Ben Franklin Bridge 10K

What a beautiful day for a race! This is my 2nd year in a row running this race, a 10k which starts on the NJ side of the Ben Franklin bridge, runs to the Philly side and back to complete the first 5k of the race. The 2nd 5k runs through Camden and along the waterfront, passing the battleship New Jersey and ending on Campbell field. Very nice scenery considering you are running through, well, Camden, NJ.

I knew luck was on my side early today. I bumped into Flo (aka Girl in Motion) while I was running back to my car. I always struggle with what to wear for a race, especially when it’s cold out and you will be hanging out for a while before the start. I was starting to have a neurotic pre-race clothing crisis and thought that I needed to put something warmer on. She talked some sense into me and made me realize I was fine (she’s alot smarter than me). Thanks to Flo.

We got inside the stadium with plenty of time. I hit the baseball field for a couple of pre race laps while she waited to check her bag and warm clothing as late as possible (again, smart). While I was on the field I was surprised by an approaching ShoreTurtle who recognized me from my ugly yellow RoadRunnerSports hat. This is the first time I have ever met Flo or ShoreTurtle in person – pretty amazing I managed to bump into both of them considering we had made no formal plans and there were like 3,000+ people there. We ended up getting seperated but somehow regrouped at the mass of people at the starting line. It definitely made for some good pre-race karma.

I had pretty low expectations going into this race. I haven’t hit the track since I got injured during marathon training some 7 weeks ago. I just recently started doing tempo runs again and have just been starting to get my post injury mileage up. I went in thinking I would be happy running 8 minute miles and trying to crack 50 minutes. So I was pleasantly surprise by my results:

From the Garmin
Mile 1 – 8:09
Mile 2 – 7:24
Mile 3 – 7:15
Mile 4 – 7:14
Mile 5 – 7:26
Mile 6 – 7:40
.2 – 7:20

Chip Time – 47:10
Age Group – 41 of 174

The one thing I did differently today was I made an effort to not look at my Garmin – I pretty much ran by feel and then evaluated my progress by the three clocks that were on the course. I think the one time I looked at my Garmin was around 5.5 miles. I was pretty tired at that point and was pretty sure the watch would tell me I finished already. A great race, thanks again to Flo & ShoreTurtle!

Campbell Field before the race

Me & Flo (I’m hoping some of her BQ pixie dust wore off on me)

Me & ShoreTurtle (his pictures and his race time are both better than mine)