April Races

3/10/11

7 miles tempo

1:02

8:51 avg pace

1 mile warm-up, 5 miles at 8:41 (~ goal marathon pace), 1 mile cool-down.  Done on the dreaded treadmill.  Ugh.  Each week I say no more treadmill and then the rain forces me inside.

Onto fun stuff…I have 2 races coming up in April!  I haven’t raced since the Philly Half Marathon last November so I’m looking forward to it.  And it’ll be good prep for the NJ Marathon on May 1.

Cherry Blossom 10-Miler – April 3
So excited about this race!  This has been on my “races to do” list for a long time.  I love 10-milers because you can run faster than half marathon pace but not all out (and I hate to run all out, hence no 5 or 10Ks for me).  I usually do the Broad Street Run here in Philly (a very popular 10-miler – super flat and fast) but this year it’s the same day as my marathon.  Bummer.  So the Cherry Blossom is filling my need for a 10-mile race this Spring.

The race uses a lottery system for entry, so I was very lucky to get in on my first try.  I love running DC races.  Matt and I lived there for 3 years after college and it’s where I began running.  I could run the Marine Corps Marathon every year and never get bored.

My PR for the 10-miler is 1:23.  I think I can beat that on April 3 🙂  Fingers crossed!

Penn Relays Distance Classic 20K – April 17
I ran this race back in 2009.  This race is pretty interesting.  They don’t promote it so you don’t receive any reminder emails about next year’s race.  Trying to find the active.com site to sign-up is difficult.  Back in 2009, less than 200 people actually ran the race.  It’s supposed to kick-off the Penn Relays but I wouldn’t call it much of a kick-off!  Do I love it?  Absolutely!  The race starts and ends at Franklin Field, on the University of Pennsylvania’s campus.  Since it’s such a small size, the race director literally yells for everyone to gather on the street (there are no seeds) and yells go!  No fuss whatsoever.

Funny but true story…since there are so few runners, you can imagine that everyone gets pretty spread out by the end of the race.  I was coming back through Penn’s campus (towards the finish at Franklin Field) and I was following a girl up ahead of me.  She was pretty far ahead and turned so she was no longer in my view.  When I eventually got to the turn she was no where to be found.  Uh oh.  I wasn’t sure which way the race went but I knew the general direction.  I asked a Penn security guard if he saw any runners with bibs go by.  He looked at me like I had 10 heads.  Not so helpful.  So I went in the general direction back to Franklin Field.  I have no idea if I remained on the race course or not.  Can you imagine being completely alone during a race?!?!

My friend Jimmy also ran the race that year.  He almost got lost but was smart enough to pick up his pace so he had someone in front of him to follow.  He is running the race this year too.  We are both writing down the last few turns of the race just in case…

Two weeks after this race is my marathon so I decided to not race the Distance Classic.  I’m going to use this race as a marathon-paced run.  I don’t want to risk going all out 2 weeks before the marathon (especially since this race is only 2 weeks after the Cherry Blossom 10-miler).  Call me conservative but I wouldn’t want to jeopardize the marathon that I worked so long and hard for.

Phew…long-winded race explanations, huh?  I must be excited 🙂