Race Report: Broad Street 10 Miler, April 30, 2023

 I ran the Broad Street 10 Miler today, finishing in 1:10:26.

Last year, I had a slightly rocky trip up to Philadelphia the day before, as first my cab to the train station was delayed by closed roads for a 5K, and then my train was delayed due to an incident south of DC that closed the tracks and blocked incoming trains. So, this year I planned ahead, remembering to ask the cab to route around the 5K, and also booking a train that originated from DC.  

This all worked well, and it was only when I was sitting on my train that I realized I couldn't find an entry confirmation email anywhere in my email.  I had a moment of panic (I knew I had registered).  And then I went to the race website and searched my name under "tracking."  My name popped up with an assigned bib number, and I breathed a massive sigh of relief.

I got up to Philly around 10:30 am, which was perfect timing to a) grab my bib, b) grab Chipotle, and c) check into my hotel to watch the Land Rover Kentucky 3 day event all afternoon before an early bedtime.

***

The race day forecast had been all over the place, from perfect to thunderstorms.  By race morning it had settled on possible rain at the start of the race progressing to more certain rain as the morning bore on.  Fortunately, the temps would be in the low 50s and the wind looked like it would be a tailwind.  After a bit of thought, I went with shorts, singlet, and running cap plus latex gloves under disposable gloves, covered by a throwaway sweatshirt and then a plastic poncho.

I got to the Walnut-Locust train station around 6 am, where there was a train waiting for runners to board - very different from previous years, where I had waited for up to 20 minutes.  I ended getting to the start around 6:30, which was a bit earlier than I had planned.  Fortunately, there is a church by the start line that always opens its doors on race morning to runners, so I checked my bag and then hung out there until it was time to start warming up.

I started my warm-up a bit after 7 am, noting the somewhat steep drop that starts this race.  I've done this race many times, but I keep forgetting just how downhill that first mile is.   I also noted the strong wind from the north (a tailwind).   This was looking like a very fast day.

After doing my standard warm-up (~15 minutes of jogging with some surges, 3 minutes at marathon down to half-marathon pace, 4x30 seconds at 5K effort, and 4x10 seconds at mile effort), I made my way to my corral, entering right before the supposed "7:40 am cutoff" (which didn't happen).  Then I stood there, doing the occasional set of lunges to try to preserve some mobility, pretending that the rain wasn't "spittling" (my new word), and deeply regretting my decision not to wear arm-warmers, until my wave was finally released at 8:05 am.

***

The air horn went off, and the first mile of the race was enjoyable, as always (sarcasm).  It wasn't the crowded mess that Cherry Blossom was, but my legs were really stiff and I couldn't seem to get them to roll down the first mile.  I did the best I could and reminded myself that there were plenty of miles to make up time once I warmed up.

A bit past the first mile marker, things did loosen up, and I was able to open my gait and start rolling.  From then on, I just did my usual - find a tempo rhythm and lock into it.  The rain was an off and on drizzle, and the wind shifted around.  Sometimes I noted a solid headwind; at other times I didn't notice anything - I'm sure that's when I had a tailwind.

My gait never felt great during this race.  Sometimes I have better dystonia days and sometimes I have worse dystonia days, and this was one of the not-so-great days.  I just didn't feel comfortable, and timing mats were hurdles to be navigated, as were the train tracks that cross the course at one point (that I'm sure absolutely nobody noticed or remembers except me).  The combination of wind and rain meant plenty of wet paper cups all over the road, and those were hard also.  I was annoyed at myself, but resolved to keep working through it - what else could I do?

The only other thing of real note during the middle miles was when some idiot (and I don't use that term lightly) standing in the crowds on the side of the road decided to stick his umbrella out onto the race course while opening it. Right in front of me and another runner.  We both yelled at him, and he seemed befuddled as we ran by.

***

Somewhere after mile 7, the weather turned from a drizzle to a steady rain.  It was honestly pretty miserable, but I just reminded myself that the quicker I finished the race the quicker I could grab my checked bag with warm clothing.  I felt like I was slowing during these miles, but the splits show that I sped up, so I guess my rationalization worked.

There are three variants on the Broad Street Course, and as of this year, I've run all three.  The course this year had us turn left a bit after the mile 9 marker and run beneath an elevated freeway for nearly half a mile before turning left again to kick into the finish.   I think this finish, though not at all scenic, is my favorite finish of the three options for two reasons:

1) you finish not too far from a subway station (easier to get back to the hotel after) and

2) this gave us a blissful half-mile or so of respite from the rain.  The road was still wet, and there was a stream or two to be forged, but it was a solid improvement.

I had mapped out the course beforehand, and I knew that I needed to start giving whatever I had left when we hit that underpass.  So I extended my stride as much as I could until I got over the finish line.  As I crossed, I noted 1:10:4x on the clock.  I was pretty sure I had crossed the start less than 40 seconds after the airhorn, so no sub-70 for me.  Oh well.  

***

Splits were:

Mile 1: 7:53
Mile 2: 7:16
Mile 3: 6:58
Mile 4: 6:59
Mile 5: 6:56
Mile 6: 6:58
Mile 7: 7:02
Mile 8: 6:51
Mile 9: 6:48
Mile10: 6:45

And yes, I'm really really annoyed by that first mile.  And I don't have a chaotic mess of a start to blame it on this time.  I need to figure out how to fix that and get my legs to work better when starting a race after standing for a while.

I guess the good news is that I ran this year's Broad Street about 90 seconds faster than last year, so there is progress in some sense.  And a month ago I was happy with 70.2x for 10 miles, and now I'm annoyed.  So that's progress as well.

Other notes:

• I stayed near City Hall this year instead near the Liberty Center.  As much as I love Club Quarters hotels, staying near City Hall made everything so much easier - it was a 3 block walk to the expo, and post race I didn't have far to walk at all in the rain between the subway stop and my hotel.
• A lot of people ran really good races and set nice PRs, with most people running faster than they did at Cherry Blossom.  So clearly the rain and wind wasn't much of a factor - it was a good day to run fast.  
• I discovered post-race that the Reading Terminal Market has gluten free funnel cake and onion rings, and they were divine.
• When taking the train between DC and Philly, one can choose between the faster/more expensive/less stops Acela train or the slower/cheaper/more stops regional.  I intentionally booked a regional train for the return trip so I could get off a stop early, in New Carrollton, Maryland (I'll often do this because the orange line of the DC Metro system terminates in New Carrolton, and it's easier to get on the orange line there and take it home than it is to get to the orange line from DC's Union Station.)  Today I learned that the regional train doesn't always stop at New Carrolton.  Duly noted.

Training log - Week ending 4/23/2023

This week was 67 miles of running, 1500 yards of swimming and 9 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

My mileage is artificially high this week because I took one of my recovery pool-running days on Sunday instead of Monday, resulting in one week at 50 miles and the next week at 67 miles.  Had I swapped those two days, then I would have had two weeks at 58 and 59 miles - essentially even.  Which just shows how weekly mileage is not always that great a metric to focus on.  In my case, average mileage over 14 days is a much better metric.

I remain really happy with how things are progressing.  For the second week in a row, I was actually able to run hard during the Tuesday workout, with the welcome result that I ran an 800m repeat in under 3:10 for the first time since September 2021.  Of course, in that September 2021 workout I also ran an 800m repeat in under 3 minutes, so I still have a lot of work ahead of me.

I keep thinking that one of my limiters has simply been that I have been unable to run faster than roughly tempo pace on my interval workouts due to the dystonia, so I've lost some fitness just from being unable to train at faster paces.  Now that things are improving, I'm able to do some faster running, and hopefully my fitness will come around quickly.

Friday's tempo felt decent, if uncomfortable.  I used that tempo run to test out the Nike Vaporfly3, in hopes that would be my new racing shoe.  The answer?  NOPE.

I just never felt comfortable in the shoe - it gives too much when I push off.  I may give the shoe another try in a few months, since I'm still working on ankle and leg stability.  But for now, I'm sticking with a mix of the Adidas Adios 7 and the Asics Metaspeed Edge+ for my fast running.

Monday: 8 miles (9:11) and upper body weights/core. Foam rolling at night. 

Tuesday: 11 miles, including a track workout of 2k, 4x800 in 8:29, 3:15, 3:14, 3:11, 3:07.  5:10 recovery after the 2K and 2:4x-2:5x recovery for the 800s.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night. 

Wednesday: Streaming yoga and 11 miles very easy (9:14) plus two hill sprints and drills.  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday: 9 "miles" of pool-running and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling at night. 

Friday: 11 miles, including a 6400m tempo in 27:37 (7:03/6:56/6:54/6:44).  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night. 

Saturday: 10.5 miles very easy (9:03), followed by drills and strides and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 14.5 miles progressive, split as first 5 miles averaging 9:17, next 5.5 miles averaging 7:53 pace (tailwind for a lot of these), and final 4 miles averaging 7:31 (headwind).  Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling in the afternoon. 

Training log - Week ending 4/16/2023

This week was 55 miles of running, 500 yards of swimming, and 21 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

My paces got significantly faster this week, so that was nice. (Tuesday's track workout was one of the fastest that I've done in some time.) I suspect that this is at least in part because the weather is warming up, and the dystonia/neuro stuff seems much better when it's warmer.  However, this is also my fourth week on an additional neuro medication (rasagiline) and I suspect the med is helping a lot as well.

Since I haven't done much (if anything) in the way of strength/marathon workouts since the Houston Marathon in January, I skipped the Friday tempo in favor of a Saturday marathon effort workout.   Many people would have done a shorter version of the tempo on Friday and then the marathon effort workout on Sunday (before track intervals on Tuesday).  However, for myself I find that giving a bit more space between workouts is better, so thus I did a track workout on Tuesday, the marathon effort workout on Saturday, followed by easy days until next Tuesday.

Since I'm not racing longer than a half-marathon until October, I don't think I need many of these marathon effort workouts, but one or two over the season doesn't hurt when training for half-marathons. 

As for the workout itself, I was mostly happy with it.  As the weather gods would have it, my first really big workout in a few months fell on the first really summer-ish day of the year. I was a bit worried about how things would go, but they turned out fine - I was able to hit a nice rhythm for the four and three mile segments. By the time I hit the two mile segment, I was starting to get a bit dehydrated (I had drained my water bottle), and so I panicked a little and sped up to get the workout over with. The last few miles of the workout were too hard to be honest marathon effort, so that wasn't great. However, I don't think I dug a hole or anything, so I'll just mark it down as a mistake to avoid repeating.

Dailies:

Monday:  9 "miles" pool-running and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening. 

Tuesday: 11 miles, including a track workout of 2x800, 2x1200, 2x800 in 3:15, 3:16, 5:01, 4:56, 3:13, 3:11 (recoveries of 2:2x-2:4x).   Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming. Foam rolling in evening.
 

Wednesday: 11 miles very easy (9:21) plus drills and hill sprints; later some streaming yoga.   Massage in the evening.

Thursday: 9 "miles" pool-running and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 1.5 miles very easy (10:00), then a 30 minute break (timing my running team's Friday workout) before 9.5 miles very easy (9:27) plus drills and strides.  

Saturday: 17 miles, including a workout of 4, 3, 2, and 1 miles at marathon effort with 1 mile float in between.  Splits were 30:03 (7:35/7:28/7:31/7:29); 22:21 (7:26/7:28/7:27); 14:48 (7:30/7:18); and 7:13.  8:3x float between each.   Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: Streaming yoga and 90 minutes pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.

Training Log - Week ending 4/9/2023

This week was 55 miles of running, 500 yards of swimming, and 21 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

The first part of this week was dedicated to recovery from Cherry Blossom.  I was pretty beaten up (both quads and both hamstrings were sore), so I spent both Monday and Tuesday in the water to give my body a little extra time to recover.  It paid off, as I felt pretty good on Wednesday morning.

Friday would normally be a set of tempo intervals on the track, but I just didn't see the benefit, given that I had just raced a ten miler (in my mind, a 10 mile race is the ultimate tempo).  Plus, I've been on the track a lot in the past few months.  

So I swapped to Iwo Jima hills, which were a nice change in scenery and gave me a chance to work on my gait running both up and downhill.  I noticed that my splits for the uphill part of the workout had gotten notably faster - only about 5-10 seconds off where I used to be a few years ago.  And my downhill strides were slightly faster as well (though still way off what I used to run).  Of course, on Iwo Jima you can't compare splits too closely - sometimes one swings wider on the uphill route to avoid cars or buses, sometimes there's a headwind.  But still, 5-10 seconds on a roughly 2 minute repeat is significant.

I usually structure my long runs as progressions by thirds, but I ended up extending the easy part of Sunday's long run so that I could run with a friend for the first part of his progressive long run.  So the moderate and marathon paced parts of the run were shorter than normal, but that's not the end of the world.  I was mildly shocked to see how fast I had run the last few miles of the long run - those were at genuine marathon effort (not checking or chasing paces) and a real pleasant surprise.  So things continue to improve.

Dailies:

Monday:  9 "miles" pool-running.   Foam rolling at night.  

Tuesday: 9 "miles" pool-running and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.
 

Wednesday: Streaming yoga and 10.5 miles easy (9:14) plus drills and strides.   Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 6 miles easy (9:30), 3 "miles" pool-running and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 11 miles, including 8 Iwo Jima hill repeats (~2:00 up a 2.5% incline, 90 second jog, 40 second downhill stride, 60 second jog).  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 11 miles very easy (9:01) plus drills and strides, and then streaming yoga.

Sunday: 16 miles progressive, split as first 9 miles averaging 9:07 pace, next 3 miles averaging 7:57 pace, and next 4 miles averaging 7:18 pace, followed by a half-mile cooldown jog.  Followed with injury prevention work.  Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 4/2/2023

This week was 39 miles of running, 1000 yards of swimming and 15 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

Just a belated placeholder for race week.

Dailies:

Monday:  9 "miles" pool-running.   Foam rolling at night.  

Tuesday: 10.5 miles, including a track workout of 6x800, 2x200 in 3:27, 3:27, 3:20, 3:18, 3:17, 3:16, 48, 48.  2:4x-3:0x after the 800s; full recovery for the 200s.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.   Foam rolling in evening.
 

Wednesday: Streaming yoga and 8 miles very easy (9:10) plus drills and strides.   Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 6 "miles" pool-running and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 6 miles, including a 1600 in 7:06.  Followed with injury prevention work.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: Just a bit of DIY yoga plus foam rolling.

Sunday: 3.5 mile warm-up, and then a 10 mile race in70:19, followed by a half mile jog back to my care.  500 yards recovery swimming later in the day.  Foam rolling at night.

Race Report: Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, April 2, 2023

I ran the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler this morning, finishing in a time of 1:10:19.  Which was good enough for me to win a 50th Anniversary Cherry Blossom Mug (my big goal in running this race).  It also got me tantalizingly close to breaking 70 for the first time in a few years.

Many years Cherry Blossom gets great weather, but this was one of the less optimal years.  A complex weather system gave us rain on Saturday morning and then a pleasant Saturday afternoon before a wind storm rolled in on Saturday night, just as I was trying to go to sleep.  

I'm a little paranoid about windstorms while I am sleeping since there's an old tree in our neighbor's yard that could hit our house if it fell the right way.    And...it's not like a tree has never fallen on our house before.  So I ended up spending the first half of the night trying (and failing) to sleep downstairs on a couch as the house shifted and groaned.  (B, for his part, was in his basement mancave doing mancave-type things.)  About midnight, the winds settled down and I carried my comforter and pillow back up to our bed.  I got a few hours of fairly good sleep before the alarm went off at 4:10 am.

The funny thing is that my Garmin decided that last night was a great night for sleep and that I was well rested and ready to face the day.  This is in contrast to the norm, where my Garmin insists most mornings that I need a rest day and have a low body battery when I feel totally fine.  I felt like crap when I woke up, but I decided today was a day to believe the Garmin over myself.  At least in terms of quality of rest.

***

A bit after 6 am, I left the house.  This was once again just the right time to grab my supersecret parking spot at 6:15.  Once parked, I changed into my racing shoes and confirmed my clothing choices.  

The forecast was for low 40s with sunshine and high wind.  Wearing thin tights on my legs was a given - in the last few years my legs have performed best when warm, even too warm.  As for my top, I went with a tank top and arm-sleeves after debating whether a longsleeve might be better.

I stepped outside and immediately could tell that a longsleeve was going to be too much for a race this long.  So tank top and arm-sleeves it was, and the longsleeve went into the bag I was going to check.

***

After bag check, I started to warm up.  I went with my standard warm-up routine of about 17 minutes jogging, followed by 3:00 at marathon-to-half-marathon pace, 4x30 seconds at 5K effort, and then 4x10 second strides.  17th Street was once again blocked off to traffic, so it was an ideal location to do some faster running.  Then a bit more jogging before I entered my corral about 7:20 am (the race started at 7:30 for the masses).

The corral was easily the most packed corral I have ever seen.  I don't know how I fit in there, but some how I did.  I don't remember it being that packed in the past - I suspect it's that way because 15th Street (where the race starts) is now narrower due to the installation of some bike lanes, but they haven't lengthened the corrals or reduced the # of people in each corral.

It was a very compressed 10 minutes waiting for the start.  I wanted to do a calf stretch, but no room.  Heck, it was difficult to remove my throwaway sweatshirt without bumping someone else. Another runner, a little taller than me, did manage to elbow me in the nose while checking the time on his watch.  He felt awful, but I reassured him that I didn't need my nose to run, just my feet, so no prob.

***

With a corral that packed, it was no surprise just how much a mess the first mile was.  I don't recall this race being this crowded in the first mile before - some of it may be the narrowed road due to the bike lane, and some may be that I'm starting a lot further back than I used to.  Or perhaps it was always this much of a mess and I was just in front of it before.

Regardless of the cause, it was rough. I had intentionally placed myself on the left side of the corral since the first turn was to the right, thinking that I could swing wide and avoid some of the chaos, but chaos was everywhere.  I struggled with my dystonia flaring, and I fought to get it under control.  But as soon as I got it under control, there was nowhere to go - too many people everywhere.    So I accepted that this was going to be a slow first mile, and that I'd have to wait until there was a bit more room.

Finally, somewhere around the second mile, things got a bit less crowded, though still quite busy.  I started to work on opening up my gait and relaxing forward, and began to reel people in, which I would continue to do for the rest of the race.

***

The wind was a significant factor - It was blowing from the northwest at around 25 miles per hour, with gusts higher.    This meant that some miles had a very strong headwind, some a very strong crosswind, and some a very strong tailwind.    It also meant that there were twigs and branches all over portions of the course, and paper water cups everywhere at each water stop.

As best I could, I tried to hold a steady effort, while also being strategic and taking shelter behind others when I could in the headwinds, and then opening up when I had an opportunity.  I felt my hamstrings grow tired early - a consequence of balancing against the wind, I think.

The last few miles up Hains Point to the finish were mentally and physically exhausting.  When we hit the hill at the 400m to go point, I tried to hammer but my legs felt like lead.  Then I topped the hill and saw the finish line about 150m ahead and downhill.  I managed to run this downhill decently - not flying like I used to, but I wasn't tripping over my feet either.  And that made me very happy.  

As I crossed the finish line, I glanced at the clock and noted 1:10:4x. (Like always, I didn't check my watch during the race).   I wasn't sure how long it had taken me to cross the start line after the gun, but I was sure it wasn't 40-50 seconds, so I hadn't broken 70, which was my pie-in-the-sky goal.  At the same time, I had run under 71:19, and so earned an anniversary mug (more on that below), so I was happy.  Plus I felt like there were a lot of positives from the race, including the improved downhill finish.

Also, I was cold and very sick of wind and just ridiculously happy to be done.

***

Splits were:

Mile 1: 7:53

Mile 2: 7:13
Mile 3: 7:01
Mile 4: 6:53
Mile 5: 6:52
Mile 6: 6:55

Mile 7: 6:44
Mile 8: 6:46
Mile 9: 7:04
Mile 10: 7:00

(Miles 4, 5, 7, and 8 had the strongest tailwind, while miles 1, 3, 9, and 10 were the worst for a headwind.)

When I finished and first checked my time, I assumed that the wind was my main limiter in breaking 70.  But as I look at it now, it's pretty clear that the mess that was mile 1 was the biggest factor.  Which of course is motivating me to go up to Philly and race Broad Street next month to see if I can get under 70 there.  (Broad Street is an even bigger race than Cherry Blossom, but the street is a lot wider also).

But in any event, I got my mug, so I'm happy.  As background for the mug....Cherry Blossom was first run in 1973.  The winning times that year were 51:22 for men and 71:19 for women.

(Yes, there's a big gap there - that's because women's sports weren't encouraged then the way they are now.  Now, the gap between men's and women's performances at 10 miles is closer to 5 minutes, which matches the 10-11% differential we see in running at all distances between 100m and the marathon.)

Anyhoo, on every 5 year anniversary, Cherry Blossom gives out a mug that says "I would have won this race in 1973" to anyone who runs faster than the winning times for their sex that year.  And I really wanted a mug. Everything has changed in the last few years, and paces that were once easy are now impossible.  But getting a mug seemed like something that was in reach, and it feels really good and even dare-I-say normal to have set a goal and accomplished it.

My precious

Other notes:

• I went with the Metaspeed Edge+ for this race - that's really my long distance racer of choice now, though I haven't tried the Vaporfly in some time.  Since my gait seems to be improving, perhaps I can try the Vaporfly again.
• The weather was 48 degrees with a dew point of 33 degrees and sunny.  Just perfect weather, if not for the darn wind.
• Since it was cool, I went without a water bottle for this race.  Definitely no need to drink during this one.
• A lot of good things here - I ran this race 80 seconds faster than I ran Broad Street last year.  I handled downhills better, tailwinds better, crosswinds better.  I was never alone on this course, but the dystonia only flared during the initial crazy packed miles.  So progress.
• Thin tights, a tank top, and arm-warmers were unquestionably the right choice today.
• I don't think the lousy night of sleep last night affected me at all (maybe the Garmin was right).  I made a point of getting 9+ hours of sleep on Friday night, and I think that carried me through.
• This was a no caffeine/no chocolate race.  I used to always take a fair bit of caffeine on race morning (in the form of a GU or Cliff gel), but I've discovered that it seems to make the dystonia worse - when the dystonia flares, it flares more strongly and is harder to get under control.  A bit of dark chocolate felt like it was perking me up without the strong effect of caffeine, but I've experimented with and without, and it seems like I run better without.  Sigh.
• In terms of improvement, this race is a slightly worse performance than the half-marathon I ran last month.  But...that half was in perfect weather while this was not.  So I'm thinking this shows improved fitness.  Additionally, my 15K split here was 65:37, as compared to December 2022 when I ran 66:14 for 15K in perfect weather on basically the same course.  Yup - things are definitely moving in the right direction.  I'm not forgetting about my old performances entirely, but it is nice to focus on the past two years and see the relative improvement.