Today is the day that I have been looking forward to for months!  A few months back, I caught the running bug and decided that 5K runs were no longer going to cut it and that I wanted to try some longer distances, so Russ and I registered for the Broad Street Ten Mile Run, did some training and here we are!

We spent much of the day in downtown Philadelphia yesterday, picking up our race packets from the expo and then we grabbed dinner from the Reading Terminal Market with Russ’ roommates.

We woke up bright and early at 5:30 am to eat breakfast, get dressed, stretch (Russ), and still have plenty of time to figure out where we needed to go and what we needed to do before the 8:30 a.m. start time.  “Still have plenty of time” is the understatement of the year!  Everything was really well organized, so we took the subway to Broad and Olney where we were told to drop our stuff on any one of the parked buses…and then wait.  It was only 6:45 a.m. at this point, so we were quite cold to say the least!

We did a lot of standing, shivering, waiting in line for the port-a-potty (me, twice), all while trying to keep our spirits up!

I was still in line for the bathroom when the race officially started, but the timer chip was on our race bibs, so there wasn’t any rush.  We eventually made it to our start corral where we had to wait a bit longer for our group’s start.  At this point, I was pretty sure that I would be running without music since I had been planning to use Pandora, but didn’t think about the fact that 40,000 people in one place might make getting any service kind of difficult.  Miraculously, it turned on right as we were starting, which meant that I was also able to use Run Keeper, so we could track our progress!

Check out the coffee cups!  They run on Dunkin’! 

I was so excited when the race finally started and Russ and I both felt strong.  There were a ton of spectators there to cheer the runners on and get everyone going, which helped me push our pace from the beginning.  Russ and I started out faster than I anticipated and we got faster and faster with every mile that passed by.  I’m really glad that I was using Run Keeper throughout the race because since we had started so late, the mile markers weren’t very accurate -they were about 40 minutes off!

I felt great mile 1 through mile 5, as those miles seriously flew by.  Mile 6 was also a good mile, but I started to feel the run catching up with me at mile 7 and was tired of the weaving and ducking, but at mile 8, I think we both found a burst of energy and we were able to finish the race strong!  It was a relief to finally enter the Navy Yard and see the finish line up ahead of us!

We finished the race over 15 minutes faster than either of us had anticipated, which is awesome!  We both placed in the top 5,000, out of 39,000 people.  Not too shabby for our first time!

After the race, we walked through the refreshment area, picked up our goodie bags and visited the Dunkin Donuts booth, then headed to the shuttle bus that would take us home.

Running today was an incredible experience and the more races I run, the more amazed I am by the running community and the people that come out to support the runners.  There is always this incredible positive and supportive energy that can’t be found anywhere else and it was so heartwarming to see the outpouring of support for Boston!  Many runners wore red socks and our goodie bags included stickers that said “To Boston, From Philadelphia, With Love”.  I definitely wouldn’t have been able to push myself without Russ on my tail, but also the people that spent their Sunday morning cheering us on, handing out water, giving high-fives and volunteering their time to make this happen.

It was so much fun and we’re already looking forward to next year’s race!  In the meantime, we have a half marathon in September, and I’m the verge of registering for a triathlon….
Oh, and we had such a successful race that Runner’s Magazine will be featuring us on their cover next month 😉