Broad Street Run

Well I ran the Broad Street Run today. Last year this was the first race that I ran and I did not run it very well. I was very fat and injured and averaged a 14:26 mile over the ten mile course. Today my average pace was 10:11. This is a 4:15 improvement per mile, I feel safe saying that I will never have this degree of improvement ever again in my running. The thing is that I lost about two and half minutes over the course on the water breaks. It seems that running in the pack means that there is more of a crowd at the water stations. If I had been able to take the stations as I usually do I probably could have shaved a minute or so off this time. It is a minor thing to complain about over all.

This is a great course. It is a straight 10 mile course through the heart of Philadelphia. It is a fast course, so maybe I should not feel to awesome about my time (but I do). There are some ups but it is mostly a down course. There are lots of bands and the Mayor of Philadelphia set you off and you can high five the Governor of Pennsylvania just after City Hall. It is a good time. There were more than 19000 finishers today. You read right, 19000. It really is an unbelievable number of people showing up for this run. I know there are more crowded ones out there, but 19000 is still 19000. The nice thing for family is that at the end they have some moon bounces, big slides, face painting, artists, balloon animals and so on. It is pretty nice start to finish.

I felt very good to wipe the 14:26 off the record and replace it with a 10:11. It was a good feeling. I was steady the entire way and was able to maintain a sub-10:00 pace, but for the water stops where I picked up a lot of time. As to the hip, I felt some pressure during the run, I picked this up about mile 5. There was no pain, only pressure and once the race was over it was gone. I think this is good news. I am still trying to recover from this little injury and it is good news to me that there was no pain involved on this one.

I am very pleased with this one.

Returning to the Scene of the Crime

I really began running last March, and my first run was the Broad Street Run. This is a great race. The course goes straight through Philadelphia for 10 miles and is downhill the whole way. It is not a steep downhill but it is downhill. I feel like I have come full circle in a way. This weekend the Broad Street Run is here again and this will be the first time I have run a race a second time. It is exciting.

This was my first race ever. I think for that reason it holds some special meaning for me. The excitement and atmosphere was electric. There are thousands of folks with bands and well wishers. It was amazing. I think my real love of running was born on this course.

I am really looking forward to breaking my record from last year. This should not be a major feat as last year my pace was 14:26. I would like to blame it on the sprained ankle I had at the time. But the truth is that I was very fat and very out of shape. This was my start and since then I have dropped about 70 pounds and I generally run about 3 and1/2 to 4 minutes faster per mile. More than the marathon, this one means something to me.

I have learned a lot since last May. I am hoping to have a great time and hope to run a good race. This is great.

Here is my Last year's Broad Street Run race report.

Injury news:
-- After the stretching from my martial arts class last night, my hip feels about 25% better today than yesterday. I think my odds of running the marathon are now about 85%, if this keeps up I see no trouble. I will hold off on any running until Thursday to foster healing but I will continue to stretch and cross train. I have to hit a couple of times a week or I don't feel right. I am a strange man.