The inaugural Phillies 5k for Charity run at Citizen's Bank Park in Philadelphia. 6 days before opening day. It was really chilly this morning. The run was at 9am, and wanted to beat the crowd to get my number and stuff. Problem is, I got my number at 8:15am, and had to stand around for 45 minutes in 28 degree weather. That wasn't fun.
The race was capped at 3000 people. This was by far the largest race I had ever been a part of. I was sporting my Cliff Lee Maroon shirt (the old school shirt that has #34...before Halladay). I saw probably about 50 others sporting the Lee shirt, but they were all the new ones (#33). I guess nobody is as cool as I am.
Citizen's Bank Park (along the first base line)
The Linc (home of the Eagles)
Registration
Race number
While waiting for the race to start, I figured I would walk around and take some pics. Here is what is left of The Spectrum. I saw my first Sixers, Flyers, Wings, and Globetrotters games here. Sad to it being taken down.
Other great moments at The Spectrum
Flyers win The Stanley Cup
Dr. J's windmill dunk
Flyers kick the crap out of the Rooskies
(where the one Roosky ran into Ed Van Impe's elbow)
Iverson crossed up MJ
Kate Smith
Laettner's buzzer beater
Hextall's goal
and of course, the 2 historic Creed-Balboa fights. (who could forget those)
One of the statues that basically says "Hey, where this parking lot is, used to be Veterans Stadium"
And these are some of the great bands who performed here....including (of course) The Dave Matthews Band
Philly skyline. That pic came out well
This building isn't 20 years old, and is already on its 4th name
Corestates Center
First Union Center (or as we all called it....the "F U Center")
Wachovia Center
Wells Fargo Center
Love this banner
Its hard to make out, but the Philly Phanatic was in the front on his ATV.
OK, so now it is 9am. We do the national anthem, and we are ready to go. I actually tried something different for this race, and started towards the front. Normally, I am always in the back, but I thought there were so many people, that I would be better off starting in the front and have people run around me, then have me run around other people. It was also good, cause I could just find someone running a nice pace, and just stay behind them the whole time.
This is about 1/4 mile into the race
About 1/2 mile
just before the mile marker
Now, I felt that I was running much faster than usual. I crossed the mile marker, and saw that I did so in 7 mins, 55 secs. Wow, this is the fastest pace I have ever had for a 5k. If I can keep this up, I should be able to break 25 minutes (which would beat my personal record by almost 3 minutes). The question is, could I keep it up.
2 mile mark
about 1/2 a mile to go
Getting ready to go down the final stretech. Just hoping to break 25 minutes.
1/4 mile to go, stadium on the right!
24 minutes, 50 seconds !!!
and we have a new personal record for the 5k
needless to say, I was pretty excited about this. The race ends, and after you cross the finish line, you are funneled into the stadium, and out onto the field.
Continued on the next post.
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