Cherry Blossom 10 miler

About 2 weeks ago I was at the bus stop waiting for Dylan to come home.  Usually he's the only kid who gets off at this stop, but occasionally there's another mom who picks up her daughter there as well.  So of course, she happened to be there that day... the day I just barely finished a 6 mile run on the treadmill and was still dripping sweat as I ran outside to make the drop off in time.  When she saw me she said "oh, are you a runner?" To which I said "no, I'm just training for a race."  Huh, isn't that a little contradictory then.  What a weird way to answer her.  But I just wasn't ready for that label... I mean, I've only been running for a little over a year, and I'm not fast... aren't runners supposed to be fast?  Isn't that what people would assume of me?

So a week later I ran the Cherry Blossom 10 miler.  It was a great race.  I was really nervous when it was about a week away.  Mostly I just didn't want to trip and twist my ankle or break a toe or something stupid like that that could keep me from even starting.  As the day got closer though, the nerves weren't so bad.  The morning of I felt pretty calm actually (thank you to my college days for teaching me how to cope with major performance anxiety).  It was a little chilly in the morning when we left but otherwise the weather was perfect for a nice long run.  My dad and brother came with me to cheer me on, take some pictures, and carry my post-race stuff.

The race itself was crowded, but pretty well organized.  There were over 17,000 people that ran the 10 miler, so we were broken into corrals with different starts based on what time we expected to finish.  Since I had no previous long distance to reference I was in the last corral.  My main goal for the race was to start it (meaning I had trained well enough to get there) and finish it.  But my more specific goal was to finish it in under 2 hours (expecting a 1:55:00 time), with a overall pace closer to an 11:30 average mile, and thought that if I really pushed myself I could get it closer to 11:00 minutes.  The course was really really flat, and the crowd was so thick that I never broke out of a dense pack.  Instead I think I focused most of my energy on passing people without knocking anyone over (which I saw happen quite a few times) and not over do it in the first 5 miles.  I had my Garmin on so I could monitor my pace, but I hardly even looked at it until I finished mile 4 and saw that I was going WAY faster than usual... and yet I still felt great.  So I kept it up for a few more miles.  Then I forced myself to slow down a little bit at mile 7 so that I knew I'd have enough energy to finish strong.  Which I did!  I actually hoped that my last mile would be around 10:00 and it ended up being 10:05... perfect.  Overall I finished in 1:44:55 which was a solid 10 minutes faster than my goal time and put my pace at 10:30!  And I felt great through the whole run.  At times it got a little tiring, but for the most part I had fun and the miles flew by.  I just kept telling myself the whole time that this is what I've been working so hard towards and I didn't want to hold back.  It felt beyond great when I crossed the finish line!

For my own personal record... here were my splits from Sunday:

Mile 1: 11:29
Mile 2:  10:31
Mile 3: 9:53
Mile 4: 10:04
Mile 5: 9:53
Mile 6: 9:58
Mile 7:10:38
Mile 8: 10:57
Mile 9: 10:32
Mile 10: 10:05

Afterwards my legs were SORE.  So so so so sore.  But only for a day and a half.  But Monday night, I felt totally fine.  I think that made me feel even better... that I manage to run so far and so much faster than usual, and yet, my body recovered quickly.  So what did I do first thing Tuesday morning??  Located a local half marathon (that still had openings) and got signed up for that.  My runner's high was going strong, and you know what, even now I still feel it a little bit.  I just never in a million years thought I'd be capable of accomplishing anything so physical.  Me, the quiet girls who spent her childhood reading and playing piano... walking the mile in school... never going outside.  I wish I had known back then how good running could feel.  Although, maybe I just appreciate it more now because it's so new to me and I don't take it for granted.

So now starts the training for the half!  I'm sure I wont be as fast during that... farther distance and it's a pretty hilly course (some of it on gravel), but for this one I just want to finish strong and happy.  I'm actually really really looking forward to it :)

Maybe the next time someone asks me if I'm a runner, I'll feel confident enough to say "yes."

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