Race report: The Philly 10k
This wasn't an A race, or even a B race for me, really, because I'm training for the Philadelphia Half in November and this was just kind of a race that fell during the training plan Billy made me for that. Of course that didn't stop me from deciding in the starting corral that I was going to go out as aggressively as if it was an A race, despite not having tapered at all and actually having run 7 miles the day before
.And also despite a T+D of almost 150 at the start and at 150 by the finish. Long story short I finished with an official time of 58:38 but I think my 5k split was about 27:30. So, yes, I really blew up in the heat in that second half.
Bib pickup: Bib pickup was in The Bourse building, which is a historic site that used to house the stock exchange or something. It's a fancy structure right in the same 1 block radius with the Constitution Center, Independence Hall, and the LIberty Bell, but now it seems to house mostly a food court. The emails I got from the organizers in the weeks leading up, and the small lines of people picking up bibs, made me worry it was going to be a low turnout this year. I picked my stuff up no problem and got a cheesesteak from the amazing-smelling counter at the food court. It was pretty good even though I hadn't heard of the vendor. Race merchandise was nice if limited. I really really liked the shirts that you didn't get for free with registration, but I didn't bite. When I picked up my bib, and they handed me my "free" t shirt, DH exclaimed, "ANOTHER race t shirt??!! How many do you have now?" The answer is actually over 3 dozen so I didn't have the heart to buy the cool singlet at the merch table. They also had beer glasses with the race logo etc. I was handed a free race poster as I walked out as well.
Race day: The start line is walkable from my apartment, so the morning was pretty easy. I drank a Liquid IV and had a little toast probably too close to race time (the drink came up on me a few times during the race) but it was very stress-free getting there. Once I got to the corrals I realized there were more people there than I expected. I don't know the exact numbers but there must have been at least 2000-2500 there I'm guessing. My race result email told me there were 1300+ in my gender so we can kind of figure the math.
Everything was easy: Corrals clearly marked. Lines of porta potties on the west side of the corral area (behind the last corrals). I got there about 10 minutes before race start which is how I like it. I was able to stretch a little but not standing in one place for too long.
Some upbeat ABBA at the start, which was great, and we were off. South Street, the start & end of the race, is kind of narrow but people seemed to have placed themselves appropriately in the corrals so there wasn't a bottleneck. Everybody was moving at around the same pace. I have the lowest level Garmin and it is just terrible at telling me my pace anywhere there are buildings so the first mile was way off. I came up to the 1 mile marker when my watch said 0.88 miles. It was off by about that much the rest of the race. We got on much wider roads with shorter buildings by mile 2 or so. It's a nice tour of South Philly: the landmark cheesesteak battleground between Pat's & Genos, Little Italy, then head north onto narrow streets again, into a little portion of the "Gayborhood", and back to South Street. As I mentioned above, I was chugging along like I was really racing for the first half, but then the heat really got to me. I had to stop to walk 3 different times just to slow my heart rate down and to cool down a bit. My watch said my max HR was 202 but I am thinking (hoping) that was just a glitch. It looks like it is just a spike up there for a minute and then back to somewhat normal. In any case I was feeling it. I let go of any notion of racing by like mile 4 and just finished up running but not pushing.
Finish line: They handed out cold washcloths first thing after you finish, and man did that hit the spot. Bananas and water too. I think there was a tent giving away a free beer but at 8:30AM no thank you (did I mention my Liquid IV had already come up on me a few times?).
This race was very fun, crowd support was good. The volunteers were great of course. It's just such a hot time of year. I don't know if I'll do it again but I'll consider it, especially since it is so close to my home. They did offer registration at the expo which might be the best bet for someone like me: see what the weather will be and if it's not oppressive, just sign up last minute.
Ymmv.
