This past Sunday was the 2011 Broad Street 10 Mile Run in Philadelphia. Christina and I both planned to run in this race together just like last year, but since she fell and hurt her knee in the beginning of April, she was unable to run. Broad Street is a 10 mile run that is pretty much a straight shot down Broad Street in Philadelphia, starting on the North end and finishing in the South end of Broad Street. I ran Broad Street last year and had so much fun so I decided to sign up and run again this year. Broad Street is the largest 10-miler in the United States with about 25, 200 participants! The weather this year was perfect…so much better than the weather last year which was incredibly hot and humid.
Although Christina did not run, a lot of my friends did…including Todd! This was Todd’s 2nd race ever (his first being a 5K) and also the furthest distance he has ever ran! Todd went on a total of about 6 runs to train for this including one 8-miler. So if he decides to do this race again and actually trains properly for it, he could make huge improvements on his time! Todd did amazing and I am so proud of him for running 10 miles! Running 10 miles is a big accomplishment and I don’t think Todd ever imagined himself running that distance. He ran the entire thing with no walking alongside of our great friend, Lauren. This was also Lauren’s distance PR so Todd and Lauren made for great running buddies. We watched them both cross the finish line in a time of 1:56:32. I was so excited and proud to see them both accomplish such a huge goal! I think they both had a great time running so I hope this means many more races for them in the future!!
I ran Broad Street with another one of our great friends, Pat. Pat is a friend from high school who recently got back into running. Although, you wouldn’t know this because he is an amazing runner! We chatted a bit beforehand and decided our goals would be to break 1:15 and hopefully finish around 1:14. Last year I ran Broad Street in 1:16 so I was hoping to improve upon this time. My previous PR for 10 miles was 1:14:07 which I set in August 2008. I wasn’t sure if I was capable of breaking this PR, but I really wanted to try!
The morning of the race I also ran into Lindsey, Steph and Christine! We lined up at the starting line together and then we dispersed once the race started. I ran almost the entire race with Pat though. We had goals to hit around 7:35/7:40 for the first mile and that did not happen at all. We were feeling good but I was still afraid that we were going out too fast and that we would crash at the end. We tried slowing it down a few different times in the first half, but it did not work out too well because Christina wasn’t there to yell at me to slow the pace down. We were feeling pretty good the whole time and then when Pat said only 2 more miles left, I could definitely feel the race begin to get harder for me. Just before mile 9, Pat picked up the pace a little bit and eventually cruised into the finish line with a time of 1:11:04! Not too shabby for his first real racing experience! I came in a little bit after him in 1:11:41…a huge PR for me. I owe a huge THANKS to Pat for helping me get this PR. He really helped me to push my pace to reach my highest potential! I also owe a huge thanks to Pat’s wife, Brittany. She was awesome and was there to cheer us on, take pictures, and drive us to the start and home afterwards…thank you so much Britt!!! You are the best.
My older sister, Danielle, also ran in Broad Street. I was happy to see her in the early miles of the race. I ran over and gave her a little hug and kept on going. She looked great though and ended up finishing in 1:16:09! She did amazing and I’m so proud of her!!
Here are my & Pat’s splits according to my Garmin. Obviously it was not completely accurate as we did not run mile 7 at 5:43!!!
splits according to Garmin.
Congratulations to everyone who ran Broad Street on Sunday! It was a really fun run and I was so happy to share it with some of my best friends.
**Pictures to come soon!**
On another note, I wanted to congratulate the Bishop Eustace Crew team. This past weekend they had two regattas and won a LOT of medals! The Girls Freshman won 1st and 2nd place, The Girls Lightweights won 1st and 2nd place, the Girls Varsity 4 won 1st and 2nd place, Girls JV4 won 1st place, the Boys Lightweights won 1st place, the Boys Freshman 4 won 1st place, and the Boys double won 1st place!! This is absolutely awesome and I am so excited for the regatta next weekend where they will see different teams that they did not race this weekend!
the girls lightweight 8 and varsity 4.
the mooney twins !
It was an awesome weekend for running and rowing and it ended perfectly at the Phillies game with my sister, my Dad, and Todd. The Phillies didn’t win, but our seats were the best seats I have ever sat in and probably will ever sit in. The game didn’t start until 8:05 and it went into the 14th inning, so needless to say it was a long night, but also a really fun night.
…and now I am getting really excited to watch the Flyers game tonight. Game 2 vs. Boston…let’s go flyers!!!!
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Congrats on the PR!!!! That’s so exciting! I ran it last year and had a blast. I opted out this year because I have two big races this week. My coach broke his goal of 1 hour and ran something between 58 – 59 minutes. He’s in his 40′s. Crazy, right!?
My whole family is at the flyers game right now. After the last game, they could really use a win! I want to see another stanley cup championship!!!
I’m going to a Phillies game this weekend…I can’t waittt!
Congrats on another race well-run!
Congrats, Mary!!! (And Todd, too!!!) You are so speedy and that is such a huge PR. Broad Street sounds like such a fun run- I remember wishing I could run it last year, but it was only a month or so after I just started running.
Maybe next year! You rock!
so much fun !! looks like you had a winning weekend !
{ 3 trackbacks }