It's a war out there!

Weather conditions for the Battle of the Boulevards 10K in Arlington were not favorable for the spectators but I actually kind of liked it. It was a cool morning and a light rain fell throughout the race. I went back and forth before the race on if I should wear a jacket. My teeth were chattering as I waited for the start so that decided it for me. I had plenty of time to get my NY marathon jacket out of the car since the start was delayed by about 10 minutes.

I ran the inaugural "Boulevards" last year. Until then, I had absolutely no idea how much of an elevation change there is between Rosslyn and Ballston. It's huge! The first 1/3 of the race is all downhill. I remember looking at my watch at the 1 mile mark last year and being shocked by how fast I was moving. The middle section of that course between Arlington National Cemetary and the Potomac levels out but there are no fans there so its pretty boring. What goes down must go up so that last 1/3 of the race feels like you are climbing a mountain...maybe because you are.

I REALLY struggled with the 2nd half of this race last year so I kept telling myself to slow down throughout the first half of this race. I obviously accomplished my goal because I was only in front of a few people at the 5K mark. Barry Goldmeier, our local joggler, passed me just as I got to the turn. Man, I hate it when he passes me. I know he's faster than me but...he's juggling 4 balls for Gosh sake! I really should be able to at least run with him.

The rain had eased at this point and I had warmed up so I, like many other runners, shed my jacket and tied it around my waste. It was time for the uphill climb and I didn't need to sweat anymore than I needed to.

I passed a few people during the 2nd half of the race...always a good sign for me. Unlike last year, I was actually able to run portions of the uphill...though for most of the hill I just tried to walk quickly.

There was a 64 year old gentleman by the name of Mark Farber that passed me at about 2 1/2 miles and that I stayed pretty even with as we approached Ballston. Unfortunately, I let him get a little too far in front of me on the hills and he beat me by 9 seconds. He beat me 8 seconds using teh chip time meaning he and I ran pretty much beside one another for the entire 6.2 miles. Pretty cool.

As we approached the finish a woman by the name of Roya Talezadeh decided she wanted to beat me to the finish. I wasn't going to have any of that so I shifted into another gear. She then found another gear and got ahead of me again. I found some last reserves and accelerated one last time. We both finished with the same clock time (1:21:04). However, my chip time was more than a minute faster than her so I came in 1461st out of 1477 finishers. My chip time was 1:19:39...which was actually faster than last year (though it was much warmer last year). I'm starting to think I might be getting closer to my fitness level from last year.

Notable finishers in this race were:
Steve Crane 31:45 (male winner)
Caroline White 37:49 (female winner)
Michael Wardian 32:41 (extraordinary ultra distance runner)
Jay Jacob Wind 44:41 (former DE marathon winner and great guy)
Lou Shapiro 44:51 (66 years old!)
Karen Young 47:26 (50+ runner)
Jim Scarborough 49:07
Barry Goldmeier 1:16:11 (the joggler)