Cherry Blossom 10 Miler

My dearest friend joined me on an adventure into DC to pick up my race packet for the Cherry Blossom 10 miler. The expo was in an amazingly beautiful building!

The kids did great and we were in and out in no time. To make our trip worthwhile we spent the day downtown walking around and checking out the cherry blossoms (not quite open yet).

 The bestest friend a girl could ask for and her little angel

 Cherry blossoms not quite open, but still pretty

 Eating pb&j while watching paddle boats on the water.

 

The actual Cherry Blossom 10 miler race was good. I was very fortunate to meet up with the same girl I ran the Rock 'n Roll half with along with two other girls from her running group. The four or us ran the whole thing together. It was a slower pace then I normally do, but it was great to have people to talk to the whole time.
Here I am at the start of the race

 and 3 of the 4 of us taking a photo op during the run (the one in the middle is the same girl I ran the Rock 'n Roll half with, the other girl is her sister-in-law). There was actually someone standing there taking photos so we asked her to take one of the four of us and she said she'd rather be running and took off. Um, okay! We all got a huge chuckle out of that...silly woman. It's not like we stopped someone who was already running. People can be so funny.

 The course was absolutely beautiful. I would love to do this one again if I could. I spent a little extra money and got the medal and tech shirt - mostly because it's a once in a lifetime run. It's done by lottery and we are moving later this year; that and I love me some swag!! I'm so very happy I was able to do this run and that I met these amazing ladies to run the race beside.
My only complaint was the lack of port-a-potties along the course. I, of course, had to pee about a mile into the race. The first 3 sets of potties we came on had only one or two and a line at each one. At mile 5 we saw a ton of them off the course (about .1 distance or so, not far at all), so we veered off (I wasn't the only one who had to pee!) and used those. They were clean and they had lots of them. I'm not sure if they were part of the course or not, but we were happy to have found them. The water stations were nice. I would've liked some GU at this one too, but they just had water and Gatorade. I did have a GU packet that I got in the mail from the Zooma race I'm doing in June, so I used that one. I like GU for long distances. It works out great for me. I tried those shot blocks and gagged on those things; however GU and I are a perfect combo! lol
Here are some photos from the end of the race. Jump shot!

 One more group shot. Far left in purple is Jennifer who I do my long runs with, then Kerri (the 4th girl that I ran with), Jenni, me, Ivana, and Heather.