Rock ‘n’ Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

Obviously some of the Garmin miles read wrong because all of the above add up to 2:34:08, leaving another 6-7 minutes...I was slow but I know it didn't take me seven minutes to run a tenth of a mile.

Plan was to run the first couple of miles in about 24 minutes (above shows I did that about 30 seconds faster), then try to maintain just slightly better than my planned 11:30 pace for the balance of the run, then kick it up a notch for the last 1-2 miles. I wasn't initially worried about being faster than that because I felt OK, but something happened in six or seven and the rest of the way was just brutal; trip back from Falls Bridge was the worst of it, seemed to stretch on forever, and I don't recall a lot of shade over there. About a mile from the finish I looked around and it seemed like everybody was walking except me. Wondering if maybe I was walking too and just felt like I was running.

So the plan didn't pan out and I ended up 10 minutes slower than what I'd hoped for, very disappointing. I figured 2:30 would be a slam dunk, a complete no-brainer. Guess I just wasn't adequately prepared, although I felt like I was.

Very discouraging mentally, and annoying as hell, that I'd think I'd run X miles and then .4 to .5 miles (and several minutes) later I'd pass a sign that recorded the official mileage. Don't know how the Garmin got that far off; never known that to happen, although I did lose the signal when we ran through the tunnel over by the Reading Terminal Market.

Tripped over the timing mat at the finish, lost my balance and thought I was going to bust my ass (and my face too). But managed to regain. Saw it on video; pretty comical and it was over pretty quick...felt like a long time when it happened.

Had a little gastro issue on the way back to the car afterwards, necessitating a "sit down" trip to one of the porta-potties which, of course, was fairly disgusting by that time. Couldn't help but voice the suspicion to TSW that, if I'd been able to drop that earlier, I might've at least picked up another five minutes.

I was out of it for most of the rest of the day...TSW said I was spacey.

Probably more focused run training. Most of what I did was built around preparing for my sprint tris, and there were a couple of weeks when my runs were limited by that.

On race day, might also try to start out slower and, once warmed up, maintain my planned pace (went faster than that here). Don't know if it would've made a difference, though.

Met up with TSW at finish and put my hands on my knees to get my breath back. Got a little bagel, a banana, my medal (pretty "bling"), and some liquids, then headed back to the car.


Bad execution of race plan, maybe? Insufficient training?


Pretty cool event. My only complaint is I'd like to see drink stations every mile or so. They had eight, if I recall correctly; 11 or 12 would've been better.