10 miles of rawesomeness

Desiree talked me into running the Broad Street Run this year. Her aunt and her cousin's fiancee decided to run it, and so she thought it was fitting that we would run it too, since after all, a 10 mile run has nothing on the triathlon she finished last year.
Well, I probably should have known how that would end, considering Des has been ultra swamped with school work the past few months and had no time to train. So I ended up training for it and ran it this morning.

I woke up at 5:45 this morning and met my neighbor, Paul, who I rode down to the sports complex with...traffic was worse than game traffic, and kind of surprising because with an estimated 18,000 runners, we were no where near the same capacity as any of the stadiums. I guess not many people took public transportation or carpooled. Bummer for the environment.
After parking outside the spectrum, we took a quick pitstop at the porta-potties, and hopped on the subway up to the start of the race. We made our way to the 8-minute pace zone of the staging area, which was a bit faster than I ever thought I would run the race. Honestly, when I first started training I was only looking for a 10-minute pace which would have put me at 100 minutes. But Paul's previous 3 years experience of running the race told him that nobody lines up properly and we'd be weaving our way through walls of slower runners regardless.
Well, after a few brief speeches, including one from Mix Master Mike himself, Mayor Nutter, Paul's prediction proved correct. It took about 2 and a half minutes to even make it to the starting line after the horn sounded due to the 22,000 final count of runners, and hordes of them that were in front of us didn't seem to be in any kind of hurry.
The race starts in North Philly straight down Broad Street, and the first few miles go through some neighborhoods that have been hit pretty hard with some urban blight. But the residents who came out to cheer the runners on represented their neighborhoods well, dressed in their Sunday finest. Good people, and the encouragement was welcomed by all.
I remember hitting the 1 mile mark kind of surprised at how quick it came up, and then not seeing another mile marker until mile 4. I thought, 'does that mean I just ran 4 miles, or I am starting the fourth mile?' All this before I really started flagging.
It was a foggy morning, and the top of the Comcast tower in center city disappeared into the clouds. Not long after, larger pockets of spectators began to appear, and the first of two Stevie Ray Vaughn cover bands were jamming a bit south of Temple University. The race was over halfway complete by the time I passed the second one near City Hall.
South of City Hall was where the course started getting congested again, and I started to feel the fatigue a little.
There were a few other bands along the way, including a Polish folk four piece who played the Navy anthem, Anchors Aweigh, as I passed. That got me worked up until about the time I reached the sports complex again, and by now the sun was out and the sky was clear. The Rocky theme played over a PA somewhere, and I knew I was getting close. I missed a lot of the mile markers, presumably in an internal daze, but it was right around the 8 mile mark that I started hitting a wall. My vision was tunneling a little narrow and a few runners were falling out around me, but I wasn't going to stop for anything.
Soon enough, the 9 mile mark appeared, and the crowds were cheering and banging cowbells. I knew that the entrance to the Navy yard meant only a quarter mile to go, so I took off in a weak sprint, almost knocking somebody over trying to break through a gap in a wall of runners.

I reached the end of the race with a chip time of about 1 hour and 23 minutes, so I ended up with about an 8 minute and 20 second pace...far kicking the rear of the pace I was going after. Woo-hoo!

Flowers are nice, but...

The Philadelphia Flower Show started it all.

As I was pulling into the Haverford train station this morning at 8:56, I saw the train speeding away. It left the station 3 minutes early. Another person left behind on the track told me it was because of the flower show. I'm not quite sure that I grasp why a flower show would cause my train, which usually comes 2-3 minutes late, to leave 3 minutes early. But anyway, I missed my train because of the flower show. I was warned that train regulars hate the flower show crowd, and now I know why.

So anyway, I had to drive to school, and I had three mini-adventures. First, I was in the parking garage for the first time, pulling into an impossibly thin spot (I later found out that these were compact spots, but there was no sign). I backed out a little because I was having trouble getting into the spot, and I heard a beep. Now, I knew there was a car a little behind me, but it was stopped, waiting for me to park. I turned my head to look at the beeping, silver car, of course mouthing the words "What, you asshole", when I recognized my professor as the driver. So I stop - it's my professor, I'll let him have his way - and he peels by. This is a parking garage, and I can hear his tires screech against the concrete because he started up so fast. So now I am wondering if the professor recognized me or not. I guess it doesn't really matter, but he seems to be kind of a jerk (although I like him as a prof), so I don't want to be on his bad side and I want to know if I am on his bad side.

Second, I was in the garage later to leave. As I got to the unmanned ticket window, the red and white striped arm raised, allowing me to drive through, so I proceeded. All of the sudden, a loud, fire alarm-sounding beep starts, so I figured I did something wrong. I backed up and found no ticket slot, no one coming, people peering into the garage wondering about the noise, and a silver car behind me again. So I just left. Hopefully the silver car wasn't my professor again, and hopefully I won't get a call from the garage asking why I just left (I did pay!).

Third - and this is the big adventure - I drove down Lancaster Ave through West Philly. I've done this before, put it was particularly circus-like this time. There were double-parked cars (I've never actually seen one before, and there were multiple here!), wheelchaired-men with one elevated leg pushing themselves along with their other leg while jaywalking through the crowded and busy road, groups of 10 leisurely crossing the street at a 60-degree angle, cars passing trollys, cars driving in the bike lane, bikers zigzaging between the bike lane and the road. It goes on. If you want to test your driving skills, I'd recommend Lancaster Ave in West Philly - maybe try it during rush hour!

Now I remember why I take the train. Thanks for the reminder, flower show.

D

PS Still working on the cable.

S