I ran the Broad Street 10 Miler today, finishing in a time of 1:11:40.
My pre-race adventures were a bit messier than my normal preference. The weekend started off with a Friday night wedding for one of my partner's best friends. Definitely not the best way to spend the evening 48 hours before a race, but it was what it was, so I just went with it and tried to enjoy the wedding and not worry too much about the lost sleep.
Saturday I took a cab to Union Station to catch my 10:20 train up to Philly. I chose the cab, rather than Metro, because Metro has been very unreliable on weekends. However, what I hadn't planned on was a race closing down downtown DC, adding an unplanned 15 minutes onto a 12 minute trip. Fortunately I had left early, so I still had enough time to make my train.
[I realized pretty quickly that the road closures were for the Purple Stride 5K - 5 years ago I set my 5K PR at that race. So I really couldn't get too annoyed with the road closures. The road race giveth and the road race taketh.]
Of course, my train was then delayed, with multiple changes and uncertainty on the departure board - apparently a car was blocking the train tracks south of DC, delaying my train from rolling in. Eventually the train did arrive and then depart. The delay was actually good for me, as I was hungray and the delay allowed me to buy Chipotle in DC and eat it on the train (my seatmate might not have seen it in the same light).
Once I was on the train, things were relatively smooth. I got to Philly, snagged my bib, and then settled into my hotel to watch the cross-country phase of the Land Rover 3 Day event.
***
Sunday morning I awoke to much better weather than the last time I ran Broad Street. High 40s and not much wind - really ideal. I ate breakfast, pooped, and stretched, and then left my Center City hotel at 5:55 to grab a train to the start.
[Broad Street pro tip - the trains running from south to the start line in the north fill up quite early, so if you have a choice of two train stations, go with the one further south.]
My bad transportation luck continued, as I waited a full 20 minutes for a train to roll in. Finally one did, and I was on my way to the start, arriving there around 6:45.
This was just enough time to use a restroom, check my bag, and warm-up. At Broad Street they want you in the corrals early, so I jumped in mine at 7:40 and hung out. I had a seeded bib which meant I could start at the front, but I knew I wouldn't be running fast enough to belong there, so I re-assigned myself to the purple corral for those targeting 60-70 minutes - I thought 70 minutes might be a reasonable time for me, so I placed myself in the very last row of the corral.
As we waited to start, I noted that it was warmer than I had expected. I was wearing a tank top, shorts, gloves, and arm-warmers, but I really didn't need the last two. It was too late to go back to bag check, so I stuffed the gloves into my bra (the race photos are going to be excellent) and slid the arm-warmers down around my wrists. I also belatedly wished I was carrying a water bottle, but too late for that too. I'd have to use the water stops like everyone else.
The 8:00 am race start was delayed (it always is) until 8:05, and then there were a few minutes more delay before the purple corral was released. But finally we were on our way.
***
As I've noted before, I'm currently working my way through some weird neurologic coordination-balance thing, where I'm prone to lose my balance or have one leg or the other go spastic on me while running. Basically, my muscles stop listening to my mind and start firing out of order.
These coordination issues have multiple triggers, including downhill running, faster running, running in groups, being passed from behind, and uneven pavement. I've also figured out that immersion therapy - i.e. putting myself in situations that trigger the coordination issues and then working my way through them - seems to be at least part of the cure (pointing to a psychological aspect).
And that's really why I ran Broad Street - I knew that I was going to hit pretty much every single trigger for my issues while running this extremely large downhill race. If I could handle this race, then I could pretty much handle any race. And that's a big step forward.
I hit the first trigger right out of the gate, with the downhill start the race is known for. I managed to hold it together, in part because it turned out that I had many runners going 9:00 pace or slower in front of me. (why were they in this corral?) I had to weave, and I'm not good at weaving right now. But I managed it. And that's what I came here for.
About a half-mile in, I saw the equivalent of manna from heaven - a woman handing out water bottles. I managed to grab a bottle from her while running (I was pretty proud of myself for that), and carried that until mile 6 or so.
Broad Street is a pretty consistent race - some very gentle inclines sprinkled into the net decline, and a few turns. So there's not really that much of interest to note during the race - I just tried to hold a steady effort and let the miles pass.
There were a few patches in Center City where we had to cross brick sidewalks that were slightly uneven - these would not have been an issue for me in years past (or likely for anyone else this year) but I did have to work my way through them. Ditto for things like the chaos of water stops, or people reaching out to get me to slap their hand, or crossing timing mats. These were, as crazy as it sounds, challenges for me that required me to really think about keeping my balance. But again, that's me. And that's why I ran this race. Mentally, this was one of the harder races I've run - staying on my feet and holding things together requires a level of focus that I haven't needed in the past. And 10 miles is a long way to go while working that hard, mentally.
***
Like always, I didn't look at my watch and just tried to ride a hard steady effort. By mile 8, things were starting to get tough and my gait was breaking down. I was wobbly and had to really focus on keeping my gait smooth and relaxed. In a nice touch, my feet were also hurting*. But I knew I didn't have that much further to go, and also that the point of this race (for me) was to work through that stuff. If you give up when stuff gets hard, you're not completing the exercise.
[*My feet were hurting because I was wearing my Takumi Sens, which always seem to be either too tight or too loose. In this case, they were too tight, and as my feet started to swell towards the end of the race, what had previously been slightly noticeable became exquisitely noticeable.]
So I held it together as we made a left and then two rights to loop around a baseball (I think) stadium before the final homestretch to the finish. I knew that the finish line was 800m after the last turn (having measured it on Google Maps), but it really did seem like longer than that. Part of the issue might have been that for whatever reason, there was no finish arch this year, and so nothing to sight on.
This was compounded by the fact that there was a mat about 100m from what turned out to be the true finish, and this mat had a clock with it. The end result was that there were two timing mats, 100m apart, each with a clock on them, and neither with an arch. The fact that everyone ahead of you was still running was the only clue that the first mat wasn't actually the finish. A definite area for improvement next year.
***
I crossed the finish line (awkwardly, as has been my norm recently) and stopped my watch. 1:11:38 (officially 1:11:40) - a bit slower than I had hoped, but still a much superior performance to the 5Ks I've recently run. So there's some improvement there (though it also could be that I'm better at 10 milers than 5Ks).
As soon as I could, I pulled over in the finish chute, sat down, and loosened my shoes. Ahhh....much better.
***
As it turned out, I was concentrating so hard on staying on my feet that I missed a lot of mile markers. My splits, as recorded on my Garmin, were:
Mile 1: 7:30
Mile 2: 7:10
Miles 3-4: 14:16 (7:08 pace)
Miles 5-8: 28:44 (7:11 pace)
Mile 9: 6:59
Mile 10: 7:00
So, the two miles where I felt like I was totally falling apart ended up being my two fastest. That's good to know, and a confidence booster - I still can close, even when hurting.
At the end of it all, this is not a personal worst for the 10 mile distance (I ran my first Cherry Blossom 10 Miler in 1:14 and change) but it's not far from it. It's also nearly a minute per mile slower than the last time I ran this race.
Despite all that, I'm not upset with this race. Sure, I would have liked to have run a bit faster and dipped under 70, but at the same time, I feel like I've come a long way in the last few weeks. Furthermore, I now have the confidence to enter a race of nearly any size and know that I will be able to manage it - that's a far cry from about 9 weeks ago, when the start line of a 200 person 5K was a struggle. There's a lot to be happy about here.
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