This week, we found out that we won the lottery to run in the 2019 Cherry Blossom 10 mile run in April! Nathan, myself, and my parents all entered into the lottery together as a group so that either all of us got in, or none of us. I’m pretty stoked to do it again this year! 

Last year, Nate and I ran it because one of my coworkers and her friend had signed up for the race, but were no longer able to make it so she gave us her bib numbers. It was shortly after I had ran the half marathon in Disney world when she asked me if we wanted the bibs, and I was coming off a long race high, so of course I wanted to do another long race! I bought her friend’s bib off of her about a month or so before the race, and Nathan didn’t get his bib until the week of the race, but luckily he had been going on all of the long runs with me while were training so he was plenty prepared for the race. 

This year, I am going to let Nathan run it at his own pace and I’ll run it at mine. I made the mistake last year of trying to keep up with him, and Nathan is a much better runner than I am. I completely died around mile 7 and even though I didn’t stop, I slowed down enough where there were probably walkers going faster than me. I told Nathan to go on without me, but he decided to stick with me until we were half a mile from the finish where he said he wanted to sprint in. I picked up the pace a little and managed to finish only a minute after he did. Nate finished with a 1:38, and I finished in 1:39.

I would love to beat that time this year, but need to do a much better job of pacing myself out! As soon as I finished the race last year I was puking left and right and couldn’t stop, and eventually Nate had me go to the medic tent where I got some fluids. I was miserable for the rest of the day, and definitely don’t want to feel that again, so this year I will go MY pace to avoid looking like this again!  

One issue that my dad and I have been facing for a few weeks now though, are foot problems. I’ve been dealing with some tendinitis in my foot, and my dad recently found out he has a stress fracture in his heel. Both of us haven’t been able to run for a few weeks, and it’s probably much harder on my dad than me! I’d rather swim anyway 😉 BUT now that I have this race coming up in a few months, I’m praying my foot will stop hurting soon so that I can get back to running and get back in shape for those long races. I know my dad is chomping at the bit to get back out running too. 

Here’s to hoping we can get better soon and get back out there to get ready for the Cherry Blossom 10 miler in April!! 

Until Next Time 🙂 

Megan Reiffenberger