Philadelphia Distance Run - ING - RunHalf Marathon

The morning started off pretty chilly, about 49F, so I had opted to wear a t-shirt even though I usually don't like to run in them. It was an old one I'd worn lots before, so it wasn't too bad. I actually did feel warm the first 10K or so of the race, but then I felt better on the home stretch in the shade.

Started off too fast in the city, of course. And no, specatator dude at Mile 1.5, I'm NOT almost there. But thanks anyway. All those people racing by and me with no watch (next time I definitely wear one!) and I had no idea what my time was. Plus I forgot to look at the race clock when we passed the start line so I had no idea what my times were. I knew going from mile to mile that I was around a 9-10 minute mile, but not really sure what exactly. I'm fairly certain I went out too fast, and reached the 10K mark and felt surprised I'd gone that far. My legs felt good, but my lungs actually started feeling it at that point, which was weird.

Slowed down the pace once I got onto the boring tail end of the run. I really do hate that part of the run. I heard people talking about how pretty it was and just wanted to shake them and tell them that it lost it's charm after the fourth or fifth time of running the long flat stretches.

I stopped once here for a cup of water and walked through the rest stop for a minute. A gel at Mile 8 right around the turn around, then some water to wash it down. The gel gave me some energy. I probably should have had one around Mile 11 too, because I slowed again here. Another short walk through a water station, but I felt happy that that's all I walked. I was in pain, my knees were aching and I felt tired and sore, and kept telling myself I would walk, but I stuck it out and just kept moving.

Started feeling cold/hot and worried I was going into heat exhaustion but it wasn't so bad so I just kept going. Got into the art museum and the interminable distance to the finish, and I even managed (I think) to lengthen my stride a bit at the end. Kurt beat my time by 4 minutes. Grrr.

Of course like 8 fat dudes came sprinting by me at the end, whatevs.

Start out a little slower. It's really hard to pace myself at beginnings of races, so I need to focus on that and I think using my watch would be better for me in the end.

I couldn't find anyone after I wound my way through the cattle shute. Grabbed some Nestle protein drink thing but found it completely inedible. I was cold and hot at the same time and it took me a bit to recover. I stretched out and waited, then eventually nabbed a snack bar off someone and felt better. Stood around for a bit, then rushed back to the car and headed off to my brunch reservations with friends at the Moshulu. Mmmm.


Hmm my training was pretty good but I really think I could have used some longer tempo runs. I'm just not used to running at my race pace and once I did about 6 miles of it I was done in. So maybe I'll work on that. Also the watch thing, but for all that I was just about on target. 44 seconds slower than my corral pace and 1:44 over my targeted pace for my training plan. Not shabby!


I thought this race was put on very well, everything seemed to run smoothly, which I'm sure is not an easy thing in a big city with this many participants. I didn't really like the cattle shute style drink/snack tunnel after the race. There was no way around it and once you were out of it right after the race you couldn't get more, so since I wasn't hungry right after the race i didn't grab enough stuff. Plus I didn't see the brownie guy at all! Seriously, how could I have missed Entenman's brownie bites!!