CHERRY BLOSSOM TEN MILER
(Washington, D.C.)
The 2002 Cherry Blossom Race on April 7th was a neat experience with
over 7,000 finishers and some awesome runners, both men and women. It is
hard for me to even comprehend how fast some of the men can run. A guy by
the name of Ruben Cheruiyot won the race in 47:13 and the thing that was
amazing was he ran his 7th and 8th mile in 8:58. He ran a 4:27 then a 4:31 I
think they said. Unbelievable! For the ladies, a Romanian woman won in a
time of 52:50. Needless to say I couldn't have even won the women's division.
I ended up in 133rd place running 60 min and 40 seconds. I just missed
both of my goals which was running it under an hour and placing in the top
100. Even though I didn't do that, I know in my heart that it was with the
Lord's help that I was able to run what I did. I kept praying the last 5 miles
for strength and He helped me hold on to finish at a decent pace. The 7th
and 8th miles were really a struggle. I haven't run a race that far in a long
long time and I could definitely tell.
One more interesting thing was in the the last 200 yards or so, Bill
Rodgers passed me and I never could get him back. In the results it said he
is 54 years old now. To think I was that close to beating him and just missed
by about 2 seconds. It even looked like he was running in training shoes
and he was wearing sweat pants also.
He is truly amazing.
<>< Rick Walker