10 Miles is FAR!!

I did it--I ran 10 miles in under a 14 minute mile pace and avoided the sweeper bus (would take runners to the finish if they could not finish fast enough)!

The weekend started out long.  I drove from my office to my brothers house on Friday to be closer to DC for the weekend.  The 50 minute drive took 2 hours and 25 minutes. I was exhausted, but excited to see the little people (niece and nephews) and it always lifts my heart that they are so excited to see me!

Saturday, I headed into DC to pick up my race packet and expected long lines at the expo.  The only long lines I saw were at the metro to get downtown.  Luckily, I was able to bypass most of the lines, and got into DC relatively easily.  The bib pickup was easy and quick.

Saturday night, I met Kristen to give her the two bibs from friends of mine who were unable to run the race.  It was a brief meeting, as it was late, but she is super sweet and I was glad to meet her after exchanging a lot of emails (and she killed the race!!  Awesome job!!).

I laid out my outfit, pinned on my bib and got ready for bed, where I tossed, and turned and woke up about every hour.  I was soooo nervous.  I woke up at 5 and got ready for the race.  I gave myself some time to dink around, eat a bagel and by 6 I was out the door.

I made it to the race about 20 minutes prior to the start, checked my bag and got into the corral.  And we waited, waited, and waited some more.  I took some pictures, but sadly, my phone met my kitchen sink last night and is dead =( .  Finally, we were off and it just was wonderful.  DC is probably my favorite place in the WORLD and the race took a wonderful route.  I got caught up in all the excitement and started out way too fast (for me) and felt it at the end of a mile.  I slowed down to take it easy, and ran into Kristen at about 2.5 miles.  I let the speed demon take off, ate a few sport beans and kept plugging away, enjoying the scenery and getting compliments on my socks (neon green and yellow knee highs a la TMB), outfit, and was interviewed on video by two guys on a motorcycle (seriously, I was about 5 miles in--what the heck were they thinking?).  Did I mention it was a beautiful day?  Clear, sunny and a comfortable temperature.

Around mile 5, my hip started to bug me.  Not terribly, but consistent, so I took a second to stretch my legs and try and working it out.  After that, I just kept going, with a combination of walking and running, which served me well and the hip well because I noticed it went away at mile 7. The last mile, I tried to push myself hard, even powering up a hill and just going.  I crossed the finish line feeling super proud of myself!

I finished the race at about 2:14...my watch stopped working and I thought I was around 2:05 :(, but no matter---I was still under a 14 minute mile and I did finish, which was important.  Hey, I even PR'ed (even if it was by default since I had no other 10 miler times).  I am super glad I did the race, regardless of how nervous I was and the disappointment I had with my time and recognizing I was not really prepared.  I think that with the Broad Street Run in 4 weeks, I have an idea of how I want to train differently, and I really hope to kill my Cherry Blossom time and get under 2 hours on this race!

Congrats to all the speed demons out there who ran super fast.  I hope to be as speedy as you guys some day!

Today is a rest day; I even took the day off of work!  I am working on stretching; I might taking a light jog and just try to recover.  I am hobbling like an old woman right now, but it was so worth it.  I loved this race, as hard as it was for me.  Its an accomplishment, and it makes me giddy to know I finished!  Now, I am super really motivated to get faster and better!!