Philly Marathon Recap

I'll start out from the beginning. We left Saturday afternoon and it took us longer than we thought because of a couple accidents along the way, but not too bad. We got to the convention center and I had hubby illegal park outside since I'd already heard that the expo kind of sucked I had no plans of staying that long. I grabbed my goods and was going to buy some more GU chomps since I thought I might need more. Would you believe the convention center didn't allow the stands to sell them?? Apparently the convention peeps believe they interfere with the food stands. WEIRD!!!!! I grabbed some sport beans instead :-). Maggianos is located right across from the Marriott, so I was able to carbo-load with some yummy chicken pesto linguini. Yummo! We had to take it carryout because of the wait but that's ok...was kind of nice just to head back to the hotel room and chill that way. I then spent the next hour trying to decide what to wear...only to decide I'd just decide in the morning :-) Went to bed at 9:30...

Woke up before the alarm; 4:20-something. But I wasn't ready to get up so I just laid in bed until 4:50. I was surprised that I didn't start to get the nervous feelings I usually do before big days. The hubster was nice enough to take the steel cut oats I'd made the day before over to the 7-11 and heat 'em up in the microwave. I loved having a great support "team." :-) Ate a banana and peanut butter and drank about 12 oz of gatorade. I went outside in my shorts to see how cold I'd be. I finally decided I'd wear my shorts and sleeveless top because I warm up quickly and the sun would be shining. Soooo happy I decided not to wear my capris and/or a long sleeve shirt.

We took off around 6:10 and caught a taxi. I know...lazy, but I didn't feel like wasting any energy :-) We got there and I realized that even though I went pee right before I left I still had to go again. I think the 12 oz of gatorade was too much for me. Anyway, went to get in line at the port-o-potty and the lines were so long and didn't move AT ALL. I decided to just wait until after the race started and lose the 30 seconds or so I'd have to lose in order to pee. But as I was about to get in the corrals I noticed men peeing next to the softball field fences and I told the hubby how much I HATE men because they have the unfair advantage. But there were some women who had already decided to pop-a-squat and he's like why don't you just go? So yup, if you noticed those women peeing next to the trees in the WIDE open...that might just have been my butt in the open :-). Very happy I did it though! haha! But because of all my peeing nonsense I missed linking up with Natalie ('Lil Runner) and I am soooo bummed we didn't get to meet that day! Hopefully there will be another time to meet!

So onto the actual race!!! The waves were very well organized. Loved this!! This is the first run I've been a part of that is organized in this many waves and it helps out soooo much! I situated myself near the 3:30 group, and it turned out I was near the front when the wave took off. Kind of nice not to be in the middle of a crapload of runners, but I was quickly passed by a lot of people. Anyways, I was bummed they didn't have any music going in the beginning!! I thought for sure I'd hear the rocky theme song or something!

My plan was to stick near the 3:30 pacer so I'd have a sense of how fast I was really going since I didn't have my Polar on me (remember my foot pod didn't work...I didn't get it back from repair before the race...boo!). My legs felt a little heavy in the beginning but overall I felt great going at this pace. The first mile flew by and before I knew it we reached the 10K point and I saw the hubby here, too. It starts to get a little fuzzy for me at this point. I'm trying to remember the route and I can't really remember :-) Almost forgot...I saw a lady holding a sign around this time that said "you're only getting started." Really? Really??? Who has a sign like this?? I can't decide what's worse...this one or the ones people hold at mile 24 that say "you're almost there."

There ended up being more hills than I thought we'd get. There was a big hill around mile 8 (I think). I think it was at this point or a little after I felt a little something-something happening in my left knee. I kind of shrugged it off but not soon after it become more than a little something-something. My first thought was you have to be f*cking kidding me. I managed to train the entire time without an injury and NOW is when I have something happen to me?? I kept going, keeping the 3:30 balloons in sight. I stopped I think around mile 11 or 12 to stretch out the quad and that seemed to help a little. But by the halfway point it was hurting A LOT. I started thinking that maybe I should just stop and finish with the half-marathoners since I didn't know if I'd be able to make it and what's the point of really injuring myself. But then I started telling myself that I'd go until I couldn't go any more. I saw the hubby and told him my knee was killing me and he said you can do it, you can do it. So then I told myself I could do it...yada, yada, yada. But I had to alter my stride a lot at this point so my knee wouldn't hurt. Not good.

I think I kept going with the 3:30 balloons in sight, but I slowed down a bit and had to stop a couple more times to stretch. I got to mile 17 or so I think and had to pee and stop and stretch again. I couldn't see the 3:30 balloons anymore at this point and was pretty bummed. It was at about this point I saw the leaders. They actually looked like they were working hard so it made me feel a little better :-)

At this point I gotta say I was happy to be running through Manayunk. I soooo wanted to just pull over and start drinking the beer!! I was happy to get to the turn around at mile 20 because just knowing mentally that I was on the way back made it a little easier to deal with. But knowing I still had 6 miles to go was tough! My legs were starting to get really tired at this point from my altered stride. At this point a girl came up from behind me and I decided to try and stay with her to help me mentally. That worked for a while but around mile 22 I had to stop and stretch again.

The last 4 really are a blur for me. I just remember doing the math and thinking ok if you push this mile then you can add a minute onto the last mile and still BQ. It was kind of like a reward system :-). I knew at this point it was going to be down to the wire if I was going to make it. I got to mile 24 around 3:20 I think and I was like, ok you can do this...just dig in and concentrate on other things. So I started the mantra...dig, dig, dig. Thank God for the support at this point. I would have liked to have it from 22 on but I'll take the last 2 miles! Especially loved the sign I saw a girl/woman holding that said "single and supportive." Made me laugh out loud. I swung my hips and dug, dug, dug and finally I saw signs that said finish line with an arrow, but somehow missed the 26 sign. Seriously...they should have had a huge sign so you knew you could totally kick it into overdrive. But anyway, back to the finish line signs...seriously, there were a lot of signs and I, like Natalie/Lil Runner, kept thinking where the f#ck is this dang finish line. It was on a curve and I had NOOO idea how much further I had to go. I finally saw it and realized I was going to make it in time to BQ and got a little emotional. It was a tough 26.2 miles but I'm glad I stuck it out. I'm not a quitter!

It still feels like I got a C- since I barely qualified but I am proud of myself. I think I am a little self-critical. :-)

All-in-all it was a great marathon. I couldn't have asked for better running weather. It was a beautiful day and I'm glad I was able to share with with the hubster!!

Here are my split times. You can see I seriously slowed down the last 8 miles! Official finish time was 3:38:05.

10K0:50:17Half1:46:1030K2:33:20