??), and I felt my groove. I pointed my shoulders forward and decided to push it. I have no idea what my miles were like, as I couldn't find my watch in the morning chaos, but I must have been doing a pretty fast pace for me. This course double-backs on itself a couple times, so I could see Roger ahead of me on two different occasions. I knew I couldn't catch him, but I played with the idea in my mind and used it as a game/tactic to push a bit harder. I whizzed past the blues (squeek squeek), infiltrated the mass of reds (squeek squeek), and then started to pass some yellows. The final ~1.5 miles were bordering on anaerobic (there's some racing jargon for that, i'm sure...) and it felt good to punch it. I ended in 1:15 flat, which translates to 1:10 for the blues. Interestingly enough, it wasn't raining at all during the race, and the rain resumed exactly when i got my raincoat back.
I was very pleased not only with this race, but also with my body's response to it. I wasn't completely pooped afterward, and I never felt any soreness or fatigue worth mentioning. I took a solid nap, but this was due more to sleep deprivation than anything else. Oh...and the breakfast burrito. I think that was the finest breakfast burrito I've ever had in my life. | 