How was everyone's weekend?
Mine was jam-packed, a lot of fun but way too short. I kicked off the weekend Friday by volunteering at the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Miler Health and Fitness Expo. I love running races, so I try to volunteer at a couple races each year to give back to the sport I love. I felt like I had really slacked off this year, so I was super excited when I took one of the last volunteer spots about a month ago.
Friday evening I spent a few hours helping all my fellow female runners decide which premium shirt size fit best. Trust me it’s a BIG decision and obviously a very important job! I also met a lot of great people. All-in-all it was a great way to spend a Friday evening.
Saturday, I spent the day with my friend Lauren. We caught an early showing of The Hunger Game movie. As I have said before, I liked the movie but had a very hard time separating it from the book. This second viewing reinforced that I think they did a great job with the movie. Now that I know what was coming, when and how they were going to change the book to make it translate into film, I really like the film. I think I was almost in fan shock after the first viewing. This second time, I was able to put the book aside aside and enjoy the movie for what it is. Now I am a fan of the movie!
After the movie, we refueled at Moe's before SHOPPING, and shop we did. We hit up several stores for a wide array of clothing, groceries, household items and wedding crafts. Overall, I probably spent WAAY too much money but didn't buy too many unnecessary things. Ok, the magenta pants were probably unnecessary... but now I'll stand out at my Bachelorette party later this month ;)
Sunday, I ran the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Miler. This is one of my favorite DC races. You get a great view of many of the monuments without committing to too long of a distance. Unlike last year, there were no pretty Cherry Blossom blooms during the race, but the monuments made up for that.
From a time perspective, I did well, beating my previous 10 mile PR (1:31:51) from this race last year by 9 seconds (1:31:42). But, unfortunately this race had a few issues.
The first issue was the corral system. I was placed in a corral further back than last year. This surprised me considering I gave them similar times. The later corral resulted in me running past many many runners for almost the entire race. I think once I reached mile 8, I started to find other runners who were running the same pace as I was. I think the corral system could be fixed if the corrals were smaller and released at 2 to 3 minute intervals.
I am not sure if it was the corralling or the overall fullness of the race, but my other major complaint was the shear number of people. I spent the entire race playing people dodge and jumping on the curb (i.e. almost spraining my ankle).
Aside from those two things my last complaint is very minor and probably only irritated me because I forgot my watch at home. The start clock and mile one clock were not in sync (or I can run a 1 minute mile on a really crowded course). The mile markers past mile 1 seemed to make sense with what mile 1 was doing. This meant I had a pretty good idea of where I was time-wise on the course except for the first mile. When I crossed the finish line I knew from the clock that I had beat my previous PR (1:31:51) but I wasn't sure if it was by 1 or 10 minutes, little did I know it was actually by seconds (1:31:42)!
From a physical and mental perspective, I was prepared for this race. I felt good running and was glad I got up and went for it. Even though this race had issues this year, I am definitely going to try and run it again next year. You really can't beat the mostly flat course and beautiful sites!!
And now I have another pretty medal on my wall :) I had to buy it after regretting not getting last years!!
