Running the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler

I ran the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler race on Sunday. Though I had run a marathon in the fall, I was in no shape to run a 10-mile race. I had problems with my sciatica (self-diagnosed) and have not been running much.  Anyway, I signed up for it months ago and since I already paid (yes, I'm a cheapskate), I ran it.

I did OK, but was about 7 minutes slower than when I ran the same race 2 years ago. My net finish time was 86 minutes and 31 seconds. I was very happy to have finished in under 90 minutes.

I was on the race Web site today and found a slew of stats about the race that I thought I'd share here.

I came in 5,211th of the 16,840 finishers of the race. Not bad for 50. That means I finished ahead of 69 percent of all the racers and ahead of 81 percent of all the women who raced. Of all the racers, 57 percent were women and 43 percent were men.

Among men, I came in 3,401st place with 3,770 finishers behind me. About 47 percent of male finishers were ahead of me. In my division (Men aged 50-54), I came in 195th with 268 finishers behind. About 44 percent of finishers ahead. The winner of my division was Mark Neff, also 50, who ran the race in 57 minutes and 27 seconds.

 

During the second half of the race I passed 157 runners, but 410 runners passed me (bastards!).

 

I averaged about 6.9 miles per hour or 8 minute, 39 second miles during both the first and second half of the race.

 

The winner of the race, a man from Kenya,  fininsed in 45 minutes, 15 seconds, which was a course record. When he was finishing, I wasn't even halfway done yet, because I didn 't cross the start line until more than 4 minutes after the start--there was lots of traffic.

 

The oldest finisher was George Yannakakis, 80, who finished in 90 minutes and 34 seconds--only a few minutes slower than me.  In fact, even if I had been in the men's division for 70 to 74 year olds, and finished with my time, I would have come in fourth. The winner of that division finished in 81 minutes and 11 seconds.

 

I barely beat out to Heide Moebius, 73, the winner of the women's division for 70 to 74 who ran 10 miles in 88 minutes and 54 seconds, and Imme Dyson, 75, the winner of the women's division for 75 to 79, who finished in 93 minutes and 11 seconds.