CHERRY BLOSSOM 10 MILER

One word summary of the race: CROWDED

Time: 1:27:59 (8:48 pace)

Five-mile split time: 45:09

Yes, I negative split a ten mile race. My second half was two minutes faster than my first.

Overall feelings: It was a good run. Feeling confident that I can run a sub-2 hour 1/2 marathon next month.

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Yesterday morning D and I joined 30,000 fellow runners for the annual Cherry Blossom 10 mile run. It's a great race throughout our beautiful city. The course is flat and the scenery is wonderful.

It was, however, a little too crowded. Due to a minor error during the registration process we ended up in the last start heat with a lot of slower, more casual, and less experienced runners. After about three minutes of running both D and I were restless. We needed to break loose from our fellow runners and catch up with a faster moving group. I told D to sprint/weave through the crowd and I'd follow him. Unfortunately, I got caught up in the legs of another runner and took a little spill. D went out of view for a brief minute, but it was too long. I lost him. We would run the race separately; not seeing each other until the finish line (boo hoo).

In addition to being frustrated by our start position and the need to run around people for the first half of the race, I did (as mentioned above) have a little run-in with another runner. We were both trying to get around a pack of run-walkers. The other woman came around the group from the right. I came around from the left and we bumped each other. As I was trying to regain my balance, I did say excuse me. She snapped back, "Don't run on my heels."

SERIOUSLY?!?

Obviously this woman has not run a race before (or at least that is what I am telling myself). Runners are generally nice people. We may push and shove a little bit, but we say excuse me or passing on your right. What type of person snaps at another competitor as she is following towards the ground? Seriously? Who do you think you are?

This little situation happened before mile 1 and it really irritated me. I ran the next five miles thinking of what I should have said to this woman as I sprinted as far away from her as possible. By mile 5 I was done thinking about her and started focusing on picking up the pace.

My second half of the run was much faster and much more enjoyable. I finally joined a crowd running at my pace. I also took the time to enjoy the scenery. As I passed mile marker 9, I realized I would finish in less than 1:30.

What a great training run for my 1/2 marathon next month!

I finally caught up with D at the finish line. He had a great race, too.

We got some water, a banana, and a muffin. And then headed home.

K and my mom met us at the door. We spent the rest of the morning drawing on the sidewalk with chalk and walking over to the metro to watch the trains go by.

What a lovely way to end the weekend!