Philadelphia Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

The first couple miles were just getting sorted out - it was crowded! I purposely seeded myself up towards the start, but even so had to weave my way though. The first mile was one of my slowest, which is probably a blessing in disguise.

Once I got sorted out, the course went down to Penn's Landing, where everything opened up. I got into a groove. I was keeping about 8:15/miles, which I thought was a bit fast, so I wanted to slow down. I kept telling myself to slow down, but didn't seem to be listening. HR was in the 160's, which was zone 2. I had room to spare.

After Penn's Landing, the course turned through South Philly, which was so cool! There were people everywhere along the course - it was like the red carpet at the Academy Awards! So cool running through downtown with all the spectators - I wasn't expecting that. My HR was climbing up into the 170's at this point, which was fine. My spring HM had an average HR of 185.

I didn't wear an iPod during this race, as I have been focusing on my running form for the last few weeks. I'm trying to run more on my forefoot instead of being such a heel striker, and I believe it's working. I could feel the difference when I would get lazy and revert back to my old form - it was much harder. I think this is part of the reason why my HR was lower for this race versus the race I did last fall. Who knew improved form could have that much of a difference? :)

Mile 8 is where the hills started, up into Drexel University. I started to work harder at this point, and my HR shot up a few beats to the 180's. I was worried that it was a pacing issue and I had gone out too fast, but once I got past the hill I felt fine.

Then, headed into Fairmount Park to a hill that I remember from the Philly Tri in June. I remember what a pain it was to climb that hill on a bike - now I'm trying to run up it! The good news is that we got to run down Black Road, which is the road down to transition at the base of the river. After Black Road, it was smooth sailing down to the Art Museum for the last 2.5 miles. It was cool running that same course - I remembered where I saw Craig Alexander on the run (when I was finishing my first bike lap!) during the tri. It was also good because I had a gauge for how long it would be until the Art Museum.

My plan was to keep it steady until mile 10 or 11, then hit the gas and go. Well, I had kept a steady RPE, but there wasn't a whole lot of gas left! I just focused on keeping my head up, form straight and eye toward the finish line. The finish was a bit confusing, because there wasn't a 13 mile market (that I saw, anyway). You had to curve around the circle in order to get to the finish line. But, I made it.

More run specific training? I wish I had a better clue for the finish line set-up, because I kept thinking that it was "right around the corner" at the end circle. I think I let up a bit because of that. Other than that, I would have paced a bit quicker in some of the middle miles. Overall, it was a good race to judge my fitness.

Uuummmm...it was 40* and raining, so I made my way to my car. It was not the day to hang out at the finish line - I was freezing! I made my way though the finish chute, grabbed the bag and huddled for warmth. I did hang out a bit to see if I could make it to see TC and fam cross the finish line, but misery was setting in quickly, so I didn't last long.


Run-specific training probably would have helped! I'm pretty happy with the race, as I think I executed my race plan well. I'm still not where I want to be time-wise, but with the little bit of running I've been doing, I was more than happy.


It was a good race - not spectacular, but good. I would do it again, and will probably do the full marathon next year. It doesn't stand out in my head the way the Flying Pig Marathon does, but it's a good, solid race that you can focus on. The only issue is the expo - something has to be done about that. Not only is the location a bit challenging, but the organization left something to be desired. You just had to be in the right frame of mind when going to it - you got what you needed, but it was more stressful than any other race I've done. Not a total race killer, but different.

Thanks to TC, PanicTour and JenO for meeting up before the race, and congratulations for their own great races! It was a really fun weekend!