Blue Cross Broad Street Run - Run

Gun time: 1:23:58 - 8:23.7/mile
Chip time: 1:20:42 - 8:04/mile

I am pretty happy with this. John and I were running together for most of the way. His plan was to take it out a little easy for the first 4 miles, pick it up a bit on the next 3 and race the last 3. I thought that sounded good so I tried to stay with him as long as I could. We were together for the first 4 miles and after that we got a bit separated because of people in the way and he started picking it up as planned. I did the same but it was difficult trying to catch up. I had him in my sights the whole way and we were never more that 5 - 10 seconds away from each other except for at the end. At that point I just kept running my own race but still wanted to catch up, but I didn't push too hard because I didn't want to bonk. I had my fuel belt with 5:1 Gatorade to water mix which suited me just fine and also raspberry Hammer Gel in a gel flask. My watch was set to go off every 12 minutes when I would take in an entire fuel belt bottle and every other 12 minutes a shot of gel. I felt like this worked well. I'm still having trouble figuring out what brand of gels are working best for me but that's besides the point. I don't really remember any point where I was suffering much but by mile 7.5, 8 I was feeling it, but not too bad. They played the Rocky theme at mile 8! Anyone from Philly knows what that music does to someone when they are getting the crap kicked out of them but are oh so close to the finish, but I thought it was too early. If it was at mile 9 I bet I could have really kicked in that final push, but no matter. I checked my watch at the 10K and I was at 49 minutes, which I was pleased with. Now I'm curios about what I could go in a stand-alone 10K but that will be for another day. I didn't get caught up in the race day adrenaline and go out too fast plus I had good people to get throught the day with. Yesterday's ride and today's run on no rest has been a real confidence booster. Sometimes I would question myself as to if i have been doing the right things but now I feel like it's coming together. I just have to stay level headed and no slack off or get ahead of myself.

I think I might have been able to push a little more towards the end, but I'm not sweating it

Caught up with John and waited for the twins to finish. Went and got water and food bags. A little stretching and a nice walk to the subwa station. I was worried that SEPTA wasn't giving free rides with your bib number after the race but thankfully they were. Nice relaxing subway ride to the end of the line where my parents picked me up.


Nothing much. Maybe just the fact that I wasn't rested at all. But this wasn't on my "A" schedule. More of a race to gague fitness, which I am becoming more and more confident with.


It was a fun day. TONS of people running. The water stations seemed OK but I didn't stop at any since I had my 6-bottle fuel belt and gel flask. Fans were sparse for a while until we made it to Center City and at the finish,