Cherry Blossom 10-Miler
Start time: 4/1/07, 8:00am
Location: Washington DC
Distance: 10 miles
Finishing time: 1:26:09
Average pace: 8:37min/mile
Category Archives: 10mi
Desperately Seeking Negative Split
Start time: 12/23/06, 8:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 5 miles & 5 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 4:1/3:1 & 7:1
Average pace: 11:13min/mile & 9:20min/mile
I headed out this morning for another round with my 2005 group; the plan was I’d run five miles out with Carla, Chanty, and Randy, before taking the second five miles back by myself at a faster pace. The way out was a nice warm-up, although Carla hadn’t been able to run for a couple of weeks and was definitely feeling it. She and Chanty decided to slow down for the last mile before we split off (a little early, in fact), which was fine by me. Randy offered to run back with me, so we started getting rolling but a little slowly; a 9:53, and then (yikes) a 10:38. The nice thing is that we automatically picked it up at that point without having to say anything, pushing up to a 9:22 and then deciding to take the next mile even faster: a 7:43. The last mile was a 9:04 (Randy was feeling the burn) which was still a good way to end the run.
And then, having gone crazy, Randy and our friend Katie (who had run with Julie) decided that since it was “red and black” day the three of us should pose for a picture. And that picture involved a human pyramid of sorts.
No, I don’t get it either. And yet this is why I must run with them! You never know why you’re going to otherwise miss out on a pyramid making session.
Oh yes, and lest I forget… no knee strap, no pain. I’ll keep one in my water belt for a couple of months just to be certain, but I think (knock on wood) that my knee strap days are finally over.
Taking it nice and easy
Start time: 12/16/06, 8:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 10 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 4:1
Average pace: 10:50min/mile
This Saturday I ran with some of my old running group from 2005: Ali, Chanty, and Randy. They were planning on running a 10-miler at their 11min/mile pace, and with coming off of a cold this sounded perfect to me; get the distance in but also not kill myself by jumping right back to my old speed like I did on Tuesday. It worked like a charm; it was super-comfortable to run at the reduced pace with them, and at the end I felt like I was getting back into the swing of things. We’ll see how Tuesday’s run in Clarendon pans out, mind you.
(Craig was knocking out a long run before the Disney Marathon at a 9:30 pace and it was awfully tempting to try and run part of it with him, but I knew better. Maybe next week when he’s got a shorter distance and I’m back up to speed, though.)
Backdated Entry…
Start time: 11/05/06, 8:00am
Location: Downtown Washington DC
Distance: 10 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 9:30min/mile
Oops! I forgot to put this entry in. (Fortunately I can backdate it. But it’s really five days later.) A nice 10-miler with me, Tod, and Stephanie. Great cool weather, great company… taper taper taper!
Close enough
Start time: 10/22/06, 8:00am
Location: Downtown Washington DC
Distance: 10 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 9:48min/mile
Ok, it was actually (according to the Gmaps Pedometer) a 9.85 mile run. Close enough for government work, that’s what I say. It was a nice run today; a little slow at first as Stephanie, Tod, and I got our frozen muscles to start moving (another cold cold day), but by the end we were definitely zipping along. Definitely a good day for running once you really get going. Meanwhile, Emma and Site Assistant Stephanie are off in Chicago getting buffeted by 14mph winds as they run the Chicago Marathon. Oh, and there’s a chance of snow. Yikes.
Bundle up!
Start time: 10/15/06, 8:00am
Location: Downtown Washington DC
Distance: 10 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 9:30min/mile
Sunday was a 10-mile recovery run, just me and Stephanie again. It was almost ideal weather for running, though. Nice and cool, in the mid-40s. Two layers on top and a pair of shorts and I was good to go. This is a big deal because this is in theory the weather we’ll be having in Florence for the marathon so it’s good to know that this is just what I should be wearing. (Other than that, nothing really to report!)
There’s no place like home
Start time: 07/29/06, 7:00am
Location: Downtown Washington DC
Distance: 10 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 7:1, then 6:1
Average pace: 9:30min/mile
I ran with the Saturday group this morning and… phew! Apparently there really is no place like home. One big problem was that the 9:00 group is really small, so the two groups apparently merge on a regular basis. The problem was, in the words of the coach at the site, “That group really runs between an 8:30 and 9:00 pace.” Turns out there’s someone else normally there that sort of takes the 9:30 part of the group under her wing, but wasn’t there. Yay. The good news is that Katie (from last Sunday) was there so the two of us ran together. The group was fast out of the gate and about two-and-a-half miles in we gave up on keeping up with them. So we had a perfectly good run together, although by the end I felt a little queasy and dehydrated; a combination of a Paula-Radcliffe-esque need for a bathroom break (thankfully unlike everyone’s favorite winner of the London Marathon, I hung onto my decorum for the last mile) and perhaps eating a little too much cookie dough while baking last night. Oops.
On the bright side, we’d been zooming enough at the beginning that even with slowing down a tiny bit for the end stretch, still a solid 9:30 pace. (And ultimately it was just an extra two minutes of walking at one point, and another brief walk break when I sucked down water into my windpipe. Whoops.) Very, very, very nice people at the Saturday site, but I think despite Sundays being just me and Stephanie most of the time I’ll take that. Definitely.
A thoroughly pleasant Cherry Blossom 10-miler
Start time: 04/02/06, 8:00am
Location: Washington DC
Distance: 10 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Finishing time: 1:32:38
Average pace: 9:16min/mile
I must admit that I had my doubts going into this race. Were my muscles really up to speed? Had my lack of sleep the past couple of nights (coupled with the return of Daylight Saving Time) doomed me? What about the dehydration that had happened all through Saturday thanks to something I ate clearly not agreeing with me? And what about Naomi?
Regardless of my doubts, I of course still ran the race. I met up at the Foggy Bottom metro station with Julie, Ali, Alma, Craig, John, Katie, Mark, Marty, and Randy and we all headed down to the race. Despite half of our group needing to use the port-o-potties, we still made into the corrals (and fortunately Ali, John, and Katie were all able to start with us despite being in a different corral; we went towards the back and they went towards the front) and were off before we knew it. Alma and Marty took off and were going to run the whole thing straight through; knowing that I’d poop out partway through I was more than a bit jealous!
Before too long it was just me, Craig, John, Katie, and Randy hoofing it together. The weather was gorgeous, though, and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. So rare considering the past two years the race has been sub-Arctic complete with icy cold winds, and the blossoms have long since departed. My watch said 59:01 as I went over the 10K marker, which I was less than thrilled about, since my 10K PR from last May was a minute faster and I figured I’d have a faster pace for this race. It didn’t dissuade me, though, and our run through Rock Creek Park was great since its out-and-back means we can see other people ahead and behind us. I passed my friend Cal right at the turn-around, and we began the trek back towards the finish line.
Somewhere around mile 8.5, Katie took off (and power to her!), even as I was losing speed and John was nowhere to be found. I focused on my final walk break with the knowledge that I had just 1.5 miles to go, and tried to keep up with Randy and Craig. The two of them began to slip away from me around mile 9.5, and it took every ounce of energy I had left to “rubber band” off of Craig even as Randy continued to pull ahead. I barely passed Craig about 100 feet before the finish line, but Randy had already crossed over. My finishing time was a 1:32:38 which gave me a 9:16min/mile, faster than the Half Marathon. That made me super happy. The splits were slightly more erratic this time (9:44, 9:20, 10:00, 9:08, 9:30, 9:23, 9:23, 8:52, 9:16, 7:56) and I have no idea what the heck happened at mile 3, but all in all, a very good race indeed, smashing last year’s time of 1:49:02.
Phew! I’m glad I’ve got no more short races in April, though. (Just two more in May—a 5K and a 10K—and that’s it for the spring season!)
Oh, and my statistics for the Cherry Blossom (and its ludicrous “20-39” age group):
2004: 2235/2242 (99th percentile)
2005: 2132/2290 (93rd percentile)
2006: 1955/2873 (68th percentile)
EDIT: Although bizarrely, there’s also a listing if I go to RunWashington.com for a 30-34 grouping, but not if I go to the Cherry Blossom site. I guess Cherry Blossom doesn’t believe in those stats even though they were provided. For my amusement and records, though, it was 585/871 (67th percentile). Heh.
“Blow, blow, thou winter wind…”
Start time: 03/18/06, 8:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 10 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 10:24min/mile
That felt really, really good. It’d been a while since I’d done a double-digit distance (the last was… um… February 11th!) and it’s nice to know that it’s still a good process. I ran the first six with Julie and Randy, and a groove was settled into quickly while we chatted away with Randy about this and that, just catching up in general. (10:15, 10:30, 10:41, 11:03, 10:47, 10:52.) We did all of today’s at a 5:1 (instead of a 6:1) because that’s what Randy’s been training at, so it was interesting to be back at last season’s ratio and pace.
We dropped Julie off at that point and knocked out four more miles; no new ratio, but just naturally a bit faster without consciously trying (9:59, 10:05, 9:49, 10:00). Amusingly our finishing time was 1:44:06, which was faster than I raced the Cherry Blossom 10-miler last year. So that bodes really well.
I must say, though, it is awfully windy out today! (Hopefully this means we won’t have these winds still in two weeks time… yeah right.) Both Randy and I towards the end at different points had our hats blown clean off of our heads… brrrrr. Time for a nice hot shower!
Finally, double-digits again.
Start time: 02/05/06, 9:30am
Location: Rock Creek Park
Distance: 10.5 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 10:30min/mile???
I went running with Tod and Doug this morning; it was a cold, sort of blustery sort of day at times, but I couldn’t beat the company or the scenery of Rock Creek Park. The only real downside was that early on we ended up going through a flooded section of a running trail, which resulted in mud and water going into my shoes. Ugh. Even better, I’m pretty sure it was what caused the blister on the bottom of my foot that made the last miles a bit… less than pleasurable in places. Due to one or two stops we didn’t get an accurate time for our actual running, so the pace is a guess. We may very well have had a better pace going on, but better over than under for my records.