First of all apologies for the lack of blogging again, somedays work makes it almost impossible to sit at the pc and type.....in an ideal world I should have a laptop at home but w/ every penny, nickle and dime I earn going towards the trip to Dublin at the end of October that's going to have to wait so as long as "The Man" keeps sticking it to me my posts may suffer
So if it's the first Sunday in May it's the Broad Street Run, last year it got bumped up to the last Sunday in April and in 2021 during Covid it got pushed back to October but in general terms the iconic 45 year old race goes off on the first Sunday in May
Since 2017 Broad Street has become a fixture in my season, prior to then I had ran it several times since 1989 or 1990 but during 2006-2016 when I focused on Masters Track I declined the unique chance to ran basically a straight line down Broad Street starting at my old stomping ground by Albert Einstein Medical Center up at Broad and Olney and finishing in the Navy Yard just beyond the Citizens Bank Park, The Linc and the Wells Fargo Center, I can remember in the 90s when the race finished in FDR Park b4 the Navy Yard allowed the masses in, I also remember when the race was 10,000 deep now it's 40,000.......... where they put 40,000 runners at Broad and Olney is beyond me, last time I checked 40,000 runners don't run the Boston Marathon but hey!
Another wrinkle in the fabric this year was the start time being bumped up to 7.30am due to a Phillies game originally scheduled for 1.05pm......however w/ the Phillies being red hot at the moment the game got moved to the evening for ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball" but the wheels were in motion now for the 7.30am start so.....yours truly was up at 5.05am to be out the door by 5.30am to catch the 5.38am trolley to City Hall and up to Broad and Olney by 6.15am
I prefer to give myself extra time pre race, lines for the portajohns are long at most races but now w/ 40,000 runners all needing that final visit to the bog the lines are longer.....business taken care of it was into the Purple corral by 6.40am, this is probably the first year I didn't make the Red corral which is the first corral and probably won't be the last it's evident I'm slowing down but I just turned 60 last year so I can't act shocked or surprised by that.....accepting it on the other hand.......the proverbial horse of a different colour........
Last year the heavens opened just after I passed the 5 mile marker at Spring Garden and in 2019 it pissed out of the heavens all morning, the forecast today was showers so ever the Boy Scout I brought a trash bag w/ me to the corral poked a hole in the top of it to stick my head through and kept the showers off of me till they moved the Purple Corral up to the starting line
Any race that plays Dropkick Murphy's iconic " Shipping Up To Boston" at the start usually stirs my Celtic blood today was no different even if I was singing " Shipping Up To Dublin"....... it's 25 weeks till the Dublin Marathon, after today there's along 16 week period of no races where hopefully I can get my final 16 mile run in the books b4 18 miles and then the all important 20 milers which will be my bread and butter runs, on August 25th I'll run the Philly 10k and and three weeks later PDR{Philadelphia Distance Run} and then 6 weeks later it's Dublin
I had hoped for 7 minute mile pace and an overall time of 1.10 however when the opening five splits read:7.23-7.34-7.19-7.31-7.14 that pipe dream was shot and now it was just a matter of maintaining my pace hoping for the best, at Broad and Spring Garden which is mile 5 my time was 36.58 roughly 1.14 pace not what I was hoping for but sometimes you have to accept things for what they are, was 7 min mile pace a pipe dream? clearly in my last three races at the Love Run 1/2 marathon, the Hot Chocolate 15K and now Broad Street I have fallen well short of that, perhaps those days are from a bygone era and I just don't possess that speed, leg turnover anymore?......granted I still have the best part of six months to work on that but for shits and giggles lets say my pace in Dublin is 7.30 mile pace that's a 3.11 marathon which isn't too shabby period much less for someone who hasn't ran 26.2 miles in seven years and will be almost 61 the day of the race
After a five year hiatus it was nice to finish Broad Street in the Navy Yard even if the gear busses showing up and trying to get out of there is still a shit show...45 years people....one of these days ye'll get it right!
1.14.00 off 7.24 mile pace, unlike the Love Run where I was bent out of shape over my time and pace today I took it w/ good grace like I said maybe I've been deluding myself that I can still clock 7 min miles and sneak under the 3 hour barrier in Dublin....and maybe that could still happen....but if it dosen't and I run 3.11then that will have to do
Officially medal #247 of my career, I'm waiting to see if winning the 60-64 age group at the Hot Chocolate 15K last month yields a medal if it does that's #248, no medals at the Philly 10K so PDR would be #249........setting me up nicely for #250 in Dublin.........
Shout out to Stiff Little Fingers who I had the pleasure of seeing in concert on Thursday night....where I may have left some of my energy jumping up and down and singing along w/ Jake Burns and company ,I've been listening to SLF for 44- 45 years now longer than any other band maybe Gary Numan equals that longevity, I always say I played their debut album " Inflammable Material' so much back in the day that not only did I wear it out but my next door neighbors knew it off by heart!!!!!!.....like I said in the title Punk's Not Dead......it just has a 401K these days
