races

Perhaps she was getting her legs back under her, 10 months after having a baby. It might have been the adrenaline that came from not being able to find her bib and almost missing the start. Maybe runners just don’t forget how to race.

Whatever it was, it worked for Lindsay Wilkins, who won the Capitol Hill Classic 10k May 18 in 37:38. Earlier in the year, she had finished third at the Four Courts Four Miler. The race is an annual fundraiser for the Capitol Hill Cluster School and starts and finishes at Stanton Park, after a run out to RKF Stadium on East Capitol Street. The event yielded almost $80,000.

Kaitie Sheedy has run along Rock Creek Parkway alone before. She’s done solo loops of Hains Point. Now she’s done it leading a half marathon.

The D.C. resident won her first major event at the Nike Women’s Half Marathon in 1:20:53.

The George Washington Parkway Classic kicked off its 30th running with a shady 10k before a long, sunny stretch that didn’t slow winner Dereje Deme, whose 49:46 was the first sub-50 time in three years, or Claire Hallissey, who is in the middle of a farewell tour of D.C.’s races.

Though the temperature rose considerably in the latter stages of the race, both winners ran negative splits over the second half of the course, despite a considerable downhill in the first few miles as runners left Mount Vernon for Old Town Alexandria.

As Washington-area residents have learned this year, if you don’t like the weather, wait a while.

[button-red url=”http://www.runwashington.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CB-2014.pdf” target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]A week after sleet, hail and snow pelted anyone who went outside, runners at the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile enjoyed nearly-perfect conditions. The only complaint many had was with the late-looming cherry trees. But that didn’t stop more than 17,747 10-mile runners. The 5k drew 2,143.

Trudging up and down numerous rolling hills isn’t exactly how many of the third annual Run Rogue 5k participants hundreds spend their Sunday mornings. But when it’s for a good cause, like raising money to fight cancer, participants couldn’t have been happier to be spending their morning that way.

More than 350 runners — including three athletes of the wheelchair division — came together on a chilly Sunday morning to conquer the 3.1-mile course in Fairfax Corner and also raise funds for Life with Cancer and Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure.