The Cherry Blossoms are in bloom!!

Sunday morning did not look very Spring-like! It was, however, ideal running conditions. Overcast, and temps in the mid 50's.

I didn't sleep well the night before, got a wrong number call at 3am, and never fell back asleep before the alarm went of at 5!

And for some reason, Saturday night I just wasn't really "in the mood" to run the race. I didn't lay out my gear ahead of time, didn't pack my bag, gather my nutrition, or do any of my normal pre-race routine. That would come back an haunt me later.

So, I rushed to get everything together (it's just a run, not like I had to remember all my tri gear...) and get in the car to drive to the Metro. Yes, I drove 9 blocks to the Metro, to go run a 10 mile race. I got on the Metro and started hydrating. And hydrating. And hydrating.

As soon as I got off the metro, and waited in line for one of 100 school buses to take us to the start of the race, I realized I needed a porta-potty. In addition to all that hydrating, the wine and pizza from the night before were now turning out to have been a very bad idea.

Somehow I survived, managed to make the porta-potty in time before the race start. Mayor Adrian Fenty was there, and he gave a little motivational speech to all the racers before the gun went off. It's cool to have a Mayor who's 34 and out there and doing active things, especially in a place like DC.


So, I snuck into the first wave (I was placed in the 3rd wave, and I learned from the Army Ten Miler that to be anything but in front, you spend 3 miles walking through all the "runners"--so frustrating!) and soon we were off. I had met up with a group of guys and started running with them, we were fairly well paced at first. That was until Mile 1 and I realized I was still a bit overhydrated. Off to the porta-potty. I have NEVER stopped in a race, not even my half-Ironman 70.3 mile races to stop and pee, but there I was, less than 8 minutes into it, and I had to pee!


I pushed on, running over the Memorial Bridge, past the Washinton Monument, and the entire grove of Cherry Blossoms in full bloom. It was beautiful. Then we took the turn down along the Potomac and headed past the Kennedy Center and the famed "Watergate" Hotel. As I was passing mile-marker 4 the first Elite man was cruising his way back down, shortly followed by the lead Elite woman. Go girl!


We ran up Rock Creek Parkway, up and up and up! It was a gradual hill, but a long hill. About this time I remember that I had forgotten the body glide. My underarms and thighs were dying. I thought I was going to break out into bleeding blisters at any second. I think because it was so cold, I wasn't sweating, so there was no natural lubrication between my skin. It hurt. Half-way point was a medical station. Stop Number Two. Vasoline, does anyone have any vasoline?! It was so cold the vasoline wouldn't come out of the tube. Another wasted 2 minutes.

I sucked it up, got back on the road and started the long, easy descent back to the Lincoln Memorial and Hain's Point. Along the way I started pacing with a girl, we pushed each other along for a couple miles and then started chatting. Turns out she was running 6 weeks pregnant!!! At that point I figured any pain and discomfort I was feeling was really lame, and so I pushed on


I finished the race in 1:17:21 just seconds faster than my Army Ten-Miler time. But when you consider the bathroom and vasoline stops, I probably ran it faster than that! Next time, I will make sure I'm in "race ready" mode the night before!



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