On Sunday, May 4, 2003, Patty Fulton of Silver Spring, Md. (Team Brooks) ran the Blue Cross Broad Street 10 Mile in Philadelphia, Pa. The course was point-to-point, straight down Broad Street.

"Wow...what a race! You can bet I'll be going back next year, very well organized and FAST! I had a blast and the weather was perfect, low 50s, cloudy, and no wind," stated Fulton.

"I went out too fast (5:34) but then settled down to 5:50s. There were two times during the race when I got nervous about trying to maintain my pace. Early, around mile two, there were two women and a pack of men were pulling away from me. Fortunately, I closed the gap around mile five and passed a few of them," stated Fulton.

Fulton continued, "Then, around 6.5 miles, I started to question if I could finish strong. I told myself that even if I finished in tempo pace I would still PR. A woman who I raced against in Berwick in November passed me at mile eight.... She turned around and yelled, "Come on, Patty!", so we worked together and caught another woman."

The determination paid off with a fifth place time of 58:47 and a PR! Fulton closed with, "I am feeling very confident right now. It was such a cool race!"

Congratulations Lady Royal.

The Lady Royal (Fulton) made the transition from the basketball court to the roads. At the University of Scranton, the Lady Royals won a national championship in 1984-85.

On October 8, 2000, Fulton returned to run the Steamtown Marathon. The conditions were not ideal, 32 degrees, and with the windchill around 20 degrees. Fulton was returning to what she called her second home. Her first marathon was in 1993 and the second, December 1999, was the Kiawah Island Marathon in South Carolina, where she won in 2:51:02.

Fulton recounts about Steamtown, "By mile 23, my quads were killing me. I've never experienced pain like that before. There was a killer hill from mile 23.5 to 24.3. The thing that saved me was the hundreds of people, kids, and cheerleaders screaming in my face."

At mile 25, "A police car was waiting to escort me to the finish. A police car with a siren, two motorcycles behind him, and a motorcycle beside me with a news camera pointed at me," stated Fulton.

A fitting homecoming as Fulton won with 2:50:34.

On April 6, 2003 at the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, Fulton finished in 59:43 (15th place). On April 27, 2003, Fulton ran the Pike's Peek 10K in 35:38 and missed a PR by two seconds. The taper theory did not apply since the weekly mileage was 80, 84, and 75 miles. The two races above were tune-ups.

See complete results of the Broad Street Ten Mile race.