Broad Street Run
Today has been a blur. I'm home now, relaxing and sipping on a Mai Tai, as one should do. I believe this is the first time I've traveled on the same day as an all-out race effort, and despite it being only a 2-hour train ride, I'm pretty beat!
Expo
Comparing and contrasting the Rock n' Roll expo (Convention Center) to the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler (Building Museum), I'm always grateful when races know they're going to get a ton of people and plan for it. With almost 36,000 runners, a big expo space was required. The Broad Street Run is immediately on my good side because the expo was at the Philadelphia Convention Center, and it was of course super efficient and I was in and out in 15 minutes. Also, I love the shirt!
Race Morning
My alarm went off at 5:00 AM. With Rock n' Roll, I made the mistake of eating my usual breakfast and it almost cost me at the race. This time, I stuck with my trusty bagel plus some coffee.
@SheHulk was gracious enough to offer to meet me before we headed to the starting line. Somewhat serendipitously, I picked a hotel that was literally 3 blocks from where she lived. Didn't even plan that! We exchanged texts and I headed out the door about 6:10 AM, and also met her DH and her
adorable Boston terrier/bulldog mix dog. The streets were mostly quiet, but the runners were already shuffling around.
I've also never been so grateful for a trash bag. There was no rain - yet - but there was a light mist. Thanks again for thinking ahead
@SheHulk! I started to get concerned that I should've brought my rain jacket because it was quite chilly outside (T+D something like 53+53, with some wind and mist), but I know how hot I run and if it rains during a race, not even a rain jacket will help.
We headed for the Broad Street subway line and rode up to the race start at Olney Transportation Center. That train ride gave me an appreciation for just how long this race was! I also mentioned in my pre-race update that I was anxious about this race for many reasons, and geez I was
nervous. I had a brief panic attack while riding the train (which
@SheHulk immediately sniffed out and graciously talked me out of), which was rather embarrassing.
I do not remember much at all before the race. We ran into one of
@SheHulk's coworkers and chatted for a while. I used the port-o-potties and waited for the race to start. It was good to talk to everyone and keep my mind off of things. We headed for the corrals around 7:30-7:35. All runners were required to be in the corrals by 7:40.
I was in the orange corral. The seeding went elites/red corral, purple corral, then orange. I figured I would start somewhere around 8:10, so I drank my Maurten 320 drink mix at 7:55. And my corral started right at 8:10!
Broad Street Run
This race is a total blur for me, probably not the least of which is we were literally running down the same street for almost the entire race. I decided once again not to bother with any pace alerts and instead run entirely by feel, just like I had with RnR. Also for whatever reason, Strava did not correctly copy the data from my Garmin, so my splits will be based on Garmin Connect. I wish I could use the Strava time, because it's faster! Alas, my Garmin elapsed time is dead-on with my official result, so we'll go with that.
Mile 1: 8:09 (GAP 8:17)
Mile 2: 7:54 (GAP 7:57)
Mile 3: 8:05 (GAP 8:07)
Mile 4: 8:01 (GAP 7:59)
Mile 5: 8:06 (GAP 8:11)
I was quite surprised at how many rolling hills there were in this race. At the expo, there was a sign alerting runners to an uphill at mile 2, which I appreciated, but really Broad Street is a big series of rolling hills. I wasn't tracking my GAP, but these are the values according to Garmin. I think it's interesting I out-ran my GAP on every mile except one here in the first half. Also, my Garmin mile matched exactly to the race course miles for both the first and second miles, which is the first time that's ever happened to me. I guess when you're running in a straight line, it's easy to follow the tangents!
In my pre-race update, I also talked about pacing. My goal was simply to hit my VDOT conversion from RnR, which was 1:22:01. I also felt like my stretch goal of sub-1:20 was unrealistic based on my fitness.
At mile 5, my Garmin elapsed time was 40:14. When we passed the actual mile marker 5 miles in, I vividly remember I checked my watch to see how much total time had elapsed - 40:33. I felt okay to good. Not great, but not bad either. But 5 miles were already gone and it went quite fast. I had my EGel and mulled things over.
If I was going to make my stretch goal of sub-1:20, I would need a negative split of 33 seconds. After some quick mental math, I was going to need to average a 7:52/mile or thereabouts for the duration of the race to have a chance. I wasn't sure if I quite had that in me today, but it wasn't totally unreasonable either.
I decided to go for it.
No matter what happened, I was leaving everything out there on Broad Street today.
Mile 6: 7:57 (GAP 7:55)
Elapsed time 48:12
Mile 7: 7:45 (GAP 7:44)
Elapsed time 55:56
So if we're counting an 8-minute mile average, and I was halfway through the race, I knew I needed my elapsed times at each mile marker to be somewhere around 48, 56, 64, and 72 minutes for the second half. The first step was getting my Garmin mileage under that time. Miles 6 and 7 were good starts. I don't remember my actual elapsed time at the mile markers on the race course for any other miles except the halfway point, but I do remember that slowly but surely, the seconds were coming down.
Mile 8: 7:55 (GAP 8:00)
Elapsed time 1:03:51
Mile 9: 8:00 (GAP 7:59)
Elapsed time 1:11:51
Based on my Garmin, I was on track. Of course, the mile markers were a little beyond my Garmin tracking, and I was just a little behind my targets of 1:04 and 1:12. I don't remember the exact times, but I was doing what I needed to do. Mile 9 was a little slow if I was going to do this, but I figured no matter what I needed a burst at the end because I was
so close. I also ran right by a race photographer around this time and it made me laugh, because I (like everyone else) was soaked head to toe. I'll have to buy that picture if it comes out well and definitely post it here.
And then? Disaster struck.
Somewhere around mile 9.25, I felt something hitting my shoe. I looked down, and
OH NO!! My shoe came untied! In all of the 118 miles I had put on my Topo Specters before today, not once had they ever come untied on me. I guess the soaking rain made them heavy and out they came.
I had no choice. 3/4 of a mile was too far to run and risk tripping and/or an injury. I moved to the side and tied my shoe. It took about 15-20 seconds, and at that point I knew my quest for sub-1:20 was very likely not happening today.
But I kept at it!
Mile 10: 8:00 (GAP 8:03)
Elapsed time 1:19:51
So okay, unofficially I had a sub-1:20 10-miler. Yay! But the race wasn't over yet. I could see the finish line ahead. I gave it everything I had and
ran.
I glanced at my watch and I saw a pace of 5:xx. I'm not sure that's accurate, but frankly given the way I was booking it, it was possible. But sadly I couldn't hold on and I had to pull back. Even with the finish line in sight, my body simply had nothing left to give me. I was starting to feel that nausea and lightheadedness that comes when you know you've spent absolutely everything you had.
Mile 0.04: 7:23 (GAP 7:31)
Total Time: 1:20:09
Age Group: 559 / 2,106
Gender: 3,047 / 13,491
Overall: 4,053 / 27,673
Man, so many thoughts about this one.
So first, my previous PR was an M Tempo training run at the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler on April 2, which came out to 1:27:45. Clearly, this was a
huge PR, and I am
thrilled about smashing over 7 minutes off my best 10-miler effort. Comparing it to a 10-miler I raced, I would have to go all the way back to September 2021, the only other 10-miler I ran, which was a 1:30:23. It's totally surreal to me that my fitness took that big of a jump in just 6 weeks. Watching my paces jump in VDOT is a weird kind of dopamine hit.
Second, it obviously stings just a little that I missed my stretch goal by 10 seconds. I probably would've made it if my shoe hadn't come untied! Life is funny that way. When I saw my time on my Garmin after crossing the finish line, all I could do is laugh. Running is so fickle sometimes! But I'm not angry or upset in the slightest. Honestly, I'm re-reading my pre-race update and remembering my mindset going into today, and I couldn't even fathom sub-1:20. It seemed so unrealistic to me that I totally dismissed it and I focused my mindset and preparation on hitting that 1:22:01. To come so close to making sub-1:20 on a day with a cycle that I didn't think could get me there? Unreal. It gave me chills, none of which were caused by the pouring rain. Okay, maybe a few were.
Third, I'm happy to report that not once during the race did I think about the marathon last year or any of the other stuff I went through. I was laser-focused and locked in for the entire race. When I crossed the finish line I cried, but this time it was for entirely different reasons. This was for me. No matter what time I ran, today was a success.
What else... oh yeah, my birthday is tomorrow! When I got into this race, I knew I would make it special no matter what.
Thanks for reading!
What's next?
I already signed up for the Capitol Hill Classic 10k on May 21. Racing is fun! Yay running! Probably not a goal race, but it'll be a fun race with friends.
