Alternatively titled not my best race…. No just kidding, my time was fine, not bad by any means I just felt off the entire race. I felt like I was in fog and couldn’t get out of my funk and enjoy the race, especially since halfway thru I knew I wasn’t going to meet my goal. I’m not sure if I wasn’t hydrated enough, too much on my mind in life, or if it just wasn’t my day. That being said I was just in a bad mindset the whole race so this isn’t the most inspiring or uplifting race recap, haha.
Ok so some pre-Broad Street Run race recap logistics … the night before the race I stayed up watching the Pens lose instead of getting into bed extra early, but I had adequate sleep overall so I don’t think that was a factor. I woke up a 6 am which is my usual daily wake up time and go to the race start by 7:30. I hung out with my friend Josh and we were planning to run together and finish around 1:20. We chatted, stretched a little, and then squeezed into a corral last minute. FYI over 40,000 run this race so it’s incredibly crowded, but we actually started around 8:15.
Miles 1-3 Average Pace: 8:08 (Mile 3- 24:23)
Josh took off the first mile, practically running a 7:30 min/mile… I did not sign on for that so after struggling to keep up with him the first mile I lost him shortly after that. My goal was to keep him in my view but by mile 2 I was already feeling beat and he was long gone. Feeling off and tired already I decided to take in my first gel. I only planned to use one the whole race but packed two and man I was glad I did since I felt I needed it before finishing 3 miles. Mile 3 I tried to do the math and see what my pace was for the first 3 miles and my brain was just in a fog, the math didn’t make sense (I calculated 9:00min/miles).
Miles 1-5 Average Pace: 8:16 (Mile 5- 41:19)
So clearly I was slowing down after the first 3 miles… I honestly can’t even remember half this race- it’s a blur. I’ve never felt this way during a race before. I kept trying to push myself but was falling short. At this point I knew my 1:20 wasn’t going to happen today since I was already struggling and wasn’t even running super-fast.
Miles 1-7 Average Pace: 8:22 (Mile 7- 58.31)
From this we can deduce that miles 6 and 7 were 8:30 minute miles- I actually think this was my slowest part of the race but this is also when GPS gets whacky so I had no idea about my pace. I took in my second gel around here I think. I was super happy in my dazed state to see mile 7 and thought yes, less than a 5k to go and that makes me sad because I usually love this race and those last 3 miles are full of spectators and fun signs. I can’t recall any of them.
Miles 1-10 Average Pace 8:25 (*Finish-1:24:06)
I tried my best to pick it up here but pretty much stuck with my 8:30 min/mile pace which isn’t my strongest effort. I was happy to be done but disappointed overall with my race. But I was only a minute off from a PR so I shouldn’t be too hard on myself… it’s just tough when I felt I was capable of much faster race and wasn’t totally sure why I fell so short and that’s still to be determined. I just have never felt that way during a race mentally. Sure marathons beat the crap of you mentally but this was a short fun run. My mouth didn’t hurt, my foot didn’t hurt, I’m not sure if the antibiotics messed with my system? If anyone wants to weigh in on that? (I’m on Penicillin).
Oh well though, what can you do? Suck it up, move on and get ready for triathlon season. Hoping to do a least one tri a month over the summer including gearing up for my first half ironman. My husband seems to think I didn’t care about the Broad Street Run since it was pretty much my smallest and least significant race of the year… and maybe he’s right and that’s why I couldn’t get my head right. I’m pumped for triathlon season to start even though I have an extremely busy summer planned I need to bust out a training plan immediately! Bye-bye road races, hello swim, bike, run!!
Did you run Broad Street Run or another race this weekend?? How did it go? Have you ever had a crazy off day like I described above!?
