2009 Philly Half Marathon

2009 marked my second season with USAfit/Philly. I successfully completed the full marathon after the 2008 season and for reasons that aren't relevant right now, I chose the half in 2009. I expect to return to the full in 2010. This post is about race day 2009; the Philadelphia Half Marathon.

Our group agreed to meet at the Rocky Statue in front of the Art Museum at 6:00 a.m. We gathered and chatted and took a group picture by the statue. As the sun started to rise over the city we broke up and some headed to the port-o-potties. Me, I have (thankfully) avoided portopotties so far and headed to my corral. Once there, I saw three of our first time marathoners. They were excited and nervous. Truth be told so was I. We listened to the annoucements as the corrals in front of us started the race. We watched as some runners crowded over the right to high five Mayor Nutter as they started off. Finally, it was our turn.

The girls are faster than me and I let them go. If I've learned one thing it's that we all have to run our own race. I did catch up to them at one point because they foudn a group of their family and friends and stopped for hugs! The scene brought smiles to most of the runners around them - including me.

What I enjoyed most about the early part of the race was the temperature. It was about 20 degrees warmer at the start this year than last year. I liked that I could feel my feet! I tried to take in the sights of city and the spectators as I travelled around city hall, along penns landing, up south street and toward the Penn and Drexel Campuses. This helped me keep my pace my own. I was able to get into a rhythm early and the mile markers came up fast. As I passed fraternity row at Drexel I saw my husband. He is super supportive of my running and I enjoy seeing him on the route. We high fived and I went on my way and he headed back to the art museum to see me finish.

This part of the course has some gradual hills. I dont' really mind hills though and we had prepared for this in our training. I tried to hold my pace going up and let gravity help me going down. The route takes us through fairmount park and then back down to Martin Luther King Boulevard.

There were a couple new things about this year's race. One of them was to do an out and back for about a mile along MLK boulevard. I liked that. It gave me a chance to see other runners coming and going in front of and behind me. Another new thing this year was names on our bibs. That was way cool! Spectators would call out my name as i passed. It's hard to explain but that really was helpful and fun.

Miles 11-13 were along MLK heading back to the Art Museum. There is a little hill as you come up to the museum and i knew I was almost at the finish line so despite the that I picked up speed. I couldn't believe I was already there. Just as the finish line came into view the announcer asked us all to stay to the right because full marathoners were already finishing their 26.2 miles! That was strange. To be honest, although I stayed out of the marathoner's ways I ran on the outside of "to the right" because I really wanted to sprint to the finish and it was too crowded inside. I heard my name called by the announcer as I approached the finish...again way too cool.

My goal is always first and foremost to have fun. After that I want to finish. To beat a past time is icing on the cake. At the Philly half marathon in 2009 I had a blast! I finished!! and I took 8 minutes off my previous best.

After finishing my run I went back to my car to change into dry clothes. This was very uncomfortably accomplished by lying on the floor of our van so as not to flash anyone! I wolfed down and tunafish sandwhich and grabbed a bottle of water then my husband and I headed over Kelly Drive to cheer on the marathoners coming up on mile 26. WE had two signs and an obnoxiously loud cowbell. We called out people's names from their bibs and it was neat to see them smile when they heard them. I watched for my Phillyfit friends and managed to see almost all of them as they approached. I was very excited for them.

After a couple of hours Dave and I walked back to the finish to see if anyone from Phillyfit was still there. We chatted with a few and then headed home. It had been a long day but a great one.