Notes
Broad Street 10 mile race.
Heard about this race almost immediately after moving to Philly and 8 quick months later, I'm at the start line ready to go. Never really experienced a race this massive. Getting to the start wasn't bad now that the city added a Broad Street Express line that went straight from City Hall to the start. Wasn't able to get a full warm up in because of waiting around, but it was a 10 miler, so a short warm up wouldn't hold me back. Was in the elite corral with over 30 PRTC runners ready to tear down Broad Street. Weather was crazy as it was just non-stop rain the whole time.
Goal was under 53:00 and to start around 5:20 for first mile. I already had some team mates I wanted to run with and I kept an eye on them as we were about to start. Gun goes off and this first mile was crucial for setting the pace/tone of the race. Massive group in front of me, but based on the effort I was already putting in, they and my team mates seemed to be going faster than projected. I was strongly considering moving up to them, but then I heard Steve comment that they were going fast, and he was aiming for 5:20 for the first mile as well, so I decided to hang back. Turned out to be a solid decision because the big group went out in about 5:05 and our group just went under 5:20. Perfect.
Ran together with Steve for the next few miles as we maintained our pace and slowly catch people who went out fast. Felt solid after 5 miles at 26:17, but my legs were feeling slightly sore. At this point, Steve and I both decided to push the pace and keep bagging up people in front of us. Miles 5-8 were the hardest points in the race because the only people in front of us was a group of 5 people and they had a 100m gap on us. Once I hit mile 8, had this one guy who seemed to be making a big move and I decided to hang on to him. Legs were really starting to fall apart, but I was at mile 9 at this point and I realized I felt a lot better than I thought, so I really made an effort to kick. Caught up to Chris and tried to accelerate the last quarter mile, but he got me in the end by just a second or two. Finished the 2nd half in 26:05 and overall time of 52:22.
Positives: Solid debut 10 miler! Ran a very smart race with Steve who was a major reason I ran this well. 2 technical PR's, 26:17 then 26:05. Placed 26th overall and 4th in my age group. Got way under my goal.
Negative: Lacked the strength to really push those last miles and had a few people pass me in the end. Not the best warm up either, but I don't think it really would have mattered.
Overall: Solid Broad Street experience. Definitely looking forward to racing it again and possibly in better weather hopefully. I think even split race is the way to go, if not negative split. Great day for PRTC runners. Big thanks to my coach Hector for all he's done so far to get me not only back into shape, but even better than I was in college.