April 11, 2010 (Updated February 13, 2023)

Cherry Blossom 10 Miler! (minus the cherry blossoms)

by Anne Mauney, MPH, RD

55 comments

We did it!!!!

cherry blossom 10 miler

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A new race PR: 10 miles in 1:28:27, for an average pace of 8:51! Yay!

The morning started bright and early down at the mall. It was such a beautiful day for a race! Cool, breezy, clear and sunny.

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There were SO many people running this race – it was slightly out of control.

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So out of control, in fact, that we missed our wave’s start time because we were waiting in a HUGE line for the portapotties!! Fail… should have arrived earlier!

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Bah. I figured I’d rather start with a later wave than not be able to go to the bathroom before the race, though!

As a result of starting so late, my running buddy Ashley and I spent the WHOLE race dodging around people since we were in a much slower wave than we should have been. It was super crowded and rather frustrating… we both thought we could have finished with a way better time if this hadn’t happened, but c’est la vie! I’m just happy we beat our Army Ten Miler time of 1:30:01! 🙂

Here are our rough splits from my Garmin watch:

  • Mile 1: 9:00 (it was hard to get moving in the crowd!)
  • Mile 2: 8:36
  • Mile 3: 8:32
  • Mile 4: 8:34
  • Mile 5: 8:54 (walked through the water/gatorade stations)
  • Mile 6: 8:39
  • Mile 7: 8:55 (walked through another water/gatorade station)
  • Mile 8: 8:39
  • Mile 9: 8:41 (hardest mile… getting tired!!)
  • Mile 10: 8:34

My watch actually said we did 10.19 miles, so our splits are a bit off. Not sure if the course was long or if it was due to running on the outside edge of curves trying to pass people for most of the race or what! 

I’m happy to report my knees held up fine — my left knee (the opposite one that I hurt in the fall) was actually feeling really stiff/weird during the end of the race, but it seems okay now. I’m currently icing like a mofo and bought myself a foam roller this afternoon! 🙂

All in all, I’d call this race a big success! Want to know something funny? There were actually no Cherry Blossoms to be seen! Lol. We were all like wait… where did they go!?! Guess they peaked last weekend! 🙂

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Thanks for all your good luck tweets and comments, everyone! 🙂

After the race, I walked over to Clyde’s to meet Sabrina, her husband, and a bunch of their friends for brunch! Yay!

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(Excuse my “I haven’t showered yet” look aka hot mess… haha)

Sabrina was in town from Philly this weekend for the race (congrats again on rocking it girl!) but couldn’t make it to the blogger lunch yesterday, and we really wanted to meet so she invited me to join them today! Brunch was great — nothing like a big awesome meal after a long run. Especially with good company! Meeting up with other bloggers always feels like seeing an old friend 🙂

I ordered the “Eggs Chesapeake,” which was an English muffin topped with two crab cakes and two poached eggs. It was SO amazing. Clyde’s has awesome crab cakes 🙂 I nixed the hollandaise sauce (not a fan) and got fruit instead of potatoes. Mmmm!

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I also got a glass of milk randomly while we were waiting for the food since I was about to die of starvation 😉 The post-race banana and gatorade didn’t cut it!

What a great day! After brunch I picked my brother up from the airport — he’s in town until Tuesday morning so I’m taking tomorrow off work to hang out with him 🙂

I’m feeling accomplished and exhausted. Running that far makes me SO TIRED!!!! Goodnight!!

Breakfast + Brunch Eggs Fish + Seafood
- anne

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55 comments
  • Allie (Live Laugh Eat)
    My parents both ran this race when they were training for the Marine Corps Marathon. It is my goal to someday run this race (maybe next year!? yeah!?). They still have their t-shirts and wear them all the time. My mom JUST had eggs benedict with crab meat this morning....crazy craze deja vu!! GREAT RACE ANNE!!!
    Reply
  • Sana
    Congratsss! You ROCK! Love the shirt! Have fun with your bro!
    Reply
  • RhodeyGirl
    Thanks for the shout out. It was so nice finally meeting you today, and I can't wait to hang out again! Expect my recap tomorrow night... sooo exhausted! :) And I still think it's funny how much bigger my hand is hahahaha
    Reply
    • Anne P
      Great meeting you too, girl! And Lol to my baby hands :)
      Reply
  • Radha
    Congrat Anne! Great post! XO
    Reply
  • Julie @ Wearing Mascara
    OMG the porta potty's last year sucked too! No improvements I see! How annoying but you have a great attitude! Great time and I'm glad you had fun!
    Reply
  • Allie
    great race!! i wore my 2006 cherry blossom T on my run today. if i couldn't be there in person i was in spirit. mmm clydes does have some of the best crabcakes around.
    Reply
  • Runeatrepeat
    Great job!!! I'm sad I didn't run it, but you rocked it out!! And I am recently obsessed with crab cakes and have to try this breakfast! Oh, and you look good post race :)
    Reply
  • Katy ( The Balanced Foodie )
    YAY!!! I'm so excited for you girl! Congrats on the PR!! I want to run a race with you! That's my goal within the next year. ;) Oh and YAY CRAB CAKES!!! I had to. ;)
    Reply
  • katie
    great job!!! thats def something to be proud of! i would be TIRED TOO! get some rest girl!
    Reply
  • Quinn
    AWESOME job! I knew you'd rock it!
    Reply
  • Jessica
    Congrats, Anne!! Awesome job on the PR!
    Reply
  • Heather C
    Congrats!!!! Getting a PR in that mess was Not easy ;) My garmin said 10.10, so you must've done some extra weaving!! gotta love that post-race brunch, you'll have plenty of tasty crabcakes to choose from in Annapolis for the next one :)
    Reply
    • Anne P
      Oh man I know it was crazy!!! That's why I said "race" PR instead of just PR... since our training 10 mile run was actually faster! Oh well, I'm just happy we came in under 1:30 :) Great job to you too girl!
      Reply
  • Lauren
    Congrats Anne!!! I am so proud! I was definitely looking for you in those massive crowds of 25,000 people, LoL because I was thinking about you the entire time. I knew you would rock it!!! :) Such a great weekend and it was such a pleasure to meet you! Hope we can meet up again soon! :)
    Reply
    • Anne P
      Yay! It was so great meeting you girl :)
      Reply
  • Becky
    Congrats on a rockin' race! I can't imagine what it must be like to navigate through that many runners. Great job...time to rest!
    Reply
  • Ashley
    congrats on your race time anne you absolutely killed it! i tried looking for you after the race but couldn't find you with all those thousands of people! Also wish I could have gone to the brunch :( I was right when i thought my friends and I had planned to go to dc during the day on Sat. I was all mixed up for some reason. Sorry and I can't wait for the next dc/va/md meetup! LOVE YA GIRL
    Reply
    • Anne P
      I'm sad we missed you this weekend!! Next time :)
      Reply
  • Jes (Self Motivation)
    Congratulations on the race! I hope your ankle is still feeling alright. It is disappointing that you didn't get to see the cherry blossoms during the race. I had planned to go up to DC specifically to see the cherry blossoms, and we were going to plan it around that race, so it looks like I would have missed them anyway. It's too bad it isn't a little more predictable when they bloom. I'm going to try for it next year. Congrats again! And what great mile times! wow!
    Reply
  • amanda
    Great job on the race. I am so glad I didn't do it with the whole massive crowd and lack of porta potties. I did have a friend down there taking pics of the whole event.
    Reply
  • Heather (Heather's Dish)
    way to go on the race! definitely looks really crowded though - i'm proud that you finished with the time you did! looks like you and Sabrina had a great time together :)
    Reply
  • Katy
    CONGRATS! What a great race...although I feel ya on the lack of bathrooms. I'm am big on superstitions, and if I can't go right before the race, I freak out!
    Reply
  • Olivia
    Ah! I totally thought that was a scoop of ice cream on top of your crab cake and was like, "Clydes! What were you thinking!?". LOL. I love Clydes! Glad you made your PR and enjoyed your race! Too bad about the cherry blossoms though ... I wanted to hit up the festival last weekend and missed it ... again. I'm just up the road in Baltimore, but I've yet to partake in the merriment of the Cherry Blossom Festival. It's hard to plan a trip when Mother Nature is so unpredictable!
    Reply
    • Anne P
      Lol! Ice cream on crabcakes... gross/awesome??? Unclear ;)
      Reply
  • Carla
    Actually there were TONS more porta-potties on the other side of the start, near the finish line tents (another 100 or so). I waited in line a whopping 4 minutes... Learned my lesson from last year, the first porta-potties you see are always the ones with the longest lines, since people see the lines, jump in so they won't miss their chance, but never bother to look if there are other porta-potties in the area. This year, I knew better!
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    • Anne P
      Ughhhh seriously??? I thought I WAS in the shorter line since there was another even longer line for the first row of portapotties I saw and the ones I ended up waiting for were the second group I saw!
      Reply
      • Carla
        The second line of porta-potties (by the finish line tents) were back to back against each other -- the porta-potties facing Constitution Av still had long lines (though not nearly as bad as the ones by 14th street), but the ones on their back, facing the finish line tents, had barely any lines (you couldn't really tell that there were porta-potties on the other side of them, unless you went to check). When we left ours, we told people waiting in those that there were no lines on the other side, so we got the message across to some. Said that, in most races they never have enough porta-potties!
        Reply
  • Meghann
    CONGRATS GIRLY!! And I LOVE the I'm FANNtastic shirt you're rockin!! :)
    Reply
  • Jessica @ The Process of Healing
    Congrats on the run girl!!!!! And I have to say, that brunch looks divine!! I LOVE crab cakes and those look really... crabby haha and not all full of bread and fillers.
    Reply
  • Lauren @ Eat, Drink, and Be Hopeful
    CONGRATS! That is so awesome. I'm so bummed I wasn't able to run it, but I guess there is always next year. It was a gorgeous day for the run. I'm glad you had a great time!
    Reply
  • Evan Thomas
    Congrats on the PR! OK I thought that egg was a scoop of ice cream LOL
    Reply
  • Jess
    Congrats on an awesome race. I thought the course was wayyyy too crowded too and I almost tripped over a lot of people. I think the fact that they only had six waves made it really tough too. I mean there were people in my wave who were wayyy slower than I was and people who were wayyy faster. I think it would have been better if they had broken the waves up better to include more times so that way you could run with people that are going at your own pace.
    Reply
  • Abby
    What a FANNEtastic run!!! And I love your shirt!
    Reply
  • Allyson
    Congrats on your run! What an amazing accomplishment. Even if the organization wasn't the best, you guys totally made the most of it and rocked it out! Congrats again!
    Reply
  • Kris S
    Yaaay! :) PS Milk rules! ;)
    Reply
  • Jackie
    Congratulations! You did awesome. Here I am trying to make it to 5 miles. I did 4.5 today! haha. It's motivating to see you so dedicated though. I'm actually going to try out one of your recipes now. Not sure which one yet...I'll let you know how it goes!
    Reply
    • Anne P
      Please do! :) And great job on your running - keep it up!
      Reply
  • Gena
    Sabrina and Anne -- two of my fave bloggies at one meal! I'm envious I wasn't there. Sounds like a lovely get together :)
    Reply
  • Amy
    I think the course was long! My Garmin said said 10.16 and I didn't think I weaved too much. Those porta-potty lines were outta control! I immediately stopped drinking water when I saw that. And luckily, for once, I didn't need to use the bathroom pre-race! Fun to meet you and everyone else on Saturday!
    Reply
  • Courtney
    Awesome! I want to do this run so bad one day! It's always been on my list of runs I want to do! Congrats! Love the t-shirt!
    Reply
  • Caitlin
    Daaaang lady you are like lightning! Awesome job on the PR and rockin that shirt - it TOTALLY makes the whole post :)
    Reply
  • Aurora
    Great job! My Garmin said I ran 10.09 instead of 10 and I really think it's due to weaving in and out of people. You end up taking more steps, and wasting more seconds. But I guess that's the fun part of racing! Glad you had a good run.
    Reply
  • Nicole @ Geek Turned Athlete
    You are the shiznit! Good job, lady! I love running in D.C., and I'm glad the weather cooperated! You worked hard for this, and you totally deserved it!
    Reply