A Little Ten Mile Run Along the Potomac.

A Challenge Accepted-and the Winner is...A.

Yesterday was the George Washington Parkway Classic 10-Mile Race in Alexandria. My friend A challenged me to beat her Cherry Blossom time of 1:15:46 (7:35). I knew it would be hard to beat. (A and her fast friend B after A ran a 1:15 at this year's Cherry Blossom. B ran a 1:03. Why don't either of them look tired?)

Here were my splits. Mile One-6:54 (6:54) Mile Two-7:27 (14:22) Mile Three-7:35 (21:57) Mile Four-7:56 (29:53) Mile Five-7:38 (37:32) Mile Six-7:35 (45:07) Mile Seven-7:47 (52:55) Mile Eight-7:37 (1:00:32) Mile Nine-8:05 (1:08:37) Mile Ten-7:32 (1:16:12).

Long story short–I was undone by my disastrous eight-minute-plus ninth mile, which had two hills and during which I had an encounter with a car that brought me to a momentary halt. I finished in 1:16:05 (7:37). Congratulations, A, the excellent standard you set was just too tough for me yesterday and I fell short by less than twenty seconds. I tried all race, but I lacked two beats per mile.

Perhaps I’ll post a race report later. Post race notes:

(Nice try but... when I finished I needed for the overhead clock to read 1:15, not 1:16 if I was gonna beat A's time.)

MP 3. 21:57 (7:19). I beat my PR of 22:09 (7:23) at the 3 mile distance, set at last May’s Capital Challenge 3-Mile Race. This augers well for the same race next week when I again run on my agency’s team in competition with other teams in the Executive Branch (the brochure explains that this race is so old, 26 years, that it pre-dates the contemporary 5K "standard"). My goal next week, besides finishing ahead of A who is also on the team, is to break 22 minutes. (Three fifths of my agency's team at last year's Capital Challenge 3-Mile Race. Left to right, A (22:04), M ( 21:22), G (19:14). Yeah, that's right, they were all faster than me.)

MP 7. 52:55 (7:34). I beat my PR at the 7 mile distance of 54:17 (7:45), set last June at the Survivor Seven Inner Harbor 7-Miler in Baltimore, an absolutely gorgeous race.

MP 8. 1:00:32 (7:34). I have always wanted to run an eight mile race. There are a few around. Now I see that I could break one hour for the distance, maybe. Up until a couple of years ago, before I got into group running, I couldn’t even do a 12K (7.456 miles) in under one hour.

MP 10. 1:16:05 (7:37) is my second best 10-mile time, out of eight races. My PR is 1:14:34 (7:27) set at last year’s Army 10-Miler. My least fastest time is the 1:29:57 (9:00) I posted at my first 10-Miler, the 2002 Cherry Blossom. I still remember how hard I ran that last 200 meters trying to break 1:30.

A few posts ago I told you about M, who is really cool and did a handstand at the finish line at last year’s Army. She took second in her age group at the event's 5K race. (M in red with black tights doing a 1:21 at Cherry Blossom.)

Bex met her New Balance PR Challenge and PR’d by around eight minutes. I think she gets new shoes for life or something on account of it. I know she got a nice jacket out of it already.

Jeanne, just back from Boston, was taking pictures for the local running paper. She is looking forward to a return to running soon after a layoff.

(Bex in her nice new jacket and Jeanne after the race.)