Jefferson Hospital Philadelphia Distance Run - RunHalf Marathon

First off, understand that I did a HIM last Sunday and did an hard 2:40 Cycle/Swim workout yesterday, so I wasn't expecting to run fast but to use this as a training run. Because of this I did not bring my watch. A large group traing run, yeah that's the ticket! With under 10 minutes to the start I had an issue. I felt I needed to hit the bathroom again. But the lines where super long and there was no way I'd be able to get back for the start (At least in my corral). What to do? I decided I would start off and hit a porta potty on the course. The gun went off and as expected nothing happened for about 30 seconds. Hit the line 2:05 after the gun. Started very easy feeling things out, and ran very easy for the first few miles and realized I would definitety need to make a pit stop. Hit the first 5K at 26:01 and was very slowly moving forward. Right before the 4 mile mark I darted off course to the Porta potties at Logan Circle. Frustrating worked my way down the line and found the first 3 unoccupied one were locked. Finally, I got in and took care of business and lets just say its a good thing I didn't wait much longer. I estimate about 90 seconds
Now I hit the 4 mile point and the clock showed 36:25, but I was now running free and had a sense of urgence. I cranked up the pace and decided to push the pace to see if I could make up those 90 seconds by mile 10. I really got going and from mile 4 to mile 8. Hit 10 K at 52:05 and still felt good. I was passing people all over and threw in a few 7:40ish miles. Pushed hard up the mini hill to the bridge to cross over the river and then worked the downhill. However I got to mile 9 and the clock showed 1:25. WTF? No watch to fall back on, was running hard, passing people, and the clock says I just did a 18 minute mile. I was crushed mentally for a few minute before i snapped out of it but I did lose my momentum. Hit mile 10 at 1:22:22 and realized that mile 9 was about 10 minutes off. I wanted to try and run smooth and free the last 5k, knowing that all the miles and work this week would rear there ulgy head these last 3 miles. The last 2 miles have a couple long, not steep hills that just work you over, especially the last one right at the end. The only time all day I felt rotten was in the middle of that last hill. Last 5k was in 25:52, better than the first 5k. Ran a negative split, overcame the mid race pitstop, and was very happy with the effort and pacing. My Official time was 1:48:15 but I subtracted the pitstop time for my purposes and allow me to compare with the last 2 years.

I guess not drink as much before the start.

Walked back to the car, drove home, and took a long hot shower.


The mid race pitstop and the full bladder for the first 4 miles certainly slowed me down, and the HIM and double cycling class and swim yesterday certainly made my legs heavy. But considering this was a training run, I did alot of good things, negative splits, a harder stretch in the middle where I really pushed it, and felt good.


Great race. Lots of cool people, a beautiful varied course through Philly, world class competition, and a great day weather wise.