10 miles....or How I spent my Sunday morning.

As you may or may not know, the cherry blossoms are in bloom here in DC.  In late March/early April, the cityscape changes to light pink and white and it is absolutely lovely!
In celebration of the floral change, there's an annual race during this time that is so popular, all 15,000 spots have sold out in less than three hours.  THREE HOURS!!  It's so popular in DC, a lottery system had to be instituted in order to be registration more democratic.  People want to run the race because it's absolutely beautiful: running under the trees while in bloom, passing DC landmarks like the Tidal Basin, the Lincoln Memorial, and Washington Monument.

 

You can imagine my surprise when a friend of mine mentioned that she had an extra bib and would I be interested in joining her?  Although I've never run that far (the most I've run is the 10K back in December, and haven't run 6 miles consecutively since then), running a 10-miler (in less than 2 hours!) is on my New Year's Resolutions for 2011.  I said yes.  Despite my having less than 24 hours to wrap my head around it.  Despite my being sore just from a one-hour dance class.  Despite the doubt I felt that my legs could handle such a distance.  I figured I had nothing to lose.  I didn't even run under my name; we missed the window to transfer numbers, so I ran as her co-worker's husband.

 

Well, I did it!  The trick to these things is to start running...and not stop.  I finished the race at an hour, 43 minutes, well under the 2 hour mark I'd hoped.
Seriously, the human body amazes me.
While I enjoy running for itself during the week, running a race is a different experience.  It's such a community experience; there are thousands of other people, not only running with you, but cheering runners on from the side.  It's overwhelming, and more than enough to keep you going.  Great race!  Hopefully I can do it under my own name next time.