Cherry Pit Ten Miler (plus 5K) race report

Someday there will be a race where I will get my Garmin data collected and displayed just right. That day will not be today.

But the good news is that I saved a bunch a money on my car insurance! No, seriously, better than that!

I ran a big 10 mile PR on a very hilly course! Hooray!

1:48:52 watch time (versus my previous PR: 1:53:01 at the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler on this race date two years ago). Yay! I shattered that 11 min/mile barrier!

The Cherry Pit has been a small, local $5.00 club ten-miler held near Annapolis on the same day as the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler in DC, which is a big-time enormous race that sells out every year. But the word has been spreading! This year there were several hundred runners at the Cherry Pit, and the course was one of the most beautiful I've ever run on - the secret is out now! It was a lovely rural backroad race, winding through small suburban farms featuring horses, Angus cattle, and llamas. The weather ended up being just right too - about 50*F and overcast with no wind.

I loved the race and I'll go back again! This time it was also fun because my training buddies David (and his co-worker Janice) and Chuck were out on the course way way ahead of me, and my old friend Jeanne was out there too getting in some long run mileage in preparation for the Flying Pig. I was also glad to finally meet Michael, a runner and blogger from my own town of St. Michaels and the force behind the new Bridge-to-Bridge half marathon!

David and Janice were kind enough to go back out for a 5K jog after the race with me, and even a comfortable 39:15 followup warmdown run to finish off the half marathon distance still gave me my 3rd half marathon in a row under 2:30. Hurrah!!

So the last bar in each chart below actually represents two miles (it somehow stopped taking one-mile splits when I hit the split button at the end of the ten-miler course, which came in at a shade over 10 miles on my Garmin). During the ten-miler my strategy was to keep my heart rate below 165 until the halfway point, and then go for it as hard as I thought I could sustain to the finish line - which seemed to work well!




I also was able to try out one of my new sleeveless jerseys (by Canari) in a running race with minimal extra baggage (just 2 gels in the pockets) and it worked out superbly! I love it! I started out with a technical long-sleeved shirt over the top and gloves, but they were too warm by the 2nd or 3rd mile, even in temperatures in the low 50s. They were missing the final planned water stop, with none after the 5 mile mark, but I just ran hard and skipped my 2nd gel and just worked on getting to the finish line faster. I was sure glad it was no warmer outside!

Three down out of five in my quest to complete five half marathons this spring to celebrate my fiftieth year! In the process I've added the goal of doing them all under 2:30. Fortunately I think the three toughest ones are behind me - the remaining two (Ocean City next Saturday and Bridge-to-Bridge) are quite flat!!

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Final numbers:
1:48:43.52 chip time
10:52 min/mile pace
280th/311 overall
25th/28 women 40-49
Hmm, maybe I should have run Cherry Blossom instead - that same time today would have gotten me a solid midpack finish at 2957/5502 women!

3rd/5 half marathons completed this spring, time 2:27:58