Sunday, May 07, 2006

Broad Street Race Report (of sorts)

First, I would just like to thank god for the Pheonix Suns beating the LA Lakers last night. Now that is out of the way, onto the news . . .

I get to FDR Park around 6:15 am, and I am the third one to park my car there. I head on over to the Subway along with other runners that parked at the Stadiums and get out onto Northern Philly streets about 15 minutes later.

I have a lot of time to chill, so I just hang out and go over my 10 mile running plan. I figure "go slow" is the theme. Run a simple 8 minute pace for the first 5 miles and then crank it up from there. Maybe end the race with a good 7 minute mile at the end. Nothing to stressfull.

Well, right before the start I run into a dood I know from the club, and I discuss my plan. He says that sounds good and we head over to the start. He convinces me to hop in the 6 minute pace bracket for the start. At first I think he is crazy, but then I see a 12 year old next to me and some 220+ pound dood plugging in his Ipod. So I figure that "6 minute pace" must be relative. At this point we both admit that we need to pee really bad.

The gun goes off. The bladder is full, but we (myself and the dood) need to run. So we run the first mile. Passing a healthy amount of people. We are talking feeling good.
The first mile was 7:15. Hmmm. That was a little fast but I feel good. (Still need to pee though.)

Running and talking, we get to the second mile. ~13:45! Our pace seems to be going in the wrong direction. (the bladder is full!)

Mile 3: 20:35 I was a little worried. (the bladder is in danger mode)

Needless to say my go slow plan has failed. We have offically settled into a 6:50 pace. Thank fully around mile 4, we see some porto johns and get to the take a mid-race pee. After the mid-race pee, we decide that we need to pick up the pace for the lost time peeing. We probably did the middle mile around 6:35 pace.

Well, we run the rest of the way and I slowly melt into my pain cave. By mile 9, I am in full pain cave mode, and my 6:40 pace is now a sad 7:30 pace. I see 1 hour and 3 mintes with one mile to go. I crank out the last mile to end in 1:10 minutes and change. If you take into account the pee break and the time it took for me to cross the starting line, I ran ~1:08 !!!!

After Ice was administered to the legs and beer was applied to the brain.

Boston Marathon 2007 ?!?! (perhaps)

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