Cherry‑blossom events in DC

Washington shut down major downtown roads over the weekend as the National Cherry Blossom Festival parade and the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Mile drew crowds to the capital. (wtop.com) The parade ran on Saturday, April 11, along Constitution Avenue Northwest from 7th Street to 17th Street, with organizers billing it as a 10-block route that started at 11 a.m. and ran about two hours. (nationalcherryblossomfestival.org) The 10-mile race followed on Sunday, April 12, with the Metropolitan Police Department closing roads from about 6 a.m. to noon around the National Mall, Potomac Park, Rock Creek Parkway, Independence Avenue Southwest and Ohio Drive. (mpdc.dc.gov) Mohammed El Youssfi of Morocco won the men’s race in 46:17, and Asayech Ayichew of Ethiopia won the women’s race in 50:37, the second-fastest women’s time in race history. (runningusa.org) The race also doubled as the USA Track and Field National 10 Mile Championships for the fourth straight year. Graydon Morris finished second overall in 46:18 and took the men’s national title, while Emma Grace Hurley finished third overall in 50:42 and won the women’s national title. (runningusa.org) The weekend landed at the end of the 2026 National Cherry Blossom Festival, which ran from March 20 through April 12. This year’s official peak bloom at the Tidal Basin came earlier, on March 26, when the National Park Service said 70% of the Yoshino blossoms were open. (nationalcherryblossomfestival.org, nps.gov) That timing helps explain why the festival’s biggest spectator events now stretch beyond the exact bloom window. The blossoms are the draw, but the parade, street festival and road race keep visitors coming after peak bloom has passed. (nps.gov, wtop.com) The 10-mile race remains one of the festival’s anchor events, with organizers saying top runners were chasing $100,000 in prize money while 20,000 other entrants pursued personal bests from the Washington Monument grounds. (nationalcherryblossomfestival.org) The race has been tied to spring in Washington for decades. Organizers trace the event to 1973, when it began as a Boston Marathon tune-up and later grew into what they call the “Runner’s Rite of Spring.” (runners.quest) By Sunday afternoon, the barricades were coming down and the winners were in. Washington’s annual cherry-blossom finale had again turned flowers, traffic and road racing into the same weekend story. (mpdc.dc.gov, runningusa.org)