Run the Bridge 10K in Review

Somewhere between the pillow and flannel blanket pulled over my head, my cell phone's distant ring tone brought me closer to waking.

"Where are you?" asked Jon.

"Uh, just woke up. Where are you?"

"Camden. Aren't you running today?"

Crap. Was it November already; what ever happened to October? Several weeks ago, Jon and I bounced around a potential race schedule for the fall. Apparently November sprang much quicker than I expected.

"Yeah, I'll be right there." I dragged myself out of bed and into my running outfit. By the time I full came to a waking realization, I was racing down route 130 headed for Rutgers Camden. Today was Amerihealth's Run the Bridge 10K. Unfortunately I was running late and hadn't registered for the race. At this pace, I'd be lucky to arrive in time to toe up to the starting line much less register.

This wasn't the first time either one of us had a late start race day. In fact, we have quite a strong history of arriving in the 1th hour. Somehow we always managed to arrive in time to register and find the starting line before . Guess that's why we never learned our lesson- the hard way.

Only today was different. By the time I arrived, registration had closed. I could either turn back home, or... There was barely enough time to meet up with Jon, suck down a running gel, and find the starting line. Catch that. I illegally immigrated into the holding pen - an "undocumented" runner. In the mix of 3,000 other runners, I could manage to loose myself in the crowd.

Jon took the day- I managed to rabbit him most of the race. There was an opportunity to challenge him in the last mile. Instead I found a convenient location to duck out of the race a block before the finish. Jon crossed in 47 minutes and 50 seconds, clearing his personal best by 3 minutes. This was a minute faster than my best 10K. Too bad I can't list an official finish time.

Tags: Run the Bridge, 10K, Camden, Philadelphia, race