This will be long and boring and is more for myself than the readers.

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The Race – Mile by Mile

• Mile 1: 5:32 – I was very intentional in NOT going out to fast. Was happy to see 5:32 as it felt easy.
• Mile 2: 5:36 – Still intentionally easy.
• Mile 3: 5:36 – I was running behind two girls, and when I pulled up beside them they were breathing way harder than I was. And it occurred to me that I wasn’t breathing hard at all. This had to be a good sign.
• Mile 4: 5:31 – Caught Carmen (Penn Relays 3k Steeple winner from two days prior!).
• Mile 5: 5:32 – This mile was solo. There was a pack of ~10 guys that I was catching, but still wanted to be smart.
• Mile 6: 5:27 – I caught and passed the entire pack of 10 guys. I could tell I was feeling good.
• Mile 7: 5:27 – They were playing Born to Run on Broad and it energized me. I continued passing people.
• Mile 8: 5:28 – At this point I was starting to think sub 55 might be possible, though still likely out of reach. But didn’t want to focus on time to much. Just keep passing people.
• Mile 9: 5:25 – I saw I needed a 5:25 last mile to run 55. But I felt like I might bonk, as I did in 2018. For a moment I was pretty sure of it, and pretty bummed because I thought I’d run great to that point.
• Mile 10: 5:25 – I shook off the bonk and battled with some bro for the last mile. It felt faster than 5:25, I was also tapped out.

With a day to reflect, I’m really proud of how I ran. I’d say it’s one of the smartest races I’ve ever run.

If you asked me to put a range of times before the race, I’d have said 54:50 – 56:30, so I was really happy with the time. If anything, I negative split by too much (27:48 / 27:12). My last three races I went out too fast and suffered. This time I gauged it way better. I also think being in better shape has to do with that.

I know I shouldn’t care, and in the moment I didn’t care at all, but now 54:59 just looks so much better than 55:00. And I’m a little pissed about that. If anything it’s motivation to PR again.

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What Shape Am I In?

Broad Street is notoriously fast, being about 180ft downhill. According to Kellogg, every 10ft takes off 1.8 seconds, which would put this course about 30 seconds faster than ‘flat’. Some would say it’s a full minute fast.

According to Daniel’s a 55:30 – 56:00 ten miler would be about a 74:00 – 74:45 half. Based on some of the people I finished near, that seems about right.

If my last five miles totaled 27:12 with only ~40ft decline, I’d have to think I could smash 27 if I ran Rothman tomorrow.

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Big Picture

As I wrote in the pre-race post, this result I guess validates the last few months. 50 mile weeks and good workouts put me in actual good shape again. It’s a pretty good feeling honestly.

If I had a few months of consistent training at 60-70mpw, I’d think a sub 54 at Broad or a 73:00 half are in the cards. It feels dumb writing that, because I’ve written stuff like that before only to never come close, but I have think this time is different. 55:00 (54:59) is a REAL time. And the training going in was good, but definitely could be better.

The natural thought would also include a marathon. They say a ~74 half = a 2:35. I just don’t think I could run that on 50mpw. Sub 2:40 would be awesome, but I still feel like the marathon is a year or two away. I just can’t shake the idea of PR’ing in the 5k (15:27). It seems like a long shot, but this makes me think there’s at least a chance.

I’ll probably take a little break, start ramping up mileage, and run some road races in the summer before picking a real ‘goal’ race in late summer / fall.