Philadelphia Marathon 2012

If there was any race that I feel like I did everything right for, it was the Philadelphia Marathon 2012. It all started with my train ride up to Philly from New Carrollton ... it was my first time taking the train from New Carrollton (normally I would metro from College Park to Union Station and pick up Amtrak there). Well let me back up a little bit .... my 21st birthday. The Philadelphia Marathon was on November 18th....my 21st birthday was on November 13th. When I first signed up for the race, I told myself that I was going to wait to go out for my 21st until Thanksgiving. Why? I have no idea. After talking with my friends, they guilted me into going out for my 21st and boy oh boy - that was the best idea all of training! Thanks to Looney's Pub of College Park, MD for a great night. 

The days leading up to the marathon I honestly wasn't too stressed out like I had been for my first full marathon. Training had gone really well and I had one 20-miler in the tank, and countless 13-16 mile runs. I felt ready to go! The day I was heading up to Philly (Saturday) was also the last Senior Football game at UMD and there was a huge senior tailgate before the game with free drinks from the school...so what did I do? Had my fill of bottomless mimosas :) . I ran into some old friends, got a picture with Testudo, and went back to my apartment and did some last minute packing for the marathon! My friend was supposed to pick me up and give me a ride to the train station....but he was over 20 minutes late, and I almost missed my train! By the time I got to Philly, I was ready for bed. I went to the Expo, got my packet, and then went to the California Pizza Kitchen and had some  yummy food & wine...then off to bed! 

I believe the race started at 7 - I was up at 5:30 and out the door by 6...at the start of the race by 6:30. Met some guy named Ben when we were in line for the bathroom and wound up running the race with him. I kept a 9:35ish pace the whole race! I didn't even run with music for the first half ( I had Ben to talk to), and I'm pretty sure I didn't munch on any Clif Shotbloks until after the 13.1 mark! Something that I found kind of odd was that the half marathoners & marathoners started at the same time...but then the half marathoners peaced out at mile 12.9 for the finish. I honestly wasn't the biggest fan of that because then you have to run the next 13.3 by yourself and that's kind of depressing to think about when you're only halfway done...

Mile 18; when I realized I was going to
break my life goal!

I was cruising. I hit mile 18, looked at the clock, looked at my split time sheet I had taped around my wrist, and then looked at the clock again -- I was ~20 minutes ahead of schedule...I was going to break my lifetime goal of 4:30!!!!!! We ran through Manayunk and a guy asked me if I wanted a beer and I said YES! From that point on, I just ran like the wind; never hit the wall and I felt amazing. Mile 23 was about the time my hip started to hurt and I was ready to be done running - I felt like I had been running forever.  I gave the last few miles all I had left and had a great finish - even high-fived the Mayor of Philly! Great post race party and tons of food. I even remember joking around with the one guy that was giving out Gatorade that I wouldn't accept any from him because he had Steelers gear on. I got my medal, found my friend, and off we went back to her house where I took a nice long shower and we went and had bottomless mimosas for lunch. I took a train back that night and it was kind of funny because everyone that had run the marathon was hobbling their way on the platform. It was kind of hard to get up the next morning - my whole body ached, but I was able to muster up enough energy to go for a ~2 mile run to loosen things up (at like a 13 minute mile pace). Would highly recommend this race!

Overall rating? A

Main complaints? No Under Armour tech tees (those are still my favorite :)) and I don't think there were Philly pretzels at the finish as promised (maybe there actually were and I'm forgetting 7 months after the run haha)

Favorite parts? My favorite two parts of the marathon were probably mile 13 and mile 26. Why? Because of the large crowds cheering for you! I also loved how they played music from Rocky at the start and the finish. It's fun to run through a big city with tons of people cheering for you!

Communication before the race? A

Expo? A. Tons of vendors!

Premium? B+. The color is kind of boring (gray), but I liked how it was gender specific and wasn't too busy (had the marathon logo on the front and the map of the marathon on the back)

Water Stops/Aid Stations? A . Definitely frequent enough and well stocked!

Finisher's Medal? A - pretty awesome! Nice ribbon, heavy medal!

Finisher's Festival? B+. Loved how it was right at the finish line, was kind of bummed there was no beer!

Would I run this race again/recommend it to anyone? YES!

Placed 6451 out of 11427. Bib # 11628 Age: 21 Official Finishing time: 4:17:31

Placed 6451 out of 11427. Bib # 11628

Age: 21

Official Finishing time: 4:17:31

Overall rating? A

Main complaints? None

Favorite parts? The entire race!

Communication before the race? C - I wasn't sure about packet pickup and I would check the website multiple times for answers...but they were never there. I eventually broke down and emailed the race director and had my question answered

Expo? A. Huge and had tons of vendors!

Premium? A. EnduraFit gender-specific long sleeve shirt with the course map on the back. The color was gray...

Water Stops/Aid Stations? A . Definitely frequent enough and well stocked! 

Finisher's Medal? A+. 

Finisher's Festival? B+. They didn't have beer :(

Would I run this race again/recommend it to anyone? YES!

Marine Corps Marathon 2011

Finished:  15874 out of 21023

Bib #14431

Age:       19

Finish Time: 5:19:05

Overall : 42.7% , sex place: 5871/8598 , division place: 60

Ice bath once I got home! bbrrrrr

At the finish of my first full marathon - finished in  5:19:05

 I ran my first full marathon on October 30, 2011; the Marine Corps Marathon. I had to get up super early to take the metro to the start....we had to walk in the cold/dark for ~1 mile to the start once we got off the metro. Tons and tons of port-a-potties! It was pretty cool to see the sun rise! All I can remember is that I had layers upon layers upon layers on. After I took last one last potty break, I handed my bag to the UPS men (they have the UPS trucks transport your bags to the finish) and headed to the start! I was so pumped/nervous - my longest run had been ~15 miles , was I ready??

Gun goes off....my iPod dies. How exciting. I had run every training run with my trusty iPod and even made sure it was charged the night before!!! No dice. It was AWFUL! So off I went... 

About 15 miles into the marathon, my feet started to hurt. I cried, stomped my feet and told myself how much I hated myself for walking ! I learned pretty early on in cross country in high school if you walk, you're a failure...and that's pretty much how I felt. It took me just over a year once I started seriously running again that I would get over this awful philosphy that if you walk, you fail. Around mile 18 I met a nice young fellow from Illinois who was also on the struggle bus.... I think his name was Sam (he's in the left of this picture below)

We ran the majority of the rest of the marathon together. My goal was to get to the 14th street bridge before the cut off, and I did! The worst part was probably the 14th street bridge - it was so hot, barren, and no people were there to cheer you on. We then meandered our way through Crystal City (I was delusional by this point--but I do remember there being tons of people and donut holes - which are my favorite). 

One of my friends was planning on meeting me / cheering for me, but by the time we reached mile 21 and I hadn't seen her so I kind of gave up on all hope....and then I saw her at mile 25! From Crystal City to the finish it was quite uneventful - and there weren't many people cheering for you. I did run with a lady for a short amount of time who was running her second marathon (I think?) and we chatted for a little bit - until we were passed by a 16 year old! How crazy. 

Overall rating? C

MAIN COMPLAINTS: VERY crowded, long lines for the metro (even though they had shuttles to Crystal City the lines for the buses were long)-- took me almost 3 hours to get home (College Park!) from Roslyn via Metro!!, horrible premium 

Communication before the race? N/A. Honestly, I don't remember - this was almost 2 years ago! I don't remember anything that bad?

Expo? B. There were a lot of vendors, but I think they could have chosen a better location than the Armory...

Premium? D - they give you an awful mock-neck turtle neck...if you've been hosting a race for as long as you have, you'd think the participants would get a little nicer of a shirt that actually fits them and doesn't choke them, right?

Water Stops/Aid Stations? B - There were plenty of water / aid stations, my only complaint is that they handed out pretty nasty GUs , and if you couldn't stomach GU or weren't able to carry nutrition you were pretty screwed. I still ran with my 4-bottle FuelBelt, but never had to stop to refill the bottles. I took Gatorade and Water at every stop they were offered!

Finisher's Medal? A. Probably the most bad-ass medal I will ever get! It had a spinny globe in the center of it!

Finisher's Festival? C- Really crowded  (I'm pretty sure we were all funneled in to single file lines to get food and that's pretty hard to do when there are tens of thousands of cold, hungry, stinky runners!).

Would I run this race again/recommend it to anyone? No. Too crowded, didn't like the premium; could have been much better!