Ben Franklin Bridge Run 10k
After a nerve-wracking start ... a good day!Quick summary:
56:35 chip time; 58:32 gun time, 586 out of 1793 women, 4th out of 15 women in my age division.
Okay, but it wasn't quite that simple...
After what seemed like a nicely organized start to my day--running clothes ready, chip attached to shoe, number pinned onto "Spibelt," and all the stuff I needed to take with me, including the packet of the friend who was giving me a ride to the race--I reached the trolley stop in PLENTY of time to get to her house, where I was to meet her at 7:15 and we'd leave together.
ENTER GOOGLE MAPS and Murphy's Law: I rode the trolley to the stop specified by Google Transit. Good enough. Then I proceeded according to the directions that resulted from my search for the address... which directions led me AWAY from her house. This I began to suspect because the numbers, while going up, skipped her house. Um... it should have been a clue that "destination will be on your right"--well, it would be on my right if Google had told me the right direction to travel. Sigh!
After a cell phone conversation revealed my misdirection, her friend came to get me and take me to her house. By then it was almost 7:30 and we needed to reach the Franklin Bridge by 7:45... when it closed to traffic... which it did when we arrived there at 7:47... and were then given directions to go to the Walt Whitman Bridge, then come back toward Camden, N.J. At about 8:15, we pulled into a parking spot... Race was to go off at 8:30.
By then I'd at least been able to give her the number with pins, ready to attach, and opened the stapled envelope with her chip. Since she needed to leave right after the race, I decided to take my bag to the bag check, so we went our separate ways, she to the start, I to the bag check, then to the start. This involved some sprinting as the announcers hurried us along with threats of being shut out of the race if we were not on the bridge at the start.
Fortunately, I was, in fact, on the bridge, with the start moments away--with a concrete barrier separating me from the runners... but one low enough to allow climbing over just as the "GO" signal was given.
I did this and was off... probably at a faster pace than I might otherwise have gone because I wanted to get through the crowd and into some clear space. (Many walkers had not heeded the instructions and had started in among the runners, not behind, but two minutes isn't too bad an amount of time to lose at the start considering....) Didn't see the Mile One sign so I have no idea how fast it was, except that I was passing many people, and still feeling a bit on edge. All the same, at least I was in motion, on my way.
But Murphy and his or her law weren't finished with me.... A little after a mile and a half along, I noticed a shoelace flapping around... and so I had to pull off to the side to retie it. Normally I double-knot my shoes, but this would be the morning I'd overlook that little detail. Just to be safe, I checked the other shoe which looked secure but I tied an extra knot in it anyway.
From that time on, though, things settled down... At mile 2, my watch read 19:00, and the clock 20:?? I wasn't quite happy with 9:30 pace, but c'est la vie. I kept pressing ahead, passing more people, sometimes a bit manic about it, but my effort was rewarded. Mile 3 read 27:45, so my pace had dipped below 9 for that mile. I'd done some good catching up to reach the 9:15 average pace a coach friend of mine had suggested, but I did wonder if I'd pay for this spurt later.
There's one long stretch of a street and I determined to push myself there, since it was a straight shot. I believe the four mile marker was on that street but I missed it. However, I feel I must have been holding a good pace, because I reached 5 miles in about 45:?? (on my watch).
With 1.2 miles to go, I was feeling the effort, and this section felt more and more like work. But I wasn't about to let up, not when I had pushed so hard already and improved the time at the 5 mile mark from last year. After more turns than I would have liked, it was almost time to enter Campbell Field, home of the minor league Camden River Sharks baseball team. Just before entering the field, I took a quick look at my watch and thought it said 57something, which disappointed me. I had thought that I'd easily beat last year's 59:05 chip time, but now it looked much too close. Still, something told me not to let up, not to give up...
As I crossed the finish line, I was delighted to see 58:3? on the official clock, and I then looked down at the watch I'd just stopped and saw 56:33... So either time went backward or I had misread the watch earlier. I must admit it's fun to think of time going backward, but I had no problem either with the more prosaic reality of a misread watch (I don't wear reading glasses in races).
As it turned out, the official chip time was only two seconds slower than what I'd recorded on my watch.
My friend who gave me the ride placed second in her age group, which made me happy too! After a rough start, this turned out to be a decent race, showing that my training was paying off! But I will be skeptical of Google Maps/Google Transit from now on....
I guess what I learned from this is that (a) things can go wrong, no matter how hard we try to be well-prepared, but that (b) we still need to press on, not give in to discouragement. After my shoelace came untied, I was about ready to throw in the towel, jog the race, but I didn't come to this race to jog it. And given my result, I'm glad I kept my focus.
Club-Mates and I following the race...
posted by DPMcManus @ 3:02 AM
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