Running Stories -- 2013

Seth -- Caesar Rodney Half-Marathon

Congrats to everybody who ran in one of the many races on tap this weekend (including ones not listed above!)! It was a good weekend to race, if perhaps a touch cold.

Please post here and let us know how you did and send photos too!

I had a not particularly great Caesar Rodney Very Hilly Half-Marathon. Miles 1-5 were under 9 min/mi and mile 6 was 9:01. Mile 7 (really getting into the hill) was 9:20 and miles 8 & 9 were both 9:55. Ugh! Miles 10 & 11 were back down at 9:15 and 9:24, but miles 12 & 13, which were downhill and should have been faster were 10:05 and 10:52. The last .1 was 1 minute and 8 seconds. Total time 2:03:29, well off from last year's 1:56:38 and my CR PR from 2011 of 1:55:46. Not really sure what went wrong other than I felt pretty horrible most of the race. I wasn't feeling strong running most of this week even though I put in a pretty serious effort to add hilly miles to many of my runs in the last two months. I'd love to provide details, but honestly most of it's a blur.

Next year, I vow to break 1:55 at Caesar Rodney. Now all I need are more hills to train on!

It was good to see so many other Philly Runners in Wilmington today, many of whom had a much better race than me.

Brian N. -- Caesar Rodney Half-Marathon

Well, I won't be issuing a LBRR, but here is the overview:

Felt like if I got 9 miles in, I'd be a winner. Started slow, enjoyed the scenery and the view of lots of runners passing me. Felt good, fell into a steady pace around 9:35-40 and hit mile 7 thinking I could do a couple more. Kept lying to myself for another 1 1/2, at which point it's too late to turn really and just enjoyed the rest of the race.

Passed Senator Tom Carpenter at mile 10 - his 31st CR!! He looked like he'd just done all 31 in a row; not a happy Senator.

Finished in 2:05 and some change. Happy, but more than 10 mins off my PR. Ah well, a nice day out.

Joey -- Caesar Rodney Half-Marathon

I trained harder for Cesar Rodney than any other race. I spent my Saturday’s this winter in the Wishickin doing many long slow hilly runs. I also put in a lot of extra hill work and strength training. Race day I felt pretty good, I started out easy with Andrew and Lou, doing 8:30 miles. I think we may have started the first mile a little further back as we had to fight the crowd a little too much, after that we settled in passing around 200-300 people mile 1-6. I felt great at mile 6 when the hill started and we picked up the speed a bit. The big hill was not that bad and it seemed to zip right by though I slowed down a bit and Lou pulled off but I never lost sight of him. As it evened out and after some more hills I hit mile 10 so only a 5K to go! I felt like I got a second wind at that point. Looking at my watch I saw that if I could do 8 minute miles I could finish around 1:45! I picked it up for ¼ mile then we hit another hill that completely drained me. My legs where completely shot. I hit the gas but could not keep up the pace in fact I was slowing down. I was not passed by anyone so I think everyone had that issue. The hill down I just spun the wheels letting the hill do most of the work. When it got flat again I was completely beat and the last mile was very slow. I would up finishing 1:52 which is 5 minutes faster than my course PR! So I am happy. I don’t think that 1:45 is out of the question at all for next year. Every month I see a slight improvement in my running particularly in the last couple months where I changed my training completely.

Cesar Rodney is an empowering race as any race for the rest of the year you can just laugh at any hill knowing that you trained and did much worse.

Andrew M. -- Caesar Rodney Half-Marathon

Hi Everyone,

Congratulations to everyone who ran CR and other marathons/races this weekend! My race was a couple minutes slower than last year, but it felt great to race Caesar Rodney without injury and to be in the company of so many Philly Runners!

I started off with Lou and Joey with the goal of doing 8:30 miles for the first 8. The first couple miles were 8:42 and 8:41 by my watch, and miles 3-4 were 8:45 by my watch. Miles 5 and 6 were slightly faster. Mile 7 we clocked an 8:34. By this point I was working very hard to keep this pace up on the hills so somewhere around 7.5 I wished Lou and Joey a good race while I dropped back. I had a gel and some gatorade and let my heart rate come back down a bit. I didn't lose too much time, finishing mile 8 in 9:12. Mile 9 was 8:56, and I was very psyched going into the downhill section of the race. Mile 10 was 8:24. I ate another gel for the last 5k, and I think that helped a lot. Miles 11 and 12 were 8:31 and 7:43. Slowed down as expected when I hit the big final hill, but as soon as it leveled off and I saw the finish line, I found something left in the tank and sprinted across the finish line. The last 1.1 was 9:09, for an official finish of 1:52:28.

All in all, I felt great about my run, and very happy to be part of the Philly Runners contingent at Caesar Rodney! It was a lot of fun to race with the group and go to lunch at the Washington Ale House afterwards. A great start to the 2013 racing season!

Thankfully some good food, good beer, and most important, good friends at the post-race picnic made up for any malaise from the race itself.

Seth -- Broad Street Run -- May 5, 2013

Congrats to everybody who ran Broad Street today! And congrats to everybody who ran any other race today, including Lou, who ran New Jersey Marathon in an awesome 3:49:49.

Big thanks to our volunteers: Kevin, for organizing volunteering, and volunteers Jenn and Kelly.

Big thanks to everybody who came out to today's post-race picnic and made it a huge success, including, especially

Dave, for cooking food for the picnic and for grilling burgers and kielbasas at the picnic

Andrew and Ron, for supplying beer

Elizabeth and Jeff, for supplying brownies and various forms of alcohol

Ron, for driving Andrew's beer coolers over to my house after the picnic.

Sorry if I'm missing anybody!

So, race report, here goes:

I ran a 1:21:19 last year, an 8:08 mile, the fastest I had run BSR in quite some time. I was hoping to beat that time this year, but knew it would be tough. I ran last year's race really well. Started out comfortably fast, came in faster with 3 out of the last 4 miles being sub-8.

This year started out well enough. The first two miles were 8:12 and 8:03, more or less where I wanted to be. And I felt pretty good. Miles 3 & 4 were both 8:13, now a little slower that what I wanted.

Mile 5 was back down at 8:05 and mile 6, around City Hall, was, as always, a bit slower at 8:36. Ok, not a huge problem, that always happens.

7 & 8 were 8:09 and 8:06, which was just fine, except at that point I really wanted to be coming in even faster. I really wanted sub-8s for every mile south of City Hall and for whatever reason I just wasn't feeling it.

9 & 10 were a disappointing 8:30 and 8:22, I just couldn't get going any faster. Katie went by me somewhere around mile 9 and I was surprised she had been behind me at all. She said she was going to be, but I didn't believe her. Andrew blew by me like I was standing still in the last half mile, despite vowing to take it easy today because he's running Delaware Marathon next week. I told him at the start I didn't believe him and I was right. I also came upon Christie somewhere around mile 9. Not sure if I pulled up on her or she pulled up on me. Christie tried to egg me on and get me to come in faster, but to no avail. Christie, Andrew and I all finished very close to each other with Katie a little further up.

Total time 1:22:35, an 8:15 mile and the fifth fastest BSR out of the 10 I have run since 2002. (Apart from last year the faster ones were from 2002, 2003 and 2005). A pretty respectable finish, it puts me in the top 35% of men 35-39 and if there were a clydesdale category I'd be even higher up, but my inability to give it a final kick was disappointing nonetheless.

Thankfully some good food, good beer, and most important, good friends at the post-race picnic made up for any malaise from the race itself.

Andrew -- Broad Street Run -- May 5, 2013

Congratulations to everyone who ran today, and thanks to all who came to the picnic! It was a super fun day all around!

I had sort of intended to run this race easy because I have the Delaware Marathon in 7 days. But I didn't really do that.

I started off with Caesar and Katie, but within half a mile I could see they were going out faster than I wanted. I coincidentally met our club member Alayna in the first mile, and we decided we'd try running together for a while and see how that worked. First mile was 8:30, second mile was 7:59. A little on the fast side, so I dialed back a bit to 8:09, 8:20, and 8:14. Both of us were feeling good at City Hall, so mile 6 was a little faster at 8:03. Mile 7 was 8:37 and mile 8 was 8:38. I felt I was doing a pretty good job of keeping my speed in check, but was feeling great at this point from all the marathon training. I decided I'd let myself really race mile 10. I stayed with Alayna for mile 9, about 8:31. At this point I took off and had the best last mile of any race I've ever run. I just felt really strong and good, and I flew to the finish in 6:39! I finished somewhere around 1:22:15 (the site is having issues so I can't look up the official time). This was a couple minutes slower than last year. This was a lot of fun! Next up, the Delaware Marathon next Sunday!

James -- Broad Street Run -- May 5, 2013

I had a great run. I had optimistically targeted 75 minutes, but training took a detour around Caesar Rodney, so I wasn't sure I'd hit it (I didn't)

The first mile I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly the crowd thinned out, and I could run without overcrowding. The first couple miles were in about 7:25, a touch too fast. The next couple miles were significantly slower, about 7:45. These were tough - not sure if it's because of the rolling hills or just not being warmed up. Around mile 5 things started feeling better, but still around 7:45/mile through the end of the race, except for the last mile which was closer to 7:30

Overall finish was 77:04. I'm going to take a semi-break and just take it easy for the next couple weeks, and then suffer through summer training...

Ferdinand -- Broad Street Run - May 5, 2013

Hi all,

Congrats Seth on your race, and to all Philly runners, both runners and volunteers.
It was my first Broad street run, and i found it amazing.
I ran a surprisingly good race (at least for me), with a time of 1hr 05 min and 20 seconds!!
However, i wanted to ask if anybody else than me got in trouble with their official results: i was first given a 1h 5mn 17sec "clock" time, and a 1hr 07mn or so "chip" time, which makes no sense (as i started in purple corral, my chip time can only be superior to clock time).
I sent them an email, and they changed my "chip" time to 1hr 06mn 40 seconds, and kept the same clock time.
I know my real chip time was the one they gave me first, i was first line and i got 1hr 05min 20sec on my Garmin (so 3 seconds difference). But it seems that officially, i am stuck with a 1hr 6min 40 seconds.

Without that little disappointment about the timing of the race, it would have been an almost perfect experience!

Katie -- Broad Street Run -- May 5, 2013

I just want to say a big thanks to Seth, Andrew, and all others involved in making the post-BSR picnic happen! It was a great way to end the race and to spend the afternoon. I had a good race, no real story except that I came in around 1:22, which was well ahead of my shot-in-the-dark projection of 1:30-ish. I was feeling a little under the weather with this head cold, but luckily on race day had not yet developed the hacking cough that is currently scaring all of the dogs in my neighborhood. The picnic was the highlight - though I should say, the first highlight for me was actually finding the picnic location sans smartphone, and after only a few minutes of confused wandering in FDR park.

Thanks again!