Cherry Blossom Ten Miler

Last spring, at the end of April/beginning of May, I decided to start running. I did Couch To 5k using the excellent podcasts from Robert Ullreys. My first race ever was a 5k last fall, the College Park Cares 5k. I finished in 27:45 gun time, but the start was a mess so I was probably a bit faster. I really need to dig up the photos from the race, but darned if I can find them.

Fast forward to this Sunday when I ran my second race, the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler. This was a rather huge step up. I’ve had IT Band problems since the beginning of March, and didn’t run nearly enough during the winter (those two facts are certainly related). I was rather nervous about the race before hand. My Forerunner 305 was saying my HR was 121 just standing in the starting area, waiting. However, I finished! My knee was fine for most of the run, I had a little left to push that last mile, and did it in 1:47:15, or 10:44 per mile. Not particularly good, but I did it. I tracked it with the Forerunner, and shittier runkeeper.

Me crossing the finish line, finally! The image is from marathonfoto.com, which seems to be incredibly overpriced and poorly made.

I still don’t know if I actually enjoy the running, but it’s convenient. It’s fun at times, and I mostly enjoy being active. It’s flexible, I can do it in the city with very minimal equipment. No bike to store, etc. I also enjoy the goal of having a race to work toward and keep me focused, I’ll need to find another. I think I’m going to start doing more interval training, maybe 20 minutes with 5-10 cycles of sprinting, with jogging between. Mix in a longer run on the weekend and it seems like a reasonable approach.