Philadelphia Marathon – City of Motherly Love

My race reports lately are happening in order of most recent to older. I apologize for that; however, it is easier for me to write about today’s race since I am taking multiple trains home with some time to spare.  To begin I took a train from the Wallingford station on Saturday morning. The kids slept over my parents’ house so Kevin and I actually got to bed early. The train was scheduled for 9:09 departure but ran over 20 minutes late. When it arrived I settled in and got comfortable with my tea. The trip took about 4 hours and when I arrived I met Jen at a pub across the street from the train station. I had a nice cold blue moon and a turkey sandwich and then we walked to our hotel to check in.

After dropping off our bags we walked to the expo to pick up our bibs and do a little shopping and I really wanted to go to the Another Mother Runner booth. Dimity spotted their 26.2 sweatshirt I was wearing when I approached their booth! She’s awesome. She gave me a big hug and signed my bib for me. I knew she couldn’t run because of her broken foot but she was going to ride a bike to cheer on her cadets. She told me she’d look for me. I bought their city of motherly love hoody and she posed for a picture with me and told me she would look for me out on the race course.

 

After the expo, Jen and I made plans with Joe and Melissa Pardo to hook up for dinner. We dumped our goodies off at the hotel and Joe and Melissa picked us up in the front. We went to Chickie and Pete’s. Good food, cold beer and a fun time! Jen wanted a Fliers hat so we made plans to see if we could get into the stadium area to go to the gift shop. Well after a little wheeling and dealing through the side door she was able to purchase a hat even though she didn’t have tickets into the game! We all got a good laugh out of that and then went to the Xfinity Center to check the place out. Joe drove us down South Street to show us the sites and then he dropped us back off at the hotel. It was a very fun time! Thanks Joe and Melissa!!

Jen and I were getting tired so we got ready for bed and despite a few coughing fits, the both of us settled down pretty quickly for the night. I never mentioned how sick I was during the week. I started to get a tickle on Monday with some annoying coughing. By Wednesday it was in my chest so I started steroids and used the nebulizer machine. My Tuesday morning run was a challenge but by Thursday I was breathing easier. I made sure all week that I was getting to bed early so that I could get ahead of this cold or whatever it is.

We hit the sack, I read my kindle until my eyes closed and quickly the alarm went off at 4:30 a.m. I got ready, ate my oatmeal and had some tea and we walked to the starting area.

We got there very early. I wasn’t sure how to plan for this race since I never ran it before. The paperwork said to be at the corrals no later than 5:30 but the race didn’t start until 7:00. We were there by 5:38. Thankfully I was able to find Danielle, who I was planning on running the full with and we hung out with Jen for a while before we went back to our corral. I was able to switch corrals at the expo and Danielle was able to stick with me so that worked out nice. It was very cold standing at the corrals. I had a space blanket which helped a lot. But I took it off too soon and out it back on again a few minutes later and shared it with Danielle. The corrals had some time between releases so we needed to keep warm.

We finally got to go and I helped Danielle with her knee and hip issue by doing 30/30 intervals with her. We had a great pace for the first few miles. Then I got to a point where I needed to use a potty. That usually doesn’t happen to me during races or training. But if I wanted to enjoy the rest of the 20+ miles I needed to do it. That was a big relief on my mind when I got that out of the way.

We continued on through South Street and through downtown and then ended up in the college area and the zoo. Danielle started doing a funky skip hobble which wasn’t good. Her knee was getting worse over time and we were talking about what she should do. We maintained our intervals but walked up the hills. Again we kept a good pace but I wanted her to be careful. As we were climbing a hill around mile 8 someone had donuts. Now I never eat donuts, but I looked at what there was and the glazed donut called out to me! My tummy was rumbly. I had about half of it and it was wonderful! But I didn’t want it to give me trouble so I tossed the rest.

Danielle decided around mile 10 that she was throwing in the towel. It is a very hard decision to make, especially since she paid to do the full and it was her first but her knee was really behaving badly and I was concerned that she would have major issues just finishing the full or even if she did finish, what kind of damage could be going on with it. We took some pictures before we split off and around mile 11 I said goodbye to her. It was sad losing a pal along the way. But I put on my headphones and hunkered down to complete the other half marathon I had ahead of me.

The course has many areas where you can see the other runners returning back towards the finish as I was just heading towards mile 14. That plays games with my head. I struggle with that. But then I remembered Dimity was going to be near the river so I had someone to look out for. I found her just as Sarah was coming up to her as well!! I gave a yell out to Sarah and posed for a selfie with Dimity and then kept on my journey to the finish.

I wasn’t familiar with the course so I didn’t have a sense for when I would see things. I just knew that eventually I’d have to take the route back along the river into the city. Well the course sighed and zagged a few hills here and there and over a few bridges. I saw Dimity again and gave her a shoutout. I saw Linda Bachand around mile 20 and took a picture with her. I wanted to see Danielle again and she said she would be at the bridge. It helps to know there are people you know ahead to give you a boost.

 

Around mile 22 I was struggling. I called my husband and talked to the kids and it helped. I decided that for the last 3 miles I would run for my husband and kids. I called him again at mile 25 and he told me to finish strong. That was helpful to me. As I came up to mile 26 I kept repeating to myself, “Finish strong”. It helped. I ran the entire .2 distance to the finish line and was practically alone in the shute. That was weird. Everyone was looking at me but I was so focused at finishing strong. I crossed the line and was very happy to have my 4th marathon completed.

I got my medal, space blanket, water and snack bag and headed back to the room to meet Jen and have my chocolate milk!  This was my first non-Disney race in many months so I ran for Team Chocolate milk.  I was glad to run wearing the gear that my sponsor gave me.  I felt special, like maybe what I am doing actually means something.  I took a shower and packed up and we left to go to the train station. Since wet didn’t have much time, we grabbed lunch at the station. We relaxed and had sandwiches and then said goodbye until next time! Jen had a great time and told me that she really felt like her old self this weekend. I’m glad she had fun and also finished the race despite her fear of not being trained enough for it.

 

My next marathon is Dopey. Jeff Galloway has my cluster of runs near Christmas where I do 3, 6, 13.1 and 26, but I think I am going to do a 20 or 23. I am feeling marathon burnout a little bit and don’t want to do 26 miles through my neck of the woods and then do it again at Dopey. It’s just too much. Mentally I struggle so I want to enjoy dopey and not feel the training burnout. I know my performance won’t be spectacular but my goal is to finish Dopey. Hell after my first marathon on 2013 I had no idea all this would have taken place for me!!!

This was a good race and now that I have had time to think about it, I think I would do it again as a training run.  I struggled with it a little during the race.  I didn’t know the course, but the point was to run on new streets and get a new view for a long training run.  I have to remember that I was sick and I did great considering that.  I think I am benefiting from doing multiple training runs (3, 5, 10, 26) that Jeff has on my plan and it seems to be keeping me loose and also strong at the same time.  It was a beautiful day and I did enjoy it.  I had a great time finally meeting Jennifer in person.  I also got to hang out with Joe and Melissa and met a new Mickey Miler, Danielle!  So it was a great weekend!  I also recovered very quickly.  I didn’t have much pain at all post race and during the following day I was able to go up and down stairs like it was nothing different.  That makes me suspect that I didn’t push myself hard enough.  Then when I think that, I keep reminding myself that I did what I was supposed to do and use it for a training run to remain injury free and able to do multiple miles in 4 days.  Mission accomplished!