A PR with a Lesson...

Sunday morning came really early.  Hard to believe that I can get up at 4:45 for a race but not to run around my place on weekends.  I headed up to pick up Glen while Becky and Megan were driving to the metro to meet us there.  No problems this morning.  We headed over to the Washington Monument to try and find Gary for a run club picture.  Well looks like his tracking device still works because 30,000 people and we found him.

After that Megan headed for bag check and we secured the line for the bathroom.  Lots more portapotties this year.  The line didn't take that much time and we were all headed for a corral.  Glen was running the 5K since his foot was bothering him and he didn't want to temp the running gods by running 10 miles.  

We made it to the start and I didn't think it was nearly as crowded as it normally was.  I had my lovely homemade arm warmers on.  Which didn't last past mile one.  It was a bit windy and cool this morning.  The cherry blossoms were not yet bloomed.  I feel bad for the people who were in town hoping to see the blossoms during their run.  

I ran with Becky until just after the 5k mark.  She was running really strong.  I was keeping up with her instead of running my own race.  I know I do so much better if I run my own run, but sometimes I just forget.  It was Becky's first 10 miles and she did great!  Because I started out too fast I think I had problems keeping the pace up for the rest of the run.  My legs felt like lead at some points.  Could it be from the lack of sleep the night before?  Could it be that I have just be exhausted all week long?  Who knows.  I do know that I didn't feel this run like I felt the Rock n Roll USA Half run a few weeks ago.  Oh well..never know what you are going to run on race day.  

The miles were going by..I normally run a pretty steady pace, today I felt like the last half I was just dragging..I didn't have the same group of people around me..or I wasn't paying attention to who was running near me..but I just felt like I was running ok then slow and then back to ok pace wise.  I did see the beer and oreo people at mile 8.  They were out of beer and oreos.  lol  I also saw 3 people just bite the dust on the course.  One girl tripped over a garbage bag.  You could hear her hit the pavement.  One of my favorite signs was "Blisters are braille for Awesome!" I did not see the juggler.  I know he irritates me..but I sort of missed him.  

I crossed the finish with a sprint.  I heard someone yell out " way to spint to the end!"  I didn't get my sub 2..but I did knock of 3 mins from my old PR last year.  So hello 2:02  Just wasn't my day for a sub 2 I guess.  

Megan..a.k.a Kristi ran with my friend Kristi's bib since she couldn't make it to the race.  'Kristi" had lots of cheers on the course.

Becky did a great job on her first 10 miler!  She rocked it!  So proud of her!  

We met up with Jeff and Marie afterwards and of course we had to have some french toast.  Nothing says race day more than french toast!  

Who PR'd?  These two girls!!

Cherry Blossom is my least favorite race...this year I think I am ok with the Cherry Blossom.  They had water after I finished.  The bananas were looking good and I didn't have an old lady try to give me a black eye because were were running so close and her elbows were all over the place.  So I think that makes for a good Cherry Blossom.  I will never call it my favorite race, but I will say that I might have just changed my mind a bit about Cherry Blossom 10 miler.  

I"m now questioning if the fast start was the sole reason for my dragging legs for the other 7 miles.  I came home and my stomach has been horrible all afternoon.  Maybe I am just fighting something and today wasn't my day for a sub 2.  But I still got a PR so I will take it :)  

Next up..The Color Run with the nieces...should be fun.