Broad Street Run

Kristen

The Broad Street Run is the fastest 10 mile run in the country.  This is one of those races I have always wanted to do-and most races I don't care if I run or not.  What's not to love though about a race that runs straight through the heart of Philadelphia.  Sign me up!

I signed up and sadly had to wait to see if I would win the lottery.  The fact that I am writing this post should be pretty clear that I did indeed get in, but after I signed up I sort of forgot about the whole thing. When I got the email telling me I was in-I had a total moment of panic!

May 5, 2013 was a beautiful if not very chilly morning.  I drove down with a new friend and her husband.  I am so happy I didn't have to make the trip alone!!  We got dropped off near the start line and literally stood around shaking from the cold for an hour and a half.  All too soon it was time to line up.  Unfortunately, in order to get to/from the port-o-pots you had to pass through a gate.  What a jam up as race-time approached.  Here I am ready to run and I'm stuck in a human traffic jam!  With moments to spare, I made it to my corral with enough time to listen to Sweet Caroline-played in honor of Boston-very emotional!

Then we were off!  What an absolute beautiful morning for a race!  The first few miles flew by.  Broad St. is actually almost a slight downhill so it is a very quick easy run as long as you pace properly.  It was great to see so many people out on a Sunday morning cheering us on-thank you to those of you who do-it is appreciated!

By about mile 7 I was starting to feel the pain-the pace was a little quicker than I was used to running and I was starting to feel it.  But I soldiered on and by mile 9 I was feeling pretty good again and knew I would have a strong finish.

Time: 1:29:22, 12082 out of 31798 overall, 634 out of 2458 age division.

So, I was very happy, I had 38 seconds to spare in my goal, but I was spent.  I got my goodie bag and sat and waited for my friend to call.  While we were driving down to the race, we talked briefly about a meeting place after the race in case you know bad things were to happen.  As I sat waiting, I chuckled to myself time and again as young person after young person came to borrow my phone to call someone because their battery was dead.  The young generation clearly didn't have a back up meeting place!  I ran into my friend's husband and we went to our meeting place since cell service at this point was not working at all.  And low and behold there was my friend right where she said she would be.

I think that was the biggest lesson of the day-Have a meeting place because cell service will stink when 30,000 people are also looking for their friends!

So after the race, we meandered to the car, sat in traffic for awhile.  By now I was STARVING!  My husband was at the zoo with my kids for a completely separate function.  His plan was to bring me a cheese steak home.  I got home, showered and wandered my house dreaming of the delicious cheese steak I would soon be eating.  I was ready to eat my arm off, but nothing seemed as good as that cheese steak that would soon be mine.

Finally they got home-about 6 hours after I finished the race and have yet to eat anything decent.  I dragged myself off the couch to the kitchen and the deliciousness that awaited me.  My reaction to what I saw was shock-pure and simple.  That was one of the smallest cheese steaks I have ever seen!!  I seriously could have eaten 3 of them, but it wasn't meant to be.  I savored every bite of that thing and then ate a huge bowl of ice-cream.