Hubs and I ran the Broad Street 10 Miler on Sunday with 34,000 of our closest friends.
We had started training at the end of February and were pretty good about it for a month. Then we got distracted and training for a run became last priority. When we got back from vacation, April 1, we went for a 6 mile run and both felt pretty confident. After that life got in the way and training fell by the wayside. Since that one 6 mile run I ran only one other time for 6 miles and it was HARD.
Since we were completely under prepared, I wasn't so crazy about getting a good time and just didn't want to finish last.
Hubs and I woke up at 5:15, got ready and headed towards downtown where we'd be parking. Once we got parked, we had to hop on the subway to get to the start line. Here I am still cheerful waiting for the train.
The energy and excitement of the crowd was infectious. We were so excited to get this show on the road. Once we got to our stop everyone flooded up the stairs and we were exactly at my corral, this is where we parted ways so he could run with the faster folks.
There was about a 20 minute wait until the race kicked off. I just chilled waiting for everything to start moving and ready to get started. Once the crowd started moving forward, I got Runkeeper queued up to keep me on track with my intervals and to keep me on top of my pace.
I ran the first two miles pretty quickly and was sticking with my run 4 minutes, walk 1 intervals with no issues. After the first water stop, my run pace slowed a little bit, but I still stuck with the intervals. We were running through neighborhoods at this point with folks standing on their porches and cheering for everyone. Around the 3 mile mark, these three girls were doing Zumba on the side.
We ran through Temple University where students were out cheering for all the runners. It was so nice to see people sticking around and still cheering for us slow pokes in the back.
At this point I could see City Hall in the distance. It looked so small and was only the halfway point!!! I was still feeling pretty good at 4 miles, just trucking along. I knew my mom was around the 6 mile mark to cheer us on, so I just kept thinking, make it to City Hall, then make sure you're still looking good at 6 miles.
Just around 5 miles, City Hall finally seemed reachable. I was going to make it at least half way and still feeling good! At about 5 1/2 miles is when I started losing my intervals. This was also approaching my max run previous to this race. I was at least running when I got to my mom. It was great to see someone cheering for ME and not just waving to everyone else's friends and family.
After 6 miles there were a lot more bands along the route and more spectators cheering. Since I wasn't so concerned with getting the best time, I enjoyed every second of the race. I had a giant smile plastered on the whole time. I was high fiving little kids, singing with the bands as I ran by, and waving to all of the spectators. There were some great posters along the way, here were a couple of my favorites:
I had set up updates to be emailed to me for both mine and hubs' splits. At about 7 miles I switched to 3 minutes run, 2 minutes walk. I took the walk breaks to check in on hubs. I saw that he crossed the 3, 5, and 7 mile marks all at about a 10 min/mile pace. I couldn't have been more proud of him. Since I knew he was cruising along, I just had to get myself across the finish line. I had friends waiting at the 9 mile mark, so I was just ticking away the miles and minutes until I had to look good running for them. Once I saw them yelling and screaming I knew I was almost done. A few minutes later I saw the 1/2 mile to go sign.
I wanted to badly to run for the last half mile, but my body just wouldn't do it. I knew that when I saw the Navy Yard gates it would be another 1/4 mile. I was so close, and it just seemed so far away. Finally I got through the gates, ran under the photographers (smiling of course) and saw the finish line.
From there it was just give it all I've got and don't let anyone pass me. I knew hubs was waiting for me to get across the line.
Once I collected my medal, water, and snacks, hubs and I just basked in the glory of being DONE. This was my first race getting a medal and I would by lying to you if I said I didn't wear it to work on Monday. :) I was proud of that sucker.
We found our friends who were tailgating, had some food and a beer then headed back to our car to make the 2 1/2 hour drive home.
Thankfully we had brought wipes and clean clothes so we wouldn't have to sit in our post race stink for the drive.
It was so fun to compare stories with hubs and share our different experiences.
This was seriously such a great run and I had such a blast doing it. I would do it again in a heartbeat, maybe just put a little more effort into training before it next time.
I have a 10k in Annapolis in a couple weeks, I'm going to be hitting the trails before that so I can attempt at getting a decent(ish) time.
