It’s not a secret that I’ve been injured off and on during the last year. I can’t remember the last time I finished a race where I felt confident, satisfied or 100% happy with the results. The only race in the last year (since Broad Street 2014) that has met any of my expectations would be the Icicle 10 miler in January.
I entered the lottery of Broad Street while I was still injured my with my bum butt. I had hopes I would feel better before the race but if I didn’t, I would only have wasted about 40 dollars on the race entry fee. Spoiler: I finished the race 100% injury free.
My inlaws, Tim and myself headed to the race around 6:15. My father in law and myself were running Broad Street while Tim and Greta spectated. I was grateful they just dropped us off at the start because I know as much about taking the train as I do about technology.
After getting to the start, we relaxed, stood in line for the bathroom and chatted. I didn’t warm up before the race for a couple of reasons:
- I haven’t been doing a lot of mileage that I should or need to be doing extra miles. I’m not in the fitness I was and should save my energy.
- With Broad Street, it’s really crowded and I didn’t want to try and weave through people.
The race:
I dropped my items off and headed to the start. I was in the red corral and with 40,000 people running it took a while to actually get there. After getting in the corral, they announced the race and we were off. I didn’t have much time to chat but I also didn’t see many friends.
Despite feeling tired from lack of sleep, the first mile felt pretty easy. I ran a 6:27 first mile. That’s the pace I’ve been able to run 5ks recently (and felt extremely tired). I knew I would either blow up mid-way through the race or surprise myself. I focused on running my own race and not worrying about other people. It’s hard to run your own race when there are dozens of people whizzing by you but I just remembered “you do you girl”…I don’t even remember where I heard that from.
I hit the second mile in 6:27 and I began to feel confident with the pacing. My body didn’t feel great or awful, I just felt like I was running fast. I began to feel really excited that maybe I could maintain a pace under 6:45. I haven’t been consistently training so my primary goal was to finish injury free. In my mind, the reach goal was a 6:45 pace.
During the third mile I grabbed water and ran a 6:33. It didn’t feel harder but I thought I just took the race out too quickly and was starting to slow down. Then during the fourth mile, I ran a 6:26 so I didn’t feel like I lost energy just yet.
The fifth and sixth miles were both blurs to me. When I am running consistently I begin to pick people off in the second half of a race. This was not the case for Broad Street and I began fighting to hold onto the pace. I ran both miles in 6:33.
The 7th mile was the most mentally challenging. In ten miles, it’s way too soon to consider yourself “almost there” but you are approaching that point. Mentally the seventh mile felt like it took about half of the race.
By mile 8 I began seeing friends. It’s unfortunate because that is when I felt the most tired. I didn’t feel like I was going to go into cardiac arrest but I didn’t feel good. My pace began slowing and I ran the last few miles in 6:42.
During mile 9 I was focused on finishing the race. You can see the stadium from a distance and by that point you just want to finish. The last .4 is staring almost directly at the finish line. I find that type of finish the absolute hardest…I just wanted a teleporting machine…(RnR VA Beach has a 1-2 mile stretch of staring at the finish line).
Several go getters powered by me in the last .1 but I lacked that kick. I finished in 1:05.39 and 85th woman overall. I met and surpassed all of my goals and expectations and could not be happier with the race. I haven’t felt that good during a race in a very long time. As I mentioned yesterday, I want to focus on shorter distances for a while. This race gave me a lot of confidence to begin running and training again.
I even got to see a few friends post race including Liz!
Finally, I’ve been asked a lot of why I never took my gloves off. My fingers were cold that morning and I meant to take them off. They are throwaway gloves from work so I didn’t have a mental attachment to them. I delayered and threw away a jacket but started the race with the gloves. I never felt overheated and never took them off. They worked well to wipe away a lot of snot I had (sorry if that is TMI). I debated taking them off but just did never did….I know such an anticlimactic story.
Anyways great Broad Street and onward to another (injury free) race. Hopefully it’s time to put the injuries behind me.
Smoking fast time, Hollie! Congrats to you for such an awesome race and day! Love that race, I really do. And 10-milers in general.
I always hold onto my throwaway gloves and often keep them on for a long time, too. I have some weird thing about tossing them!
Congratulations on a great race and a great time, Hollie. I know you’re coming back from a lot but finishing 85th female is pretty amazing. Plus you get the confidence that a good race brings, it always makes my training go well and motivates me :). I love the pic of you and Liz, already saw it on Liz’s blog. It’s fun that you got to share the race (really big race too) and fun to run a 10 mile, not many of those here.
I’ve raced plenty of times in tech shirts, shorts, and gloves… and I almost always have my throwaway gloves on at the end of the race- my fingers stay cold!
Amazing! Congrats! I always love reading your race recaps because it’s very similar to how I think of my own. I laughed when you said you weren’t in cardiac arrest because that is a legit question I’ve asked myself during a race. If the answer is no, we push on 🙂
Great recap! Brings back so many good memories!! My hands are ALWAYS cold so I tend to run with gloves until June #JudgementFreeZone You’ve totally reaffirmed – I’m entering the lottery for next year!
Congrats on such a strong race! I always end up doing the best when I don’t expect to have a good race. Really happy for you that you found your groove 🙂 Broad Street is a race I’ve always wanted to do. Maybe next year. You had perfect weather for it!
Races with more than half mile of staring at the finish are the epitome of evil.
Wahooooo! Broad Street is on my bucket list. As you know, everyone raves about it, and I’d love to make it a goal race. Perfect course for it! I never throw away gloves either. I get paranoid I might get cold later and want to put them back on–always be prepared!
So thrilled that the race and pace felt so good for you!! I’m dying to run that race!
Next year you are coming and you know my house is always open for you Kris!
YES YES YES!!! So happy for you Hollie!
I cannot thank you enough for getting my hip back where it should be!
That sounds like a fun race, and I agree with you on hating when you can see the finish line FOREVER. I think its funny you kept your gloves on the whole time, but you might be onto something about wiping away sweat and snot…
Congrats! That’s a great finish for no real training since your marathon! Broad Street is bittersweet for me. I wanted to enjoy the race so, so badly. It was my first “race” and I had the runner’s trots. Terrible, terrible. Just so terrible. TMI is the name of the game for me, so there was a lot of running knowledge built up after this race. First up -> Don’t eat oatmeal the night before the race.
Did I mention I have a lot of blonde moments? lol
I always love reading your race recaps. It’s so fun to see the similar thoughts people share along the same course. I never have an extra kick at the end of Broad Street and there are always so many people speeding past me while I’m just hanging on for dear life. I’m so glad you ran such an amazing race! You are an inspiration to me. It was so great that we got to meet up and hopefully we will race together more this summer!
yay for the injuries behind you.! Great job on that race.! you are always so speedy. I love running with gloves, well into spring and I am still rocking them. ha
Congrats on such an awesome finish and for an injury-free race!!! I’ll have to DM you my cell next time we’re both at the same race so we can finally say hi, lol.
I’m so glad you had a great race! Finishing injury free is always a good thing (and seemingly a rare thing for both of us lately). I also love that even though you were running really fast, it still doesn’t look like you’re running in some of your pictures. I guess it happens to everyone 🙂
Great job! I hate when I can see the finish line for that long – it’s so close, yet so far away!
40,000 people is so many! How do you navigate bigger races?
Hahaha- love the TMI- I was wondering about the gloves! Amazing race-huge congrats to finishing in the top 100 women! Glad to have found your blog 🙂
AWESOME job!!!! I was wondering about the throw away gloves too :). In the Richmond marathon I was behind a lady at mile 24 threw off a super nice pair of gloves…I was like seriously…you had them on that long, might as well keep them till the finish 🙂 (I am cheap…but they were like $30 gloves)!