Philly 10-Miler

My second order of business was to participate in the 2010 Blue Cross Broad Street Run, a 10-mile run down Philadelphia's Broad Street. You may remember from my Training Day post, this is the second year in a row that I have participated with our friends from Virginia Tech. Since Jon wasn't with me this year, I drove up to Philly with our friend Rick and stayed with our gracious hosts, the Mayes's. It was a really nice time, I got to see two of our friend's little rascals, like Harper Mayes (pictured to the right with her beautiful mom Kelli), who was just a peanut the last time I saw her and Leighton Hill (pictured to the left, with her georgous glowing mom Kelly - who is now expecting another little girl!) who is a mini grown up now. We had a great carbo-load dinner on Saturday night and then went to bed pretty early to prepare for the 8:30am race time.

The race took place Sunday morning, and due to the crazy last-minute-madness of last year we left at 6:30am to get to the starting line in time which translated to a 5:30am wake-up call. We were all hoping for a nice day after last year's rainy race day, but we got a little more than we asked for when the Weather Channel called for record heat in Philly. We got to the race with a few minutes to spare, even after we fared the insane port-o-potty lines. There were 30,000 people registered for the race, so it takes a while to get to the starting line. The nice thing is that your race time is recorded based off of a chip in the race bib provided in the race packets, so there is no huge rush to cross the starting line. At the time that we crossed the starting line, it felt like it was about 80 degrees with 75% humidity, it was miserable. Philly did a great job of accommodating the heat by setting up extra drink stands and opening many of the fire hydrants along the race so that we could run through the mist, which was nothing short of a godsend. Everyone finished the race, even though it was much more difficult than last year, and I am proud to say that I ran the entire race. I didn't beat my time from last year, but I came respectably close (somewhere around 6,040-something's place). It was so hot that we didn't take the time to pose for a group photo, but I got a few shots with Chip and Rick and a few more at our tailgate. We had a great time hanging out, but I think I speak for everyone when I say that cold drizzle beats 90 degree heat. I'm happy to say that I finished the race, and I am proud of all of our friends that trained, ran and finished too. It's a real feel good weekend - although I'm still having trouble walking because my legs are so sore. Until next year's ten-miler...