The Best 10 Miler in the Country with DetermiNation

The Broad Street Run (BSR) is the highlight of the running season in Philadelphia. It’s the first of the big races, which, in Philly, nicely progresses from a 10-miler in May, to the Rock N’ Roll half marathon in September, then concluding with the Philadelphia Marathon in November. At DetermiNation, we call that Compete Philadelphia; three races, one fundraising goal, major bragging rights! Many in the running arena also consider Broad Street (locals don’t add the “Run” part, it’s just a given), to be the best (read: fastest) 10-miler in the country.

I first joined DetermiNation in the spring of 2010. It was only a few weeks before Broad Street and the committee was in need of volunteers that weren’t running the race, so I agreed to help out. We had about 40 athletes, wearing some combination of red, white, and blue, a handful of people at two cheer stations and some food at the finish line. This year, 700 athletes will don blue for DetermiNation. It’s not just that DetermiNation has grown in Philadelphia, but Broad Street has too.

My husband loves to brag about running Broad Street when there were only 7,000 people in the race…this year the race will exceed 30,000 participants. Registration sold out the day it opened and computer glitches (people tried non-stop for hours just to get on to the site) resulted in a lottery for 2,500 additional spots with over 8,500 entered to try. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy smugly watching some of my co-workers frantically try to register and cursing their computers when the site booted them out yet again. All the while, I stared at my DNation team page, which was growing by the minute.

Broad Street and the American Cancer Society have been linked from the beginning…or close to it, depending on who you ask. One of the race directors has a deeply personal tie to the mission of the ACS and is tremendously appreciative of the work that we all do. As a result, we get some nice perks, including our very own start-line port-o-john, great positioning at the expo and finish line, and most importantly this year, a full booth outside of the expo for CPS3. For those who don’t know, CPS3 – aka Cancer Prevention Study #3 – is currently sourcing participants, 300,000 to be specific, who are between the ages of 30-65, who are and have been cancer free.

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