Today I ran the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, a beautiful race along the monuments and the Tidal Bassin, and it went quite well with a 9:06 minute/mile pace.
I wasn't fully prepared for the race, but it went pretty well. Over the past few weeks I've started doing longer training runs, including two 8.5 mile runs, but I hadn't planned on doing a longer race so soon. However, turns out that my employer is a sponsor of the Cherry Blossom race and two weeks ago I signed up. This is actually the longest run I've done in over two years (the Greensboro Cannonball half marathon).
There were around 15,000 participants and the race was very well organized. The start and finish where at the foot of the Washington Monument (which is being repaired from the earthquake damage) and the run was straight through the cherry blossom area. Very pretty.
Opa Jaap left today after a fun month. All four of us really enjoyed the time together and Opa's presence was especially useful in the past 10 days.