I discovered this race back in 2019 serendipitously while shooting cherry blossoms with a friend when I was visiting DC. We were shooting at the Tidal Basin early to avoid crowds when I heard a lot of cheering. Then I saw a throng of people stampeding through the roads and I realized that’s why the roads were closed that morning and why my Uber driver had a hard time trying to find a spot to drop me off. I Googled it and found out that it was an annual run held in DC where you literally run through all the cherry blossom blooms along the trail of the Tidal Basin. I was intrigued. I immediately texted my girl Kerri who always does all the runDisney Princess runs with me and we agreed to sign up the next year. We got in the lottery that December and were all set to run it Spring 2020.
DUN DUN DUN.
And then Covid happened. The race was cancelled pretty much the week after everything shut down around the world that fateful week in March 2020. It was literally 3 weeks til the race and I was pretty sad about it because I was looking forward to it all year after witnessing this phenomenon that spring before.
Fast forward to today. It would be 3 years from when I first stumbled upon and discovered the existence of the cherry blossom before it would return.
But alas! I finally got to run this race, this past Sunday and it was a great experience!
It was definitely different from running a Disney race that’s for sure. It was a different atmosphere, with much more serious runners than I’m used to in the Disney crowd. I’m not exactly sure yet if I enjoyed it or felt too intimidated by it. I definitely felt like I had to push harder and felt compelled to never stop at all during the course, except one time for a much needed sugar pick-me-up when I spotted a free beer and Oreos stand. I grabbed three, scarfed them down and felt so much better. I’ve never experimented with cookies before as one of my race fuels but it really made me feel better and helped recharge me to finish out the last leg of the course.
The sad part is the bloom was very early this year and a few days before this race, a tornado came through and wiped out a bunch of the blossoms so a lot of the trees in the area were looking rather sparse. Most of the course wasn’t very scenic to run through, considering the whole race is themed around literally that; running through cherry blossom blooms. Luckily though, the last 4 miles of the course running through the East Potomac park had a decent amount of trees still in bloom which made for a beautiful trail to run through, especially for the home stretch leg of the race.
Those last miles definitely were eventful though. Between mile 7 and 8 was where everyone’s favorite stop was, the free beer and Oreos stand, which literally had pre-poured cups of beer for everyone and literally trays upon trays of free Oreos in different flavors and everything. These were provided courtesy of a local brewery, which was pretty cool of them to do.
A little after mile 8, though, I witnessed something pretty crazy. I saw a little red medic looking golf cart with the curtains down and saw there was someone in a stretcher inside through the curtain panels. And then a few feet in front of the cart, I realized there was a girl on the ground, her face eggplant purple and medics doing chest compressions (And sadly, this wasn’t the first time I was witnessing this happening. The day before in Capitol Hill, after dinner on our way to the metro to head back for the night, we saw a man on the ground surrounded by EMTs and police with a device administering chest compressions. We found out later the man did not make it when we looked it up later that evening.) The girl looked fairly young too. I was in a bit of shock after seeing that but I had to keep going. There was enough people already around her helping and this didn’t seem like a race you could really stop in without getting trampled because it’s literally full of serious runners compared to my past races. Although I worry that might have been what caused this young girl’s unfortunate situation-being a serious runner and pushing too hard. I hear it all the time.
“Listen to your body.”
“Rest when needed.”
“Slow down.”
And you know for the most part, I’m pretty bad at all that. I worry a lot about overexerting myself. I do try to slow down when I feel like my heart is racing too fast, which happens from time to time, but less frequently ever since I started being more active. I’m always conscious of my cardio health because my mom has a heart condition. One of my friends, who is also a runner, went into tachycardia after finishing his race a few years back, collapsing right next to the medic tent luckily enough and was rushed to the hospital. They did emergency surgery on him and now he has forever has a device implanted in him that will shock his heart back to life if it happens again. To me, these things are very scary and very real especially witnessing what was happening to that girl with my own eyes. It’s a grim reminder I need to take care of myself. I need to listen to my body and its needs. I need to slow down. I need to rest. I need to stop overdoing it and wanting to get too many miles in and causing myself to be prone to injury and then not letting that injury heal before my next big run. I need to stop taking my health for granted. I need to practice more gratitude for what my body can do, for what it allows me to do. For allowing me to move everyday and carry me through so much. As much as I worked on my physical health in the past few years, I need to also work on my mental health and stop thinking negative thoughts about myself. There is still a lot I have to work on, on myself.
But I digress. This race was a rollercoaster of events and emotions. After mile 9, I reached the bend where I had discovered this race all those years ago. There was a HUGE crowd of spectators at this bend, cheering everyone one, firing off confetti sticks, blasting music and pushing us to finish the last mile. It was the push I needed after witnessing mile 8’s incident. I raced through to the finish line and was so happy I finished this. Although I do have to say, this finish line was not as exciting and cool as a runDisney finish line, by far, lol. And the reunion area was much more chaotic. The medals were in an area far from the finish line and it was very odd that you had to pretty much go chase them down. I’m used to Disney where they just hand them to you as soon as you cross that finish line. I swear, I’ve been spoiled by the mouse. It’s true what they say and I can finally attest to it. There’s no race like a runDisney race and now I know why those races cost more and why people keep coming back.
Make no mistake, I still had a great time and would love to come back and run this race again, especially when the blossoms are in peak bloom. Plus DC is just beautiful in general so I enjoy coming back to visit and enjoy the views. There’s still so much I want to see and do in this city, but also still waiting for it to open up so I can do them, like the White House tours, tour of Congress, the many, many great museums and visiting embassies and trying their food. And food, let’s not forget food. I had a great time this weekend trying different restaurants and dessert spots! I walked alongside the Tidal Basin for a photoshoot, then walked from Georgetown to Capitol Hill, on top of the 10 mile run the next day, then limped all over the National Mall for vain medal pics, and then continously tortured my poor legs dragging them all the way to brunch and then the White House, getting in a total of 28.7 miles and 57,324 steps this weekend.
I’m not the fastest runner by far, but I still enjoy getting out there and seeing what I can do, while my body still allows me to do it. Despite feeling intimidated by all the ‘real’ runners this weekend, I still want to continue doing this. It pushes me to keep going and to have fun with it.
I realized how fitting that the race was a cherry blossom run, given this weekend and all I witnessed and experienced. Cherry blossoms are symbolic of spring - a time of renewal and rebirth of everything. But they also represent the fleeting nature of life, and how everything can quickly change, especially since their bloom is so short lived. The race, just like cherry blossoms was eventful with all the things I ran past, symbolic of how life goes up and down so fast you can’t keep up sometimes. But you just have to keep going. It reminds me of the lesson of the cherry blossom in Memoirs of a Geisha.
We must not expect happiness…
it is not something we deserve.
When life goes well, it’s a sudden gift, it cannot last forever.
I learned this weekend that we have to keep moving on, moving forward, but we also have to remember to enjoy life in the present. Don’t live life so fast that you forget to have fun and just enjoy things. Allow yourself to be happy when it does happen.
And as cheesy as it sounds, like my girl Cassey says, find the joy in fitness! My husband has started running with me again for the spring and I can’t even begin to tell you how much joy it brings me. It’s the little things in life, truly.
Up next, two race events in Central Park and then our Bermuda trip at the end of this month!
