Broad Street - My First Race

I was due for a long run yesterday. And it was important that I get it in. See, last Sunday, I cut my 7 miler short due to the heat. Two days before, it was 36 when I ran. Two days later, it was 80. Yeah, my body wasn't feeling it. Anyway, I had 8mi on schedule yesterday. But I wasn't feeling particularly motivated to do it. So what did I do? Saturday, at the last possible minute, I went to the Not For Runners Only Expo in Philly and signed up for the Broad Street Run. I also signed up for the ING Philadelphia Distance Run while I was there. I got a $10 discount. So why not?

Anyway, I don't know how all you folks do race reports mile by mile. I don't remember one mile to the next. But if you wanna hear my story, here it go...

I set my alarm for 4am. Wait, let me back track. I woke up at 2:10am and couldn't get back to sleep. Then my alarm went off. Why so early when I live 30min from the race? Because there would be about 26,000 people there and I wanted to make sure I wouldn't be caught up somewhere. Anyway, I ate my favorite raw breakfast, made a cup of yerba mate chai, then made half a PB&J for the road. I figured I'd be hungry again before the race started. So I thought.

So I get there, jump on the train to the race start. But first, I stop at the porta potties. I had to go. No biggie. Then I signed up for a free sports massage. There may be pictures of my ass somewhere on CBS. Some dude came by taking pictures while I was on the table. Anyway, while waiting a long time for the massage, I had to go to the bathroom again. But I didn't want to miss out on it, so I waited til I was done. At that point, I thought I was gonna pee on myself. Yeah, it was that bad. My first race was gonna be a disaster. I prayed to God that I wouldn't have an accident. The lines were off the hook. Yes, plenty of porta potties, but thousands more people. I went to the front of the line and asked the guy if I could go or else I was gonna go. Luckily, he let me go. God is good!

Okay, so off to the bus to drop off my gear. I wore pants under my skirt and a running jacket. Then off to my corral. I figured I'd be in purple according to the finishing times. But I wasn't thinking. I had never raced before so I had no finishing time, and they put me whereever. Whereever would be green, two corrals behind purple. There were so many people, I couldn't even get into the corral. While waiting for the start, I had someone snap a picture for me.
I brought a homemade energy drink with me, but decided against running with it. My thinking was that I was hydrated enough. Especially since I felt the need for another potty break before the start. Of course, that didn't happen. Instead, I prayed to God, not that I'd have a good race, but that I could hold it during the race.

Okay, so the race starts and I'm just annoyed. This is one hell of a group run. It was a pain trying to get around people. I had to get on the sidewalk a few times. I was zigzagging down Broad Street. I was using my fingers like turn signals so that people knew I was going in front of them. I said a lot of excuse me's too. I didn't want to cut anyone off. And now I see why headphones are against the rules. It can be very dangerous with all those people. I ran past people whose music I could actually hear. I can't even imagine. You could jack yourself up and somebody else.

Anyway, I notice somewhere around mile 2 people are walking. What already? Why did you sign up for a 10mi race if you're gonna be walking in mile 2? And no, they didn't look like they were Gallowalking. They looked like they were Done. And is it just me? Maybe it is, but I found that people breathe way too hard. I know it's a race and all, but how are you gonna make it to the end if you sound like you're about to die early on? I passed this guy, also somewhere around mile 2 who sounded like he needed some medical attention. My goal was to take it easy, not start out too fast, and make it to the finish without wanting to die.

The first water stop was after mile 2. But I passed it by. There was another after mile 4. I took a cup, almost choked myself. I can't run and drink out of a cup at the same time. Water bottles I can do. Cups I can not. I stopped somewhere after mile 6 to get some Gatorade (yeah, I learned quickly from the choking water incident). I figured I could use a lil pick me up to get through the next 4 miles. I was also kinda nervous about having Gatorade. I've never had it on any training runs. And I wasn't sure how it would affect my stomach. Long runs tend to send me running to the bathroom afterward. I don't know why.

Mile 7 comes and I'm picking people off. There are lots of people walking at this point. Mile 8 comes along and I'm not feeling it. Then I check the elevation map to see why. It's all flat from here on out. I hate a really flat course. I'm not a fan of the track or the treadmill because they are flat. It takes so much more energy to move myself forward. Anyway, as I was running, I could have sworn that I saw this guy I used to be in love with back in the day on the sidelines. Actually, I'm pretty sure it was him. I heard him speak, the voice is what I remember. It was him. I looked at him, he looked at me, I kept it moving.

Okay so mile 9 comes along. One more to go. Why is the last mile of a run the longest part of a run? And it didn't help that my Garmin was beeping before every mile marker. So when it said 10mi, I still had a bit to go. I'm sure it was from all the zigzagging. I finally cross the finish line and it starts pouring. It was raining before, but now it was ridiculous. I was pretty sure that I was mostly covered in rain and not sweat. I was proven wrong once I stopped running. All the sudden, my eyes were burning from all the salt. I got more Gatorade, picked up a bottle of water and walked past the soggy pretzels. I didn't see any other race food.

I just followed the crowd. I ended up at the Wachovia Center parking lot, but couldn't for the life of me figure out where the buses were that had my stuff. I asked some dude. He told me it was all the way back by the finish in the Naval Yard. So, I walked back. In the rain. Not fun. I'm getting cold. And I still had to pee. So I get back to the area and still can't find out where the buses were. I finally found it after asking like five more people. I was so glad to just put my jacket on. One little layer made a lot of difference. I ate my half of PB&J sandwich. And finally, I went to the porta potty. And guess what? There wasn't a line. I started walking back to the parking lot AGAIN. I passed this girl who looked all broke up. I think she was gonna cry. Poor thing. There were quite a few people limping and such. Ten miles is no joke, but I felt fine. Today, my hips and quads are sore and a little stiff. But I'm doing okay. It's the migraine that followed the race that had me laid up and home today.

And that concludes my first official race report. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope to catch up on blogs soon. I've just been really lazy. I'm sorry. I've missed birthdays, showers, races, runs and just general stuff y'all like to talk about. Forgive me. Heck, I ran four times last week and didn't blog any of them. Sometimes, it just beez like that. Have a great week!

Activity Route: Broad Street Run Elev. Avg: 61 ft Location: Philadelphia, PA Elev. Gain: -138 ft Date: 05/03/09 Up/Downhill: [+91/-229] Time: 08:51 AM Difficulty: 2.2 / 5.0 Weather: Fog/Mist 59 F temp; 100% humidity 59 F heat index; winds SE 3 Performance Distance: 10.07 miles Time: 1:32:58 Speed: 6.5 mph Pace: 9' 14 /mi Calories: 1117 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 39 +0' 25 6.2 -0.3 -46 ft 2 9' 05 -0' 09 6.6 +0.1 -14 ft 3 9' 13 -0' 01 6.5 +0.0 -13 ft 4 9' 15 +0' 01 6.5 -0.0 +3 ft 5 9' 07 -0' 07 6.6 +0.1 -33 ft 6 8' 57 -0' 17 6.7 +0.2 -13 ft 7 9' 01 -0' 13 6.7 +0.2 -9 ft 8 9' 15 +0' 01 6.5 -0.0 -13 ft 9 9' 10 -0' 04 6.5 +0.0 0 ft 10 9' 08 -0' 06 6.6 +0.1 0 ft end 8' 29 -0' 45 7.1 +0.6 0 ft Versus average of 9' 14 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com