Philadelphia Half Marathon

Just got back from the Philly half marathon which I ran this morning. Sue and I drove down yesterday morning early to get to Elite bicycles by 11am.....more about this in the next post.

After a long day at Elite, we rushed through town to pick up our bib numbers with a few minutes to spare. Then it was off to find dinner somewhere. After driving around trying to find a restaurant but more importantly parking, we decided to check into our hotel and meet our friends and find something on the whim. Ali was hobbled by a stress fracture, it was getting late, and it was cold out so we got stuck at a Ruby Tuesdays. My friend Mark was running the full marathon the next day. The dinner was awful. We had problem after problem with the food and I felt sorry for the waitress but alas we ate, then headed back to our hotels for some rest.

I fell asleep pretty easily but awoke at 12:30am feeling like it was 5am and felt fully rested....not so good. Unfortunately, I lied awake in bed for the next hour or so trying to fall back asleep but to no avail. Sue and I were in Embassy Suites so I proceeded to the other room to watch tv on the sofa until 4:30am....our wake up call. It was very frustrating. I usually sleep pretty well before races and this wasn't a big race for me. I may have been excited about my experience during the day at Elite.

So I proceeded with getting in some calories with 1 bottle of Ensure Plus, a banana, and english muffin. I walked outside to determine my race outfit....tights or shorts??? As the weather has been getting cold her in CT, I found a pair of compression tights made by Under Armour that feel great. I opted for the tights and it was a great choice, even though I probably would have been fine with shorts too. The weather was in the mid 40's with a light wind but I felt comfortable the whole race.

My goal for the race was to go out at a 7:30/min pace and see if I could hold it to the finish. I tend to go out a little too hard so I wanted to make sure I didn't take it too hard in the beginning. My first few miles were in the 7:15 range so I was getting concerned that I might not be able to hold that for another 11 miles. I hadn't really done a run over 1 hour for about 8 weeks prior to this race.

I continued to hold my pace pretty well, then a huge crowd running in the 3:10 marathon pace group passed me and put some time on me around mile 4 or 5 so I thought I was slowing but my trusty watch splits told me I was right on target holding 7:20's consistently. My goal was to break 1:40 and figured that if I could get to mile 10 feeling good, I would have a good shot at this. There was one mile around 8 or 9 that was mostly uphill so my split was about 7:44 but I knew I had a lot of seconds in the bank so I was not worried. I finally got to mile 11 and realized I might have a shot at breaking 1:35 if I could kick it in a bit. I gave it my all. Mile 11 was 7:05 and I tried to go fast but my calves really started cramping so I kept telling my body to relax and hold it together for one more mile. I finished 1:35:57. 218th overall for the half marathon out of 3,000+. My pace was 7:19. And I finished 15th/200+ in my age group. This is by far my best running result and I'm quite surprised by it. I've lost about 10 pounds since working with my nutritionist which I attribute a lot of this success to. My previous PR for a half marathon was done about 8 weeks ago at the nutmeg triathlon with a 1:46. My coach thinks I can go under 1:30.....and I believe I can especially with another 10 pounds lighter.