Marathon: #8                      State: # 7 

Philadelphia Marathon                                                             

On 2010, I signed up to run the Philadelphia Half.  It would be only 2 weeks after the NYC Marathon.  I was so scared and stressed!  I kept thinking I’d made a mistake.  Why would I schedule a half so close after a marathon!  It feels as if that happened so, so long ago…. On 2011 I did the same thing, but this time signed up for the full marathon.  My third marathon in as many weeks for the month of November.  This year I was in a quest to go up the Marathon Maniac ladder and trying to reach Iridium level.

                                              The bus ride:

So we traveled to Philly again.  Last year we rented a car and drove.  We stayed at a hotel about 20 minutes outside of downtown Philly.  It was fun, but we barely got to see the city.  Philly is a city to be walked. This year, through a friend, we rented a studio apartment right in the heart of the city.  We took a bus and walked to the apartment.  The apartment was located at Spruce street, smack between the expo and the start. It was really awesome.  We got it through Airbnb.  Highly recommended.

So we arrived Friday noon and walked all over the city.  I really like Philly!  It has the best little stores.  We ate at Jim’s Steaks.  A Philly Cheesesteak with Whiz! Mmmmmm!!!  I can’t wait to go back …but I digress.

Saturday we stayed mostly in our studio apartment.  We couldn’t decide what to have for dinner….we kept trying to find a good restaurant.  Finally, at 10pm we decided to go to a pizzeria a block away and I ate an entire small pizza with pepperoni.  I knew I shouldn’t be doing that so late the night before the marathon but I was starving and I’m not very clearheaded when I’m in that unfortunate status.  I knew I would pay for it the following morning and boy, oh boy I did!!

Marathon morning came and I didn’t have anything to eat for breakfast.  YEY!!  What did I eat?  A donut! Of course!  Food smart I am most definitely not!  I left the apartment 30 minutes before the start.  Oh, the awesomeness of staying so close to the start line!! I was a nice morning. It was still dark, but it wasn’t terribly cold.  I didn’t even need to wear a disposable sweater. 

At 7am the gun went off and we started.  As soon as I started running I felt super heavy as if I were running dragging an anvil behind me.  That darned pizza!  I was hoping the feeling would go away, but it only got worse. Without going into too many details I’ll just say that my suggestion to the race organizers is to get more porta potties. I ran for almost 5 miles without finding one.  Thank goodness for Starbucks!!  And that’s all I have to say about that.

The Philly marathon is really fun.  I would say the first 13 miles are the best.  You start at Ben Franklin Parkway.  I was a little disappointed.  When I did the half in 2010, we started to the tune of the Rocky song.  Not this time.  Boo! 

So, as I was saying, the first 13 miles are the best.  You run through the city past all the little stores in downtown.  There are spectators cheering you on and it’s high five galore.  Once you pass the 13 mile marker it turns really boring.  It’s all road.  Meh..

(Geez! I carry a lot of stuff with me, huh?  LOL)

I really don’t have much to say about this race. It’s just ok. It is pretty flat though, so if you are looking to set a PR this is a good place to try.

The thing I remember most about this race is all the stomach issues I had.  Maybe that is the reason why I’m so blasse about it.  I’ve talked to other Maniacs and they love the race, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Conclusion and lesson learned: do not eat anything heave after 7pm the night before a marathon and plan for breakfast.  Also, airbnb is awesome! 

8 states down (1 repeat state). 42 more states to go!