Broad Street Run Recap Part Two: #Rain 
So … race day. It was raining. #NotAFan
I got up, got dressed, tried to get ready without waking Beth up … and didn’t have time for coffee. So I made coffee to go, called an Uber, and Beth waited for the Uber with me (and walked with me to the car when the driver couldn’t find her parking lot and just ended up in the train station parking lot … whatever).
At this point I was wearing a tank top, my Minnie Mouse (short sleeves) shirt, a long sleeve throwaway shirt, capris, a polka dot skirt, and a poncho.
I had a chatty Uber driver, but honestly, whatever. It’s fine. I can talk about races all day. She dropped me off close to the start area, and I wandered around trying to find the gear check buses (there were no signs or anything). I finally found buses, picked a bus, and gave them my bag check bag.
I considered heading over to the high school athletic field to try to find
@Novatrix, but I kinda just wanted to find something shelter-like and huddle there (I was huddling under a tree, which actually kept me less wet). Eventually I made my way over to the corrals, which were labelled, but the only thing separating corrals was a two volunteers holding their version of the famous runDisney tape, so it really wasn’t so easy to see where the corrals started and ended. And there were multiple ways to get into the corrals (I walked into yellow through the back of gray, which I’ve never done before). And nobody was checking to make sure people were in the right corral. I was a little surprised at how disorganized the corrals seemed.
You’d think a race that’s been going on for 40 years would be a little better at the logistics. That baffled me a bit. Although … the finish line was worse. But we’ll get to that.
Anyway … back to the story. So I’m chilling in the corral, and there’s a guy in front of me wearing what looks like a Disney shirt and a woman a few rows behind me using a runDisney mylar blanket as a poncho, but I don’t talk to people, so I just take comfort in knowing that there are more of “my people” around.
And then the woman in the runDisney mylar blanket poncho comes over to me.
“Is your name Sarah?” Yes…
“Are you on the DISBoards?” Yes…
It was
@MommaoffherRocker! It was great to meet her and chat for a bit before the race. Having someone to talk to always makes the wait for the start a little easier. I'm so glad she came over to say hi!
At some point in time the race had started (not that I know when, since there was no announcement or loudspeaker and I really had no idea what was going on in front of me … seriously
). Eventually they walked our corral up to the start line (we ditched our ponchos at some point along the way and I ate my gel), and according to Garmin, I started the race at 8:37 AM.
I know that I tend to start races too fast, so I started this one with the intention of going at a “comfortable” pace for a little bit. With the course being pretty much straight with minimal turning, I figured my GPS would actually be close to accurate for a change. My first few miles were in the 10:25-10:35 range, which is pretty much where I wanted to be, so I was in good shape. I sped up a bit in mile 3, but then slowed down in miles 4 and 5 because I was stopping to take some pictures. Pace was still pretty good, and I felt good. I was considering ditching my top layer, but I kept getting cold again, so I ended up keeping it on the whole time.
This course is almost entirely straight - except around City Hall, where it turns twice (because Broad St goes through City Hall, and apparently they don’t want us doing that, so we have to go around). This is at around mile 5.5 on the course … and something weird happened. I got my mile 6 alert. Um … what? Apparently my GPS had a nutty near City Hall and added half a mile. I knew that the distance was fairly accurate until there (it's hard to add too much distance just going straight), so I just mentally subtracted 0.5 miles going forward. I couldn’t trust the pace anymore (since for races I do average pace, not current pace), so I decided to just check my time at the mile markers and see if I was still below the time that would correspond to an 11 min/mile pace.
While the Center City parts of the course were interesting (I particularly liked seeing the Temple University marching band out), I found a decent amount of the course to be kinda boring. It was a lot of houses and stores … the same kind of stuff I can see running around here (well, here it’s apartment buildings, but by my parents its houses). There were people out cheering, which was nice, but I’m someone who enjoys the view more than the people, so it didn’t really do too much for me.
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Somewhere towards the end of the race, I want to say near mile 8, I saw a guy with a long beard wearing a Cards hat. I was pretty sure it was @jennamfeo’s husband … and Jenna had told me that she was going to be out cheering (I ruined my own surprise by seeing her Philly pictures on Insta on Friday and then asking her about it). But I didn’t see Jenna, and instead of asking her husband where she was (spoiler alert: apparently she was there, but on the median, where I didn’t think to look), I just texted her on my next walk break. So that was a stupid move because it meant I missed seeing Jenna and getting encouragement from her on the course (I was also hoping that maybe she had coffee for me, because I desperately needed some caffeine, but I figured that wasn’t likely).
Anyway … somewhere around the mile 8 or 9 marker I saw that I was at risk of losing my sub-11 min/mi finish, so I decided to push myself a bit. It felt like running my 10 mi pace during training. Which made me realize that I had been trying to work off of the race excitement for too long and I probably could have started pushing myself earlier. But whatever. I saw the entrance to the Navy Yard up ahead, and after slowing to a walk to take a picture, I tried to stick to the same pushing pace, and I was mostly able to do it. When I saw the finish line, I glanced at my watch and saw that sub-1:50 was doable but not definite, so I started sprinting like a bat out of hell (so much weaving around people) and crossed the finish line with my watch showing a sub-1:50 time. Yay!
Official Time:
1:49:32
… And then I promptly wound up in a wall of people (I had seen it from the other side of the finish line). Not sure if this is normal for this race or if it was just that something got messed up, but there was a slow moving wall of people just past the finish line. I joined the masses and eventually made my way to the food tent, where I got a bottle of water, a banana, a TastyKake cookie bar, and a bag of pretzels. Then I had to deal with more masses to get a medal. Next stop was the gear check area, where I had to find the bus with my gear. The buses were not in any particular order. But eventually I found my bus and got my stuff. Oh, and I got my heatsheet from a roll on the ground, with no staff or volunteers around to give them out.
Really … I was not impressed with the logistics and organization at this race. Sigh. It’s not like they’ve been doing this for 40 years.
Anyway … at some point in time Jenna had texted me saying that she was going to come to the finish area, but then she told me that they wouldn’t let her in (
), which was very sad. Especially because I’m pretty sure friends and family were supposed to be allowed in the finish area and I think I saw other people who looked like they hadn’t just run the race, so … yeah.
Back to the story. I got some coffee (and a gift card) from the Dunkin’ booth, and then made my way to a “shuttle” (aka school bus) to the after party at FDR park. This bus ride was way longer than I want to be on a bus right after a race.
Eventually the bus dropped us off, and then there was the walk to the party. And it had started raining harder at this point in time. I was wet (still hadn’t gotten a chance to change into my dry clothing) and just not a fan. Once I got to the beer garden area, someone checked my bib to make sure I was over 21, then stamped my hand (the stamp washed off very quickly). I went to the area where they were giving out the free drinks, gave them my ticket, and asked for a beer. They were selling drinks for $5, so I figured I’d just buy a hard seltzer after. It was still raining, so I went to hang out in the tent where they had cornhole (and were selling drinks). I drank my beer, which was drinkable but not great, but I had a hard time finishing it, mostly because I had to pee. There were some portapotties set up, so once I finished my beer, I took the biggest risk ever and went to a portapotty, where I changed into my dry clothing and relieved myself.
I went back to the tent intending to get a seltzer, but I felt kinda awkward being there by myself just drinking, so I left and made my way to the subway. And now I want to buy the seltzer in a store somewhere just to try it. We’ll see if I decide to pick up an individual can somewhere or get a variety pack or just never end up trying it.
tl;dr - The after party probably would have been more fun if I hadn’t been solo.
I took the Broad Street Line subway (which was free) to the regional rail ($4 to go one stop!), then walked to Beth (like 10 feet … she’s right by the train station). And then I took a shower and had hot chocolate and soup and all was right with the world again.
The end.
Anyway … this was mostly a good race. I definitely recommend it, especially if you’re someone who really feeds off of the crowds and the spectators.
But I don’t feel compelled to go back and do it again. Once was enough for me.
Stay tuned for what's next ... I'm still figuring a few things out about how I plan to handle summer running (if at all). I haven't run since the race, but did my first barre3 class today.
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