Jefferson Hospital Philadelphia Distance Run - RunHalf Marathon

A very cool morning 46 when I left was 50 when I reached Philly. Wore my Disney Marathon long Sleeve wicking T-shirt. Given my lack of warm up and the mass of humanity at the start I took it really easy for the first mile, no weaving through traffic just stay clean until things started spacing out. Did the first mile in 8:00, got into a little groove and started taking the corners a bit more agressively and passing people. Picked up the pace to 7:30 the 2nd mile. Went thru 5k at a 7:47 pace and finished off the downtown loop in good shape running easy. Passed by LoganCircle and the Art mueseum and down to Martin Luther King dr alongside the river. At this point I started to stretch it out and cruise. Went to the side and started working forward and passing alot of people who had passed me in the early portions. Hit the 10K at 47:54 (7:43 pace) and felt it was ok to start to push a little. This was a fun stretch down the banks of the river and lots of shade and the bands. Hit every aid station (except the last one) got water at the first two and accelerade at the rest). Worked over the little hill leading up to the bridge crossing over to Kelley drive and the homeward leg. Really started pushing the pace and did good thru mile 10 1:17:04 (7:43 pace). The last 5K was a bit harder. 24:54 but with those hills I just couldn't recapture the nice flow I had. I went thru 20K at 1:36:34 so 48:40 the 2nd 10K, but the last 1000 meters were rotten 5:34. It was like I finished at 20 K, lost focus completely. The last hill didn't help. They changed the finish so you had a final sprint the last .1 mile headed straight at the Art Museum Steps to the finish. It was really cool. Very good race.

With my toe and ankle/shins bottering me leading up to this, I ran pretty conservative until I was confident I was OK. Very steady race but I didn't finish it off. Oh well, still got my post 14 year lay off PR by 41 sec and best PDR time by about 4 min.

Walked my toe pain off and hit the Art museum steps and did the Rocky thing (as many others did-you really can't help it) Then I walked back could find the food and walked back to the parking garage. Had my ticket get eaten my the machine and had to wait over 40 minute for someone to show up and let my out.


Trained thru this race and did over 2 hours on the bike and this wasn't a total race effort, but it worked out pretty well. Only Kona could religate this race to a 'C' race.


Great race, just seems to be getting better. Philly puts on a great show. Only thing was they didn't have any directions to the food and there were so many people, I ended up skipping it. Cool shirt and medal this year.