Cherry Blossom 10 Miler

As the 2nd of 3 big races I'm running this spring, I'll just say this one wasn't too bad. Not freezing like the Shamrock Half and not as hot as it looks like the Nike Half is going to be, it was, as in Goldilocks and the Three Bears "just right". Granted, I didn't train for this one either, at least I could keep telling myself at various mile markers, "well at least its not X+3.1 more miles." I wont be able to do that in 2 weeks when I run my last half. I signed up as a team and got some other D.C. Phi Mu girls to run the race too!

I do really enjoy running this particular race. Its is my second year running it, and even though I finished about 6 minutes slower this year, all in all, it wasn't too bad. As always, I had commentary running through my head. Never a race goes by that I'm not complaining in my head about this or that. But it did help to have lots of spectators cheering everyone on and having the funniest signs I've ever seen, e.g., "Only 9.5 miles to go"(at the .5 mile mark), "Holler if you're not wearing underpants". I love when spectators make it fun!

And then we followed it up with a boozy brunch at my favorite place with my favorite people!

Race day packet pick up was in the National Building Museum

My bib and corral

Of course I had to carbo-load the night before. The BF and I tried out a new FANTASTIC restaurant called Pupatella. It's in a random shopping center a little past Ballston. The pizza was amazing, well mine was more so than the BFs. I got the meatball pizza and it literally melted in my mouth!

You can see the scaffolding they are putting up in order to fix the cracks from the earth quake back in 2011. I hope they fix it and deem it safe again because I've always wanted to go to the top but never got a chance and they closed the monument after it sustained $15 million dollars worth of damage. Hopefully it will re-open in 2014.

Betsy and I before the race

Miracle of miracles, we finished.