Broad Street Run 2014: #scrantondomination

This is a story over 3 months in the making.  Our son Matt suggested to our daughter Katie that, while he is on home leave between country posts, they might participate in the 2014 Broad Street Run in Philadelphia - something they had wanted to do for some years.  Since we were already planning to train for a half marathon with Katie at the Adirondack Marathon Distance Festival at Schroon Lake, New York in late September, we jumped at the chance to join both of them in this monster event.  Over 35,000 runners participated this year!

Katie celebrated the plan by authoring the hashtag for our effort:  #scrantondomination.  We followed that up by ordering special warm-ups with our own logo, in (what else?) the Cheltenham High School colors - blue and gold!

Next was the hard part:  two old fogies having to coax their bodies ever upward in mileage, stretching from the 2.5 miles we were used to running, all the way up to a full 10 miles for the event.

We used Map My Fitness to keep track of our training workouts and our running times and routes.  We tortured Katie for months because she was uncautious enough to let us "friend" her on the website; so, every time we completed a run, she was tortured with notifications.  TMI!

We worked our way up to a 7-mile run with Matt and Katie in Albany on April 20 when we were there for the Sherer Family Passover Seder.  We all did very well (as attested by Map My Fitness) and came away with hardly a sore muscle and nary a blister.  This gave us great confidence coming into the race today.  Still, none of us were sure how our bodies would fare over 10 miles.

Race day dawned.  Our alarm shocked us awake at 4:30, we struggled out of bed and into our running gear and hit the road for a 1 hour drive to the Philly Sports Complex, where free parking was available. Dawn was just coming up over the city as we made our way over the bridge on I-95 toward the venue:

We arrived before 6:00, early enough to get a parking place for Great White without any trouble.  As you can see, the parking lot was still pretty empty:

Down to the subway.  Runners got to ride free, and SEPTA provided express trains from the Sports Complex up to Broad & Olney, where the race began.  Here are our very selves waiting for the subway car to open up and receive us:

Because 35,000 runners were going to travel up to the starting line, the subway cars had to wait until they were packed before heading out.  Standing room only.  The oily boids (including ours truly) got the seats:

Made it to Broad & Olney, to be greeted by a cheery race day banner:

It took a cell phone call to locate Katie and Matt, who drove up separately from Delaware, but coincidentally parked near us and rode the same subway train.  Here's a photo of us, sporting our #scrantondomination duds and waiting for the race, courtesy of Matt's high school friend Mike Sirkin, who was also running:

Then the long, long wait.  We arrived at the start by 6:30 or so, and the race wasn't to start until 8:30. Two long hours of waiting.  Do you stand on concrete and get sore feet, or do you sit on curbs and get basically cold?  Or both?  We did a little of each, and Matt took a very cheery selfie of us as we sat awaiting race time:

Another shot of Kathy, Matt and Katie getting amped up for the start.  As you can tell, Katie was in charge of the pep talk:

The old folks were still looking very relaxed, since we hadn't beaten our bodies up yet:

The younger generation was probably going to be speedier, probably because of their very trendy tech shirts, so they were in a faster corral than we were and started about 5-10 minutes before we did:

The crowd on Broad Street was unbelievable.  The atmosphere was festive, and everyone had a great time, stretching, jumping, yakking and generally trying to fend off boredom while we awaited the starting gun.

With a huge air horn blast provided by His Honor Mayor Michael Nutter of the City of Philadelphia, let the fun begin:

We won't bore you with the details.  Let us just say each of us was pretty tired after Mile 7, but found renewed energy in the last two miles.  We all ended up running separately for different reasons.  Katie and Matt eventually agreed to run different paces.  However, David and Kathy, who had agreed to hoof it down Broad Street together, fell victim to the GREAT SEPARATION.  Herewith the two alternate versions of the Great Separation Story:

HE SAID:

At 1.5 miles, we passed the first water station, which David didn't see but Kathy apparently did.  After a little time, David looked back and there was no Kathy.  It took a minute or two to figure out what happened, but David saw all the discarded water cups on the ground and realized they must have passed a water station and Kathy must have headed over for a drink.  He paused, looked around, and couldn't find her, but decided she would probably catch right up to him.  He continued on at a slightly slower pace.  But no Kathy.  He considered whether to go back and look for her.  Not smart:  in this huge crowd it would be easy to miss her, and then who knows whether she would be ahead or behind him?  He resolved to keep running, but bring his pace down and hope she could catch up and find him. Within a couple miles, it was pretty clear she wasn't catching him.  He pondered the issue.  He decided to just keep running and a slightly slower pace, hoping she would catch up.  By Mile 7, she hadn't. Mile 7 represented our Albany distance, and there was a chance Kathy might flag there - and David was getting pretty tired.  So he walked the next mile, figuring this would give Kathy a pretty good chance to catch him.  Wrong.  No Kathy.  He surrendered to fate and started running again, focusing just on trying to complete the race as well as he could.  The race sponsors weren't letting us wait at the finish line, so we all had to fall back on meeting each other at a prearranged location.  This meant that our Map My Fitness program wasn't able to record Kathy's time.  Luckily the race sponsors gave us bibs with electronic sensors, and the race website recorded times for each of us.  Kathy had no cell phone, which was really the ultimate worry, and if something had happened to her, there was almost no way to know unless she found a way to borrow a phone and call.  Luckily she turned up safe and sound.

SHE SAID:

We had a plan. Dave devised the plan.  He went over it with Kathy many times. We were going to follow the plan. We were to run together, stop and walk slowly at each drink station to make sure we stayed hydrated. We would keep each other company, encourage each other when we started flagging and cross the finish line together. It seemed like a reasonable plan. All for one and one for all.  Finish together or fail together. We trained for this. We were ready. The first mile and a half passed quickly. We kept pace with each other, chatting along the way. As the first drink station came up, Kathy stopped and grabbed a glass of Gatoraid. When she looked up - no Dave. Kathy assumed because of the crowd, Dave must have moved up to the next table.  After all, we had a plan. Stop at each drink station and make sure we drank a full glass of Gatoraid before moving on. Kathy checked the next table and the next, no Dave. Could Dave have gone on passed all FIVE tables? Maybe he was waiting beyond the tables. Maybe Kathy passed him and he was still filling his water bottle. Kathy was not ready to believe that Dave abandoned her. Kathy walked up and down the tables three time and still could not find Dave. As time continued to march on, it slowly dawned on Kathy that, as thousands and thousands of runners came streaming by, she was alone. Not even two miles into the race with over eight miles left to go - all alone - with no cell phone. Now what? Kathy could quit and take the subway back to the Navy Yard and wait for everyone or she could soldier on. Kathy jumped back into the never ending stream of runner. After a few very depressing and lonely miles, checking every bright green shirt in the crowd, Kathy finally got into the spirit of the race. It only took a few high fives from the neighborhood kids, oh, and a beer from the guys at Broad and Snyder. (Forget the Gatoraid, they need to have Yuengling every couple of miles.) Kathy crossed the finished line just under 2 hours. Not the time she was hoping for, but grateful we all finished.

All's well that ends well.  Despite the crowds, we all found each other and imposed on another racer to take our victory photo, complete with medals we received for finishing the race (no, none of us actually placed):

We wolfed down some water and snacks provided by the race sponsors, put on some warm clothes, and walked the mile up Broad Street to our parking lot, along with 35,000 of our (newly) closest friends:

Matt and Katie drove back to Delaware, to their mom's house, to shower and get ready for a barbeque being graciously hosted by their mom for us.  Kathy and David headed back to the RV for a shower and then drove down to the barbeque.

Over scrumptious fare (including not least Joe's indescribably delicious homemade baked beans, and a really yummy cucumber salad that Little William actually loved), we chatted with the Fam, including Katie and Matt's Aunt Karen and their two cousins, Megan and Jen.  We enjoyed the photos and stories of Karen and Scott's trip to Africa, played with Little William and the Grandpuppies, and generally hung out.  After a half hour drive home, we gingerly stepped out of Great White to test whether we were too stiff to walk.  Nope.  Okay.  The muscles functioned, but not necessarily at top efficiency.

Where's that hot tub when we need it???