On Sunday, April 3rd I raced the 2011 Cherry Blossom 10 Miler in Washington, DC. My net time was 54:52 and I placed 46th out of 6,972 men. If you were to count women, I was 49th out of 15,968 total runners. Yes, three very fast women beat me.
Instead of a typical race report, I wanted to make this more helpful and talk about some of the successes and failures of the race. This will enable you to get more out of the race report and learn from my mistakes (and wins).
Cherry Blossom starts early at 7:40am so I was up at 5:00 to have breakfast, drink my coffee, and commute to the National Mall starting area. My fiancée Meaghan ran Cherry Blossom two years ago so I knew what to expect: long lines at the bathrooms and all of the congestion of a major marathon. There were nearly 16,000 people racing plus fans, so it was quite the scene on the Mall.
Before we get into the lessons, here are my mile splits:
5:265:31 – windy 5:28 – 17:00 at 5k 5:57 – long 4:51 – short – 27:17 at 5 miles 5:26 5:27 5:31 5:39 5:30 – windy, slight uphill
As you can see, I started to suffer during the last three miles and barely missed setting a personal record. I ran 54:50 a few years ago and was hoping to take that down. Alas, it wasn’t in the cards, but I’m still happy with the effort.
Don’t Take Mile Splits Too Seriously
Mile splits are important and give you a great sense of your effort and whether you’re on track to reach your time goals during a race. But keep in mind that mile markers aren’t always accurate. I ran the 4th mile at Cherry Blossom in 5:57, only to split 4:51 for the 5th mile!
They had a 5k mark slightly after the 3 mile marker, so I’m pretty sure the race officials measured the 4th mile a mile after the 5k point (4.1 miles). It all evened out, but there was a moment of sheer panic as I thought I had blown the race by running a very slow split.
If something like this happens, stay calm! Keep running at the effort you know you should be running and recognize that a mistake was probably made during the marking of the course. No big deal – and this happens a lot more than you think.
Plan Ahead
Taking the metro from Silver Spring to the Smithsonian stop may seem easy, but when your mind is busy thinking about race strategy and focusing on an important upcoming performance you become distracted. I don’t want to admit it, but I got off at the wrong metro stop and had to wait another ten minutes for the next train. Oops!
Lesson learned: plan your commute to the race and don’t wing it when saving time is crucial.
I mentioned the bathroom situation at the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler but let me repeat: it is abysmal. I waited in line for 20 minutes to use the restroom before the race and that caused me to only have time for a short warm-up, a full mile less than I was hoping. I also didn’t have time to run any strides.
Unfortunately, there’s really no way around the lack of bathrooms, but I should have arrived earlier to the race. Take into consideration the wait time of public transportation, potential wrong-turns (or wrong trains), and long lines at the bathroom. It’s better to be early than late.
Stay Calm When Shit Happens
After the first mile, my shins got incredibly sore. I haven’t had shin splints in a very long time so this took me by surprise. I was wearing a pair of CEP compression calf sleeves (full review to come soon), which are admittedly pretty tight on my lower legs, but in the past few weeks I’ve really enjoyed them. I’m unsure if they might have contributed to the shin pain.
The shin splints turned into a dull ache after the third mile; luckily, I kept plugging along and didn’t just give up. At one point the pain was severe but it didn’t last long.
Later in the race after the 7 mile mark my right soleus and upper achilles became very painful. I was in awe at how fast my body was falling apart during the race – as soon as my shins felt a little better, something else started to fail me. Unlike the shins, my soleus pain didn’t dissipate and it became a struggle to continue the pace I was going. Digging deep for a final kick was virtually impossible; the pain prohibited anything resembling a sprint.
Despite all of these setbacks, I tried to remain methodical about hitting my goal mile pace. I was a tad slow, but considering the muscle pains I was satisfied with running only a few seconds slower per mile. It couldn’t have been my racing shoes (ASICS Hyper Speeds) because I’ve worn them for numerous races, workouts, and absolutely love them.
Lesson learned: shit happens in a race. You can’t always race 100% pain free and feel like the Incredible Hulk. Take it in stride (running pun!) and try your damnedest to hit your goal pace.
Run the Tangents
This is road racing 101, but I was in shock at how many runners I saw running the long way on the course. Clearly, this isn’t known by everyone so here’s a reminder: courses are calculated by measuring the tangents. If you don’t cut the tangents, you’re running MORE than the race distance!
If you’re not sure what I mean, this visual helps:
Don’t make racing harder than it has to be: whenever possible, run the shortest along a curved stretch of road.
Recovery is Your #1 Priority Post-Race
When I finished, my legs were trashed. My lower legs, from my shins to both of my soleus’ and calves, were throbbing, tight, and sore. Meaghan was at the finish line, so I got some water and changed back into my Adidas Adizero Mana’s for a 2 mile warm-down. I knew some slow running would help my legs loosen up.
I was probably running really slow but that’s just fine after a race. As soon as I finished I drank some Vitamin Water, had a muffin, and kept moving toward the Metro. I was hoping to stay later but Meaghan was freezing and I knew I needed more substantial food. I had some almonds, a lot of water, and made sure to do a core workout as soon as I got home. Then I had an enormous plate of food.
For more on how to avoid soreness after a race or especially tough workout, check out my post on running recovery. That routine is typically what I’ll do after any long run or hard workout.
Considering my lower leg pain, I’m actually very pleased with this race. Without the tightness and pain, I know that my last few miles would have been a lot faster. I wasn’t aerobically stressed in any way which is a great predictor for the Delaware Marathon next month, where I’m hoping to run just under 3 hours.
I’m glad you read this far, so here’s a special BONUS VIDEO LESSON: How to lose a final sprint.
