We are delighted you have chosen to participate in our event — our 10 miler is one of the top road races in the world and our 5K Run-Walk is designed to provide our gentle runners and walkers with an opportunity to participate as well. We are excited about returning to the staging area on the Washington Monument Grounds and our revised course, which features more cherry trees and less congestion than ever before.

On Saturday, the race Expo takes place at the spectacular and historic National Building Museum in downtown Washington, DC. Sunday’s events start and finish on the Washington Monument Grounds. The staging area is nearest the corner of 15th and Constitution Aves., NW. The start and finish are at 15th St. and Jefferson Dr.

New Location for Saturday Packet Pick-up and Expo

The Expo and packet pick-up will take place at the spectacular and historic National Building Museum located at 4th and F Sts. in downtown Washington, DC. The entrance to the museum is directly opposite the Judiciary Square Metro stop (Red Line) and less than half a mile from the Grand Hyatt Washington, our official race headquarters hotel (and an exit from the Gallery Place Metro stop on the Red, Green and Yellow lines). Runners are encouraged to follow the pick-up timetable outlined in this brochure in order to avoid overcrowding.

Earlier Starting Time (7:40 a.m.) and Strict Enforcement of 2 Hour and 20 Minute Time Limit: We are privileged to be able to use the Washington Monument Grounds on the National Mall, perhaps the highest-visibility venue in the world, during the National Cherry Blossom Festival, its busiest time of the year. Our part of the arrangement under which we obtained our permit is that all our runners will be off the course by 10:30 a.m. This means we will start the 10 mile at 7:40 a.m. – 10 minutes earlier than last year – and require any runner who is not maintaining a 14-minute per mile pace to leave the course at the five-mile mark, which is located ¼ mile from the finish line area. We will place barricades across the roadway and entrants will not be allowed to continue. Runners who are under a 14-minute-per mile pace at half way but slow down during the second half of the race will be required to leave the course and board one of our sweep vehicles. The 10-mile race is clearly a “run” and not a walk. Walkers are welcome in our 5K Run-Walk (which has a 65-minute time limit for 3.1 miles or about 20-minutes per mile pace). If you have entered the 10 mile and are uncertain as to whether you can maintain a sub 14-minute per mile pace, we will switch you over to the 5K Run-Walk. Please contact Drew Woodrich at entry@cherryblossom.org so we can make the switch. All 5K Run-Walk participants receive the same amenities as the 10-milers.

In order to eliminate crowding in the early miles, the 10 mile course will be run in the reverse direction than last year. The start and finish lines remain in the same location, but 10 milers will bear right on Independence Ave. about 100 yards after the start and head towards Memorial Bridge and the Kennedy Center turnaround in the early miles. The course will circle Hains Point between miles 6 and 9. The out-and-back 5K Run-Walk course will feature the Memorial Bridge crossing as well this year.

Our staging area is only ¼ mile from the Smithsonian Metro stop (Orange and Blue lines). Use the Mall exit from the station. Once again, Metro will open at 5 a.m. this year in order to allow everyone more time to get to the race site using Metro. We will no longer be running shuttle buses from Metro stops to the race site, or from our official race headquarters hotel, The Grand Hyatt Washington, which is about ½ mile from the staging areas. We encourage everyone to use Metro. Other nearby Metro Stops (for those who might wish to take a short warmup) are the Metro Center stop (Red, Blue and Orange lines - .9 of a mile to the start), the L’Enfant Plaza stop (Green, Yellow, Orange and Blue lines - .8 of a mile to the start) or the Archives/Navy Memorial stop (Yellow and Green lines - .9 of a mile from the start).

Wave Start

The 10 mile will use a wave start once again this year. Runners will be assigned to a color-coded starting corral based on previous race times. Colors on bib numbers will match starting corrals. After our elite, seeded, and sub-seeded runners, there will be five additional waves of approximately 2,500-3,000 runners each. The waves will start at three-minute intervals. This should ease crowding on the course. Runners outside the top 25 males and females will be scored on net times. The waves are as follows:

Yellow corral - The yellow corral will be broken into three sections: The Elite Section is for Elite runners with bib numbers from 1-100, Seeded Sub-section “A” is for seeded runners with yellow bib numbers containing the suffix “A” (101-A, etc.), and Seeded Sub-section B is for seeded runners with yellow bib numbers containing the suffix “B” (401-B, etc..). All three yellow sections will start at the same time.

Please note that for the following corrals, your corral is determined by the color of your bib number not the digits of your number.

Red corral - Runners with red bib numbers are in the second wave

Blue corral – Runners with blue bib numbers are in the third wave

Orange corral – Runners with orange bib numbers are in the fourth wave

Green corral - Runners with green bib numbers are in the fifth wave

Purple corral - Runners with purple bib numbers are in the sixth wave

Please cooperate with race officials by lining up in the proper corral. If you are running with friends or family members who are in different corrals, you may line up in the slowest corral of any member of the group.

Revised Timeline

To accommodate the increased size of the field, the main race will start at 7:40 a.m., ten minutes earlier than last year. Here is the revised timeline.

  7:30 a.m. - Advance start for elite women. This start will be for approximately 30 of our elite and seeded women. This will enable us to showcase the elite women’s competition in a manner that is not possible in a “mixed” race.

  7:39 a.m. – Wheelchair competitors (push-rim only)

  7:40 a.m. - Elite men and first wave start for men and women (additional waves will depart at approximately 3 minute intervals)

  7:55 a.m  - Final wave starts

  8:15 a.m. - 1 Kilometer Kids Run. This will start on the Washington Monument Grounds.

  8:40 a.m. - 5K Run-Walk start. The 5K Run-Walk will start at on Independence Ave. west of the intersection of 15th St. and Independence Ave., SW. The staging area will be located on the Washington Monument Grounds, just north of the starting line, near the Sylvan Theater.