This race always has a nice crowd - lots of supporters, families doing the 1 mile fun run and young runners doing the 5 miler. I had decided to run this race light so shorts, a t-shirt and a light long sleeve shirt. I did keep some light gloves on as when the wind kicked up it was downright bitter.
I got to the event about 15 minutes before the start so I put my coat in my bag and put it away. I headed to the start about 10 minutes before so I could get a spot up front. I kept back 4 or 5 yards to let the real fast guys find a spot but wanted to make sure I did not spend the first 5-6 minutes trying to figure out my way around people who did not understand how to set up a start. I think I planned it perfectly as I only passed a handful of people in the first mile and my net time was only 4 seconds off gun time.
The race itself is great - a nice mile of reasonably flat followed by a couple of hills and then reasonably flat again. I kept a good pace. I was passed by a few people but kept running the race I wanted to run. Over the last 1/4 mile I kicked it a bit and finished strong. The best part was when I crossed the line the spread included lots of water, fruit and Georgetown Cupcakes - YUMMY!
The results - officially 505 runners finished the race and I placed 76th in that lot with a time of 37:31. I have fairly consistently improved my time at this race by about 90 seconds each year. No longer older and wiser but apparently older and faster :-)
In addition to a great personal race the race raised $100k for a Children's Hospital.
It was a great start to the year - next up Cherry Blossom 10 miler in 3 weeks
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