Pushing through.... the 2010 Philadephia Marathon

Sunday was the Philadelphia Marathon. 25 Fitters started and completed the Full Marathon and 7 started and completed the Half Marathon. I'm so proud of all of them. It was an awesome season. I can't wait until the post season party to hear all about their individual experiences.

Here is mine.

I arrived at the Rocky statue a little before 6. On the drive down, just as we crossed the Schuykill River on Girard Avenue my heart did a double take and I found myself grinning. I was going to run my third marathon. Despite doubts that I was really ready, I was excited. The doubts came from the fact that I ran my longest run 5 weeks before and although the runs I did have in subsequent weeks leading up to today were good and I felt strong they were inconsistent in their regularity as I battled a head and chest cold. I ignored such a cold when I was preparing for the 2010 Goofy Challenge and ended up sick for a few weeks after and weak for much longer than that. I did not want a repeat. Yet, as I said, despite the doubts I was very excited. I couldn't wait to see the gang and send them off to the race. For so many of them it was going to be their first. The excitement in me was such that I was having trouble focusing. I felt lightheaded and giddy almost. As I did at the Distance Run I started calling people by their wrong names. I called Maggi, Julius. Geez! There was so much going on. So many conversatioins, so much to see. I was almost manic.

I stayed with a small group; Anne, Jen, Jeannie, Julius, Chris, Helen and Mark up to about mile 15. We were careful to go slow at first and logged our first mile in just under 12 minutes. The excitement got the better of us though and although I wasn't tracking it, I'm sure our pace picked up after that.

As we approached the halfway point I started to come back down to earth. The second half loomed before me. Lemon Hill is no longer a part of the route but still memories of 2008 came flooding back. This sounds a bit melodramatic perhaps but it really happened this way. I got scared of the out and back on Kelly Drive. It's long and lonely. You run so far away from the finish line before you turn around to come back. As I heard the voice over the speaker instructing half marathoners to stay to the right, full marathoners to the left I almost went right. Seriously. I knew in an instant though that I'd kick myself later so I stayed on the course to the left and on toward mile 14.

My legs were feeling sore and my back wasn't real happy either. The group separated a bit after mile 14 and as we took an extra walk break I veered over to stretch. As I bent down to ease the kinks in my back, there was a quarter right at my foot. Helen took a picture of me picking it up and Jen commented that I was richer than when I started.

And off we went. By the next mile my negative thoughts got the better of me and I told the gang to go ahead. We caught up again at the Falls Bridge. That's where Jen told me the story of how she decided to run a marathon. It's her story to tell so I won't share it here but I will say it was great and it picked me up for a while. I lost them again going over the bridge and that was the last I saw of them until the finish.

I spent the next several miles doing my own run walk intervals. No rhyme or reason to them, just running as much as I could and walking when it hurt. Every run interval was preceded by stretching of my legs and back. My mania from the morning was pretty much gone. I had gone the complete opposite direction. When I get low emotionally like that I can get pretty mean with myself. It wasn't pretty for the next 2 miles.  I'll spare you the details of those thoughts. I'm better now and I know those thoughts were just hogwash and lack of energy.

As I approached the turn around in Manyunk a band was playing and singing a song whose lyrics as I came by said something about "Walking back to your house". Oh great! That was not helping!! I had to laugh then. And I also realized I was approaching mile 20. Only 10K to go. This was a bridge run only flatter!! I could do this. My goal of getting in under 5 and a half hours was gone now and I was ok with that.

I thought again about the Gettysburg Marathon that I had already signed up for. Back between mile 17 and 19 when I thought about Gettysburg I was thinking what a fool I had been to sign up for it. On second thought now, though, I remembered when I signed up. It was after my 21 miler in October. I felt so great after that run. Awesome in fact. A reminder that I COULD do the distance. Something was wrong today, that was obvious, but I have done - and can do - distance. I ran Disney in January and had a great time. And that was after running a half marathon the day before. So whatever wasn't working today was not the be all and end all of my running career.

Now I was on a roll. I spent the next  10k, more or less, thinking about how my training would work for Gettysburg. I had already picked out a schedule. I thought about how I'm going to manage it around my work schedule and the shorter days of late December and January. And how the days would start getting longer soon enough. I thought about doing real core work this time too so my back won't be so funky. I was feeling better every step of the way. I wasn't back to the manic state of the early morning. I was too tired for that but I was definitely out of my funk. I did more walking than running but I was in good spirits now. I had another goal. And I had to finish this event to get started on it.

Somewhere between mile 25 and 26, Pete showed up. He ran me in to just before the last turn. He had run everyone in and gave me a play by play of all their finishes. It was as if I was there! It was so awesome. Pete is awesome. I sent him back to find Julius and ran the remaining tenths by myself.

Being alone at the finish was cool because a) the announcer called out  my name (there was no one else around to call) and b) I wasn't really alone. There at the finish was my husband on the sideline and just across the finsh line mat was my group. Cold, hungry and smiling! A sight for sore eyes (and hips, back and legs) if there ever was one.

Jen was right. I was richer than when I started.