Broad Street Run Race Report

The first word that comes to mind is HOT. Sunday’s Broad Street Run was simply that….HOT. When I woke up at 4:50AM on Sunday morning it was HOT. When I got into my car it was HOT. On my walk from my car to the SEPTA train it was HOT. The ride up to the start was, well, that was COOL….but when I got off the train it was HOT. Perhaps I am exaggerating just a bit, but it is important to set a tone and that tone is HOT.

Pre-Race
I hopped in my car at 5:15AM and made my way down to Lincoln Financial Field; I arrived around 6:00AM, much earlier than I expected but that was OK. On the way down I started to drink my Gatorade G2 and at my Pop-Tarts (I should have had another pair with me). I found my way to the SEPTA train and I was on my way to the start. I was a bit tired from my lack of quality sleep the night before and I managed to sleep for about 20 minutes on the train which is unusual for me. I was at the start by 6:45AM and now had an hour and 45 minutes to kill, if only I had remembered a newspaper or something to read and pass the time.

I did all the things that one would normally do before a race (that is enough of that without getting the slightest bit graphic), and just tried to stay off my feet. So for the next hour I just laid around and people watched. Of course around 7:55AM I got in line to use the port-a-pottie for the last time and the line was so long. I checked my watch every 30 seconds and stressed about whether I would make it to the start line in time. At precisely 8:20AM I made it in and didn’t have a lot of time to spare. I went quickly and then hustled to the start corral only to find that it was packed and I would have to sneak in somehow.

Race
I managed to inch my way into the purple corral and waited for the air horn to start us off….it was time, whether I was ready or not. The horn went off and I was on my way, my end point ten miles away. My plan was to run at 7:15/mile, see how I felt after two or three miles, then make the determination as to whether or not I could pick up the pace and try to get close to a 1:10 finish. The first mile was much tougher than it should have been, but I was running at a decent clip based on the crowd (7:12). Mile two was a bit flatter than the first and my legs just weren’t feeling as fresh as I had hoped they would, I slowed a bit (7:18), but I was still at 7:15/mile average. The next mile everything started to slow and I knew it wasn’t going to be my day. It was a slow 7:27 (overall pace to 7:18/mile). No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get my feet to move any faster and I was just soaked with sweat…thank God for all of the fire hydrants that were spraying water on the runners! Mile 4 was the same as the previous (7:26) and Mile 5 got a bit slower (7:33), the wheels were coming off and there wasn’t anything I could do to stop it. Not even the Gu Chomps I ate at mile three helped me. Halfway (5 miles) time: 36:56

The next three miles were all over the place, I just couldn’t get into a rhythm: Mile 6 – 7:23; Mile 7 – 7:36; Mile 8 – 7:45. I was hot, sweaty, wet (not necessarily a bad thing, much the result of multiple fire hydrant showers), and just not happy. I wanted to get done with the friggin’ race so badly. Mile 9 I picked up the pace a bit and ran it in 7:38 (hardly killing it) in hopes that it would all be over soon. The last mile, wasn’t bad, there were crowds cheering and I knew that in only a little over seven minutes it would all be over. I did my best to run hard, but I couldn’t get my legs going fast enough. I was determined to finish in under 1:15 though, maintaining an overall pace under 7:30. I ran that last mile in 7:19 [NOTE: When I stopped my Garmin 305 at the finish it showed an extra 214 ft run at 6:34/mile for a total of 16 seconds.]. My finish time was 1:14:51, not the 1:10 stretch goal, but under the 1:15 that I was my achievable goal.

Post Race
As was the case with my last race, I didn’t prepare adequately for this race, specifically I did way too much the day before (lots of yard work, didn’t take in enough fluids, went to bed too late, etc.). The fact that the temperatures were around 80F at the start and close to 90F at the finish didn’t make things any easier. I actually just looked back at my splits from the half-marathon I did on April 18th and I did the first ten miles (1:14:40, 7:27/mile pace) faster during that race than I did at Broad Street. All in all I am happy with my time given the circumstances, I set a PR for the distance, I finished in the top 6% of all finishers (1,306 out of 26,200), the top 9% of all males (1,065 out of 11,854), and the top 9% of my age group (153 out of 1,734).


It’s now time to focus on triathlon training and getting my swimming (swam 2,500M this morning) and biking up to speed. Of course saying that, my next races are a 5K (Wednesday, May 18th, Johnny King-Marino presents The Sertoma 5k) and a 5 miler (Saturday, May 29th, Spring Lake 5). Stay cool out there!