Rain does a blossom good

A cold, grey, rainy day dawned over this morning's Cherry Blossom 10 mile race. The sort of weather that's good for either sleeping, or running 10 miles with 12,000 other people. Randomly, while waiting for a cab-a wait that might have been interminable-my roommate and I, standing outside wearing trash bags, were offered a ride to the start in a green Honda Element. Good start to the day.

The race, which is huge with 12K entrants, started slowly. A lot of congestion for the first four miles at least, but it began to thin out. I didn't expect to do go particularly hard at any point after yesterday's significant volume, but I was feeling relatively good midway through so I started to move my way up. By mile six I knew I was in good shape and at mile seven I made a determined effort to finish hard. A Gu before mile eight and I was off to the races. At the final 800 meters I picked it up and sprinted at least the last two hundred to the finish. I think there's a school of thought that says if you can sprint to the finish you went to easy throughout the race. I suppose that could be true, but I would like to think that I ran a thoughtful race. Besides, I love passing hundreds of people in the last few hundred yards. It totally livens up the crowd.

Here's the track for the race.

Next up, Kinetic 70.3 in two weeks.