Philadelphia Marathon - Run

First things first. About a month ago I felt a problem with my Left big toe developing. I think it was the start of a stress facture but I didn't let it develop. So over the last month I did no running. I also jumped in to the marathon training after my HIM (the major goal for the year). Unfortunately after the HIM and the PDR, I took a few week to recover, got a bit lazy, and then got hurt. Bottom line, I never ran longer than 13.1 miles in training for this race. I probably would have skipped the race entirely, but I had a big part in convincing a friend from work to train and do the race. So I felt I needed to support my partner in crime an do the race.
I started off near near the 3:40 pace group, but as the mass of humanity had to squeeze under the start, I immediately lost them. I decided it wasn't worth weaving through traffic and wasting energy to catch up and really didn't figure I was going to run that fast anyway so I watched the balloons disappear. The first 3-4 miles were jam packed and i was contantly dogging people throwing their sweats/ extra shirts to the side of the road. I think I got hit about 4 times. The first two water stops were a total mess and my shoes got soaked. I decided to hold back and run easy for the first 16 miles or so and then see what I had left. I did pretty good. The crowd was great, we had two Batmans and Robins (full costume), an englishman in a red dress, red shoes, and matching purse, and plenty of other characters. It was fun to take it all in.
Miles 7-10 had a set of hills and that probably took more out of me than I thought at the time. Next thing I knew, we were headed back towards the Art museum along the Schuykill. The 3:50 pace group caught and passed us just before halfway. Going back down Kelley Drive was cool especially getting a chance to see the Elite runners and Kenyians fly by.
I hit 16 and started to stretch it out. I had been eating a packet of Gu every 30 minutes and drinkng water and gatorade at each water stop. I felt pretty good and started passing a lot of people, but I could feel a blister or two forming thanks to the wet shoes. The second half of the out and back had a few small rolling hills (which are alot bigger after 18 or so miles.) I started to slowly fall off during the very long streach to the turn around. I rounded the 20 mile mark and saw all I needed to do was finish with a 57 minute 10K to break four hours. Unfortunately my legs just didn't have that in me especially with the rolling hills and the overpass. The 4:00 pace group blasted past at mile 21 and the leader was giving a motivational pep talk, but I just couldn't ramp up the pace to stick with them. From there I just concentrated on keeping running and counted off the last 4 miles. Coming up that last small hill (which after 25.5 miles grew quite a bit) to the finish was really cool. The crowd still was on their feet still, some two hours after the leaders had past, cheering the everyday folks like me to the finish. No PR but I ran the whole thing and me toes and my knees never bothered me.

This was my first cold weather race in a while, so I wore more layers than I normally did. I was rubbed raw on my neck, armpits, nipples, and a few other choice areas I won't mention. I had a nasty blister on my right instep and blood blisters under each big toenail. I definitely should have tried out my "uniform" prior to the race on a long run, but since I never did any long runs, Oh well

Sat down at the fountain and waited till my buddy finished about 10 minutes later. Got my bag, then went to the tent for some food and got changed out of my sweaty clothes and put on some sweats. After eating, it was a long slow stroll back to the car. After the drive home, my quads and calves were sorer then they have ever been.


Let's see, not running for a month prior to the race, doing no long runs over 13.1 miles in training, and subconsiously pushing the hills from miles 7-10 more than I should have. Add in a bit of ego for starting off too far forward and having a negative mindset coming in and you get my race. But I finished, ran the whole way, and didn't hit the wall as hard as I could have.


Great course, great weather for running. The crowd support and volunteers were really good. I would say the race "extras" (Ie goodie bag, T-shirt, medal, expo) weren't too exciting, but the race was a great experience and a good value for the money (especially compared to a $440 IM price tag). A very good "small-big city marathon"