Race Report: Broad Street 10 Miler, May 5, 2019

I ran the Broad Street 10 Miler today, finishing in a time of 62:28 by my watch - good enough for a new PR and 6th master female.

This is my 6th time running this race, so I know the course very well.  There's not much to know honestly - it's 10 miles in a straight line north to south, save for a quick swerve around City Hall just past the half mile mark.  The course is a slight net downhill that rolls a bit in the first 5 miles, and is mostly flat in the second 5.  It's a great course for my running style, since I like to ease into a pace and then lock on.  (of course, I don't know of many people that don't run well on courses with few turns and a net downhill).

After a slightly disappointing 63:01 at Cherry Blossom (that ended up not counting anyway), I was extremely motivated to come back to Broad Street and break 63 there.  And I had ambitions of even breaking 62:30, which was important to me because a) that's the time standard to qualify for my running team's elite development squad (which doesn't really change anything, but makes me happy) and b) earns me free entry as an elite to a local series of races.

The sticking point was going to be the weather.  As we approached race day, the forecasts got worse and worse.  There was a good chance of a tailwind, but.....it was going to rain during Broad Street.  And the forcecasts didn't describe it as "rain" but used terms like "washout," "downpour," "deluge."
Lovely.

Since my addition of non-slip pads to the soles of my crushed vaporflies had worked so well at the BAA 5K, I decided to try that again here, on the newer pair of flyknit vaporflies I've been wearing for longer stuff this year.  Since I had read about the insole of the flyknit vaporfly slipping around when the shoe got soaked, I also bought some superglue.

Unfortunately, my attempt to reinforce the insole-shoe nexus on Saturday afternoon resulted in what shall be known as the Philadelphia superglue incident of 2019.  The tube of superglue exploded onto both my hands, creating a white crusty scaly mess.

Fortunately, there was a convenience store right next to my hotel, so I was able to purchase some nailpolish remover there along with a replacement tube of superglue (I don't give up easily).  I can only imagine what the cashier thought when I provided my credit card with hands that were clearly suffering from some awful, most likely contagious, skin disease.

But...she took my money.  And the superglue-on-hand removal plus shoe application, try-two was without further incident.

***

When I woke on race morning, the first thing I checked was my hotel window.  Hm....not too bad.  And then I checked the tv news.  That was....less good.

Yup, this was going to be a soggy one.

Fortified by the lessons of Boston 2018 (and the comfort that this would be NOTHING LIKE THAT, just sub-optimal), I donned my sportsbra and shorts (not sure if you can don a sportsbra, but if you can, then I did).  Then a longsleeve t-shirt and poncho on top of that, water-proof shoe covers over my shoes, my trusty racing hat, and latex gloves on my hands.  With that, I grabbed my bag of dry post-race clothes and headed for the train.

Having done this race several times, I've learned that the SEPTA train is the best way to get to the start from Center City, where my hotel is.  But...there are two tricks.  First - leave early, since the trains get packed, and if you leave too late, you may not be able to board one (I left my hotel at 6:07 am, and it was exactly the right time).  Second, if you have a choice of two stations, board at the station earlier on the line, even if it means a further walk.   This is for the same reason - you want to be able to actually get on the train, rather than be shut out again and again.

I managed to squeeze onto the first train that came by, and from there it was a quick 20 minute trip to the start area.

***

I was an elite this year, which had some really nice perks.  The biggest was a bus that I was allowed to board and hang out on until I was ready to warm-up.  Instead of doing bag check, I left my bag on the bus - the race would transport it down for me and I'd be able to pick it up in the elite tent at the finish.  We also had our own set of private portajohns - a real luxury.

I hung out on the bus until around 7 am, and then headed out to warm-up.  I did 3 miles, including some 1-2 minute segments of harder running uphill to get my heart-rate up.  Then drills, strides, and more strides until it was time to load into the elite corral with 10 minutes to go.

 I had removed the shoe covers before starting my warm-up; the poncho and long-sleeve came off with 2 minutes until the gun.   My carefully applied non-slip pads were also peeling off from my shoe soles, so after a moment's thought, I peeled them off.  We'd just go without.

It was raining, but it was a moderate, steady rain, and not the dire downpour that had been predicted.  Not ideal, but far better than feared.  And honestly probably better than if it had been clear skies and humid.

Conscious of the fact that I was a contender for masters prize money (given by gun time) I lined up on the second row behind the line.  As always, I situated myself to the far right, since younger men much faster than me would be starting behind me, and them trampling me would not be good for either of our races.

***

With a bit less fanfare than I was expecting, we heard "on your mark" and we were off.    I had seen my friend Mike in the corral just behind me, and so it was a pleasant non-surprise when he pulled up next to me.  My plan was to go out conservative for the first mile (which everyone else hammers, since it's downhill) and then ease into pace.  Once I found that hard pace, I'd just hold that rhythm until I got within kicking distance.

Fortunately, Mike and I had similar plans, and so we ended up running close to each other for much of the race.  I can't say that we were side by side - I was maintaining what felt like my best steady effort, which meant slowing down slightly on inclines (can't really call them hills) or whenever we had some gusts of headwind, and rolling a bit more on declines and when the winds eased.  But we were pretty much in yo-yo-ing contact for the entire race.

I essentially paced this the same as Cherry Blossom, which means that there's not really much to note about the middle miles.  I had locked into that 10-mile pace feel, which seems very much like a red line that I can bump up against.  Since this is a very fast course and the cooling rain limited concerns about overheating, I was aggressive.  Not suicidal, but I wanted to be riding my edge, rather than safely below it.  Like always, I was ignoring my watch and splits, and just running off of effort and feel.

By mile 7, things were starting to get hard, and by mile 8 things were very hard indeed.  And mile 9 was AWFUL.  I was reeling in people , and that made life slightly more tolerable, though I still had to dig deep into my bag of mental tricks (focus on your rhythm, focus on your glutes, stay relaxed and SMILE) to hang on.  Finally, I saw the Navy Yard gate that marked 400m to go ahead of us, and I hit the red button to dump out whatever I had left.

[It's probably worth noting again that the fact I had a kick doesn't necessarily mean I could have run the middle miles any faster. Basically, I have an edge of effort that I can only step above for a few minutes.  When I finally do nudge above that, I can go pretty darn fast, but regardless of how fast I go, I can only step above that edge for a fairly short period of time before I crater.  Thus, I need to be strategic about what pace I hold in the late miles, and when I can finally go.  Though I keep thinking that perhaps getting better at racing 5Ks may increase how long I can hold that late race speed.]

My friend Brenda was in the distance, and I was reeling her in.  However, I wasn't quite able to make up the distance, and finished a few seconds behind.  Ah well.  I had raced well and left it all out there, and any day I do that is a good day.   As I had crossed, I saw the clock counting down 62:2x, so I knew I had set a big PR and broken that magical 62:30 barrier.

***

Immediately after finishing, Brenda and I were intercepted by the elite coordinator and told we were fourth and fifth masters.  This meant that we were assigned an escort who would lead us to the VIP tent and then to the awards.  So that was a lot of fun.

It became a bit less fun when about 10 minutes later they realized that they had missed one masters female finisher.  Thus, Brenda was now 5th master, and I was 6th (and no longer a money-winner, and no longer a VIP).  I was disappointed.  Really disappointed.  But....I had run well and wouldn't change anything about how I ran the race today.  There were just 5 masters women faster than me today, and it was what it was.  Plus, the satisfaction of breaking 62:30 was better than a 5th place masters award today (though I might have felt differently if it was top master).

Splits were:

Mile 1: 6:26
Mile 2: 6:20
Mile 3: 6:14
Mile 4: 6:14
Mile 5: 6:08 (slightly short/hit watch early)
Mile 6: 6:21 (slightly long)
Mile 7: 6:12
Mile 8: 6:14
Mile 9: 6:14
Mile 10: 6:06

Other notes:

• The weather ended up being mid-50s, with steady rain and a crosswind (the promised tailwind failed to manifest).  Not ideal conditions, but nowhere near as bad as forecast.
• Two days before Cherry Blossom, I did an uptempo 1600 in 6:16 (so 6:18 pace), and then raced Cherry Blossom at 6:19 pace.  This Friday, I did an uptempo 1600 in 6:09 (so 6:12 pace), and then raced Broad Street in 6:15 pace.  Before my next 10 miler, I'm going to do a 1600m all out time trial...
• My Garmin measured today's course as 10.03 miles (it had measured the infamously short Cherry Blossom 10 Miler as 10.04).  If they announce Broad Street was short, I'm gonna.....find another 10 miler to run, I guess.
• On that subject, the next time I hear someone talking about Garmins measuring long because of tangents (or claiming a race performance based on a Garmin measurement), I'm going to show them this image.

  

  My post-race cooldown shuffle through the buildings of Philly.