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Reports from
and Reflections on Official Results are available at www.cherryblossom.org Anna Bradford's Odyssey My Cherry Blossom experience was unlike others' who went out to race the
dang thing. I have been mildly sidelined from injury, and haven't put my running shoes on since the marathon 2 weeks ago (they still have those coveted bloodstains from my marathon blisters). My hope was to minimize the obvious damage I was likely to do to my foot by running injured, and to enjoy the beautiful day. I spoke with Maureen Lopina in the potty line and since she's running Boston next week she planned to cruise through an easy 8:45 pace and support a friend in her first 10 mile race. I thought I liked that pace and would stay with Maureen. When the gun went off I was just stepping out of the porta-potty and got to see all those Kenyans dash past as they started. Jumping into the fray, I bumped into Duane Baltz who said he just wanted to beat his time from last year of 83 minutes. I thought I liked that pace, too, and would run with Duane. Well, I didn't stick with either one- too crowded- and had a great time not thinking about time at all. I kept my eye out for the RR friends I knew to look for, ran a short time with Timothy Ettridge who was there supporting a friend, and cheered for Mark Malander and Chuck Moser as they flew by a few steps after the front runners. Along Rock Creek Parkway I kept a watchful eye out for those who were between 1-3 miles ahead of me, and cheered wildly when I spotted them- this became a little exhausting and I was glad when the roads separated so I could back off on this very hard work. After I turned the corner on RCPkwy I figured there would be no one to look for on the other side since I couldn't think of too many people who would actually be behind me. Then I decided I was being too wimpy by not trying to run hard like the other real runners out there and finally started working a bit. I finished in 82:27, right with Maria Nusbaum and Mike Whitlin, and only 20 seconds ahead of Duane. |