Oh Broad Street.
This race means so much to me. I’ve been at so many stages of my life at the start line and finish line here on Broad Street. I’ve gone in untrained and I’ve ran surprising PRs. I’ve ran in the heat and in the cold rain. I’ve pushed hard and I’ve walked slowly along on this course. I decided to run my first marathon at the finish line of this race. I’ve grown so much as a runner and person in the five years since my first time at the start.
This year, I am training for a Ragnar Relay. My original plan was to still “race” this wonderful 10 miler. I’d push hard and try to PR. But peroneal tendonitis ruled that out for me a few weeks ago. I put this year’s 10 miler on the back burner to make sure I was healed and ready for my 31 miles across PA in June. A few weeks ago I shifted my goal and I was just hoping to start healthy…and I (basically) did.
The great thing is is that my husband was doing the race, too. So I decided I’d go along with his pace and stick with him to the finish.
We had a really smooth morning! We woke up nice and early. I walked the dog and made coffee. We put on our race gear and headed out the door at 6am. We knew we were in for a long morning from the get go.
We parked at the stadiums near the finish line and took Septa up to the start, like many others do. As always, the station was PACKED with runners ready to get to the start. The key here is to use the portapotties here…because you still have at least 2 hours before your run anyway.
We were happy to run in to our BRC fam before getting on the train and headed down with a crew of about 10 of us. It was a long ride and we got a little dispersed once we got off the train. The start area is a madhouse and we were looking for bathrooms and our corral. We saw the bathroom lines and knew we had plenty of time to stand in them before we started (it was about 7:30 by this point and our corral wouldn’t go until around 8:30 anyway)but we didn’t want to risk it. So to all the people who were behind the bushes with me….sorry.
We hopped in to our corral by 8AM and were ready to go! We were in Green and started the race at about 8:20. The weather was perfect and we were ready for our 10 mile journey through Philadelphia.
The beginning of the race goes by so fast. Very little crowd support but you’re just happy to be moving by that point! My husband argued about who was speeding up who at the
start…we set out the first few miles a little ahead of pace (around 9:15 and our goal was 9:30). We decided to slow down at that point to keep it in the tank.
Unfortunately, our pace declined from there on out. We kept around that 9:30 for the next few miles, but starting off too fast was no good for Kyle. He overheated a little bit in the humid weather and we slowed down to a 10:00 mile for the last few miles.
We saw so many wonderful people, signs, shirts, puppies, and awesome scenes of Philly along the way. I noticed so many Eagles fans out there with signs – we’re still not living this Super Bowl win down and I LOVE IT!
Kyle and I finished strong in the Navy Yard and were happy to cross the finish line together. Another Broad Street in the books 🙂 We celebrated at Victory in Xfinity for some beers and snacks. I went home and ate Poptarts and chocolate and attempted to take a nap… but instead I watched Sex and the City 2 😀 Then it was back to the normal Sunday routine of making dinner and meal prepping for the week. It was wonderful. I just love race days so much.
So thank you again for another amazing race, Broad Street. I hope to see that start line again next year.
Namaste Real - Wellness & Running - Train With Ally 
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