03 May 2009

Broad Street Run Race Report

Well, today's run did not go exactly as planned. I had trouble keeping my pace where I wanted and went out too fast to start. It is hard to not get caught up in the crowd and just run at their pace.

It took me twenty minutes to get across the start line. Once there, people were still packed pretty tight, but they all seemed to be trying to weave in and out to get further ahead. With so many people passing me at the start, I could not help but keep my pace fast.

I was feeling good for all of the first half. I knew I was running a little too fast, but nothing really hurt, and I felt good. At mile five I was still on pace to finish under 1:45, but when we got to City Hall I needed to talk a short walk break. Thirty seconds of fast walking and then I was back into it.

I walked through each water stop after that. My legs started screaming at me and with 5k to go I really had to dig down to keep moving forward.

Seeing the stadiums gave me a little added boost, but it was hard to speed up. My legs wouldn't really go, and the street was still crowded. Those last two miles seemed to crawl by.

With a mile to go I wanted to push the pace and try to do a nine minute mile, but my legs were like lead. To add to that, I had moved all the way to the left, in hopes of seeing my son on the sidelines, and I had run up behind an ambulance slowly creeping down the road. I tried to get around it, but everyone was just so cramped together. It took a quarter mile to finally get in front of the thing.

I ended up seeing my son and yelled for him. He was pretty close to the finish line, and if it was not raining so hard I would have probably lifted him over the fence and had him run with me. He may have been a little scared of the crowd though... maybe next year.

I crossed the finish line and raised my hands... partly in victory, but mainly in praise. It is a blessing to be able to do something like this. People take it for granted. Praise the Lord!

After the finish line, I saw volunteers handing out the medals. For the few short seconds, as I stared at the medal and walked closer to get mine, there was a sense of satisfaction that swept over me. A sense of accomplishment and another true sense of praise.

My body was really feeling it, but I finished!

Here were my splits from my Garmin:
10:33
09:57
10:00
10:14
10:28
10:44
11:07
11:18
10:55
11:00

My official chip time was 1:46:45. Just a minute forty five over my goal. I was so close and at the halfway point was still on pace to do it, but I am happy with my finish.

Congratulations to everyone that ran!

7 comments:

Progman2000 said...

Savor the sense of accomplishment and think about the majority of people that stayed on the couch yesterday while you were running in the rain. Congrats!

joyRuN said...

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Enjoy that deep sense of satisfaction & accomplishment, because you've earned it.

Brian said...

Awesome job! Big congrats to you. REST!

Kim said...

Great job!! Sounds like you pushed hard and gave it your all. That's what it's all about. Enjoy that glow you get after such a great race!

Some guy named John said...

Excellent race and race report! Well done. I say blame missing the time goal on the ambulance! That probably did account for a substantial part of the extra 1:45.

Lindsay said...

awesome job! you were really close to your goal, and i don't doubt you would've easily gotten it without the heavy crowds. glad you enjoyed it and hope the recovery is going well!

Sonia said...

Great race! It's hard not to start to fast!! Even when you'Ve done lots of races is really hard to hold back!

I think you did really well coming very close to your goal time!

Congrats!