Cherry Blossom 10-Miler Race Report (AKA “lessons learned”) (Read 1172 times)

Well, I ran the Cherry Blossom 10-miler in Washington DC on Sunday April 6th. This was the 36th running of this event and it is one of the more famous races in the country. Even though I’ve run many races in my life (starting way back in 1980), I’ve never run a “big race” in terms of size. The largest field I’ve ever been a part of was probably no more than about 600 or 700 runners so the field of around 12,000 runners was to be a new experience for me. Also, I had never run a race longer than 15K before so this would be the longest to date for me. I trained pretty hard for this race over the winter and I was really looking forward to it because I have family in the DC area and we were going to make the race the focal point of a “family weekend”. In addition to me I had a sister, brother-in-law, niece and two nephews running the 10-miler and another sister, brother-in-law, niece and my 14 yr old daughter running the 5K as well. This was my daughters first race ever and she finished the 5K in 28:53 and was very happy….I am very proud of her too! Now the race was scheduled to start at 7:50 AM with the first wave of around 2000 runners starting then color coded waves about every couple of minutes after that. Based on a previous race time I was slated to be in the “blue wave” which I think was the 3rd or 4th group that was supposed to go. Well….I was staying at my sisters house in Leesburg, VA and the trip into DC via car then the Metro was supposed to be about an hour and 15 minutes. Well….first my brother-in-law (the driver) forgot his Metro parking pass and we had to turn around and go back to his house to get it so we lost about 10 or 15 minutes there then we underestimated the number of people using the metro to get to the race and the stops were slower than usual and the trains were packed with people like sardines. So the ride to the race on the metro was very stressful because I knew I was going to be cutting it very close to missing the start. Additionally, in my quest to properly hydrate and wake-up for the early morning race, I drank coffee and water all morning. The metro has no bathrooms so I felt like I was going to explode for over an hour….very uncomfortable! So we finally get to the metro stop for the race (Smithsonian stop) and I find out that we’re still about a half mile away so I start running to the start area….with a full bladder to boot. Then it starts raining a cold rain to just add to the misery. I knew there was no way to even think about starting the race unless I could get to a porta potty and get rid of my coffee and water….I looked at the 150 porta potty’s and every one had a huge line….my heart sank as I knew I was going to probably miss the start. I looked for the shortest line and jumped in to wait for my turn. In the meantime I could hear the announcer releasing the various color “waves” to start their race. I still had about 10 people in front of me in the porta potty line when I heard them release the Blue wave so I knew I was not going to be able to meet my niece and her husband who were planning on running with me. The line continued to move and luckily I was able to get in and out just before the last “purple” wave was about to be released. I jumped in the only place I could which happened to be near the rear of that wave. Now, due to my screw-up of not getting to the race in a timely manner, I had about 6000 or 7000 people right in front of me that were most likely going to be running a relatively slower pace compared to what I was hoping to shoot for… I “bobbed and weaved” the best I could but got bottle-necked many times and had to just slow down my pace until I could find a hole between people to shoot through. It was probably until the 6 mile mark or so until I could maintain a fairly consistent pace. I was hoping to run the race in 9 minute miles but I ended up running 9:34’s with a chip time of 1:35:33. I was happy that I was able to really pick up the pace in the last 3 miles once I was able to find room to move pretty freely….in fact my fastest split was mile 10 which I ran in 8:24. I have no one to blame but myself for being late to the biggest race of my life and even though it was very stressful and uncomfortable weather-wise it was still a good experience. Although I know I could have done better I still set a PR since I never attempted that distance before….the good news is that it should be pretty easy for me to beat that time on the next 10-miler. The best part of the weekend though was attending a clinic given by Bill Rodgers and actually getting to talk to him a little bit. He was one of my running hero’s when I first started running and I always admired him. He is a good “ambassador” for the sport for sure and was very entertaining to listen to. Here are some things I think are worth noting for next time: • Garbage bags really do make good rain coats in a pinch • Body Glide really does work….even with a rain soaked shirt (nipple rub is a big problem for me) • 150 porta potty’s are not enough for 12000 runners • Don’t stay too far away from the race site if it’s in a big city • GET TO THE RACE ON TIME!!!!!! Tim

Oh, that sucks. I've been late before ( not that late ) but too late to hit the porta potties. It's really horrible to run on a full f'n bladder ! Great job anyways!

Great job! I ran the Cherry Blossom as well, but I'm one of those purple wave folks - I finished in just under 2 hours, but it was the longest race I've ever run, so I'm just happy to have crossed the finish line. The metro was ridiculous on race day, but I guess that's to be expected. My friend and I didn't even attempt to metro back from the Smithsonian stop - we walked all the way to Union Station and hopped on there. Note to self: Walking a mile in the rain after running 10 miles in the rain = not the world's best idea.

Great job! I ran the Cherry Blossom as well, but I'm one of those purple wave folks - I finished in just under 2 hours, but it was the longest race I've ever run, so I'm just happy to have crossed the finish line. The metro was ridiculous on race day, but I guess that's to be expected. My friend and I didn't even attempt to metro back from the Smithsonian stop - we walked all the way to Union Station and hopped on there. Note to self: Walking a mile in the rain after running 10 miles in the rain = not the world's best idea.

Well Piper...I will say that the purple wave seemed like a really fun group....I heard so many funny comments and things throughout the race it really took my mind off of how PO'd I was that I ran so late. In fact at one point about 10 people around me broke out in a spontaneous rendition of Sweet Caroline (Neil Diamond) and had me cracking up! My little group thought about walking to Union Station after the race but decided to stand in the rain in line for getting into the metro at the Smithsonian stop. We were freezing because we were all wet....my hands were so cold that I couldn't get my zipper on my running jacket open to get my metro card out! Congrats on a great race as well...10 miles is a serious distance! Tim