Ahhh to run the ING Rock n Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon. This is something that has been on my to-do list since Spring. What an opportunity to run the City of Brotherly Love. I have always looked at Philadelphia as, “Yeah, yeah, yeah… it’s the city I was born – it’s Philly….” But I have to say I have found a new respect for the patriotic and beautiful city. There is certainly nothing like running the streets of downtown Philly with the Rocky Balboa look-alike runners, Olympians, pro-runners that have been inside and on the covers of such magazines as Runners World and Competitor Magazine, and even the most famous of the back-of-the-packers, John “The Penguin” Bingham – who by the way is one of the funniest and nicest guys I have ever met. So truly running in this “Rockin” Half Marathon was a unique and exciting event.
The weekend started with a trip down to my old haunts in Lower Bucks County. Saturday morning in an attempt to catch the Regional line down to the Pennsylvania Convention Center for the Expo, we found our train was cancelled. In a rush to the car, we headed downtown and parked just a few blocks from the Reading Terminal. For all those who have never been to Philly, Reading Terminal is a MUST SEE in this great city.
Will and I got to the front of the line just before they opened the doors to the Expo. The stereos blared Tom Petty, Aerosmith, and other great rock bands as we all filed through the doors onto a red carpet and a sea of fog and flashing lights. You literally feel like you are entering a rock arena and you are the headliners. They really do it up for this event! It’s first class all the way.
As Will and I picked up our race numbers we headed to the Swag Bag/T-shirt area where we picked up our race goodie bag and a really awesome Philly RnR sweat wicking shirt! We got to the “Official Merchandise” area where you could buy tons and tons of memorabilia for the race. I bought a pull over sweat-wicking jacket, my hubby bought a t-shirt, and we got a picture frame commemorating the race…. Yes… we are one of those people. Should be fun at the Expo for Disney. We’ll need to take out a loan to buy all of the race merchandise there. Lol!!
The expo was awesome! Loads of vendors and freebies, too many to count. I bought a few little things from “One More Mile” my favorite race shop online and picked up a few race day essentials.
Will and I really enjoyed the clinics! We met expert runner, coach, and web producer at Competitor.com Mario Fraioli, ultra marathon runner Sarah Stanley (she is incredibly inspirational by the way), and the famous John “The Penguin” Bingham who literally needs no introduction. He is the “who’s who” in back of the pack racing! That was truly an incredible moment meeting him since his advice and words of wisdom in his book, “The Courage To Start” has helped me in my development as a runner.
Below is a pic of Utra Marathon Runner, Sarah Stanley
John "The Penguin" Bingham and us!
After all the expo fun, we headed out with the family to indulged in a pre-race pasta dinner.
RACE DAY!
Sunday morning, the alarm went off at 4am and I barely realized what day it was. Like a kid on Christmas morning, I quickly threw on my race attire and my hubby and I headed downtown at the crack of dawn. With a little help from Wawa convenience store’s wonderfully fresh brewed coffee, we got to Center City, Philly. With so many warnings of traffic, congestion, and highway bottlenecking, we were certain that by 4:30am we would be in the thick of it. We were pleasantly surprised we were the “only ones” downtown. Lol. We headed to the Four Season’s Hotel near Logan Circle about a ¼ mile up from the start line. It was a chilly morning so we figured we’d warm ourselves until 7am and then head towards the Art Museum for the start.
As we got closer to 7pm, the lobby of the hotel crowded and we realized it was almost time. We made the trek from Logan Circle up to the front right side of the Art Museum.
Music blared from the music stage as people stretched and ran laps around Eakins Oval. Will and I decided to take some fun pics with the famous Rocky statue which is now on the front left side of the Museum and then headed for the famous spot on the Art Museum steps.
THAT moment was when the impact of what I was about to do hit me. The last and very first race I did was the St Lukes Lehigh Valley Half maxing out at about 3,000 runners. THIS was a different race altogether. The streets were packed with 18,000+ runners and literally flooded running over into the grass tree-lined Ben Franklin Parkway.
It was truly a sight to see and believe me, an emotion that is near impossible to convey. A feeling of nervousness, excitement, camaraderie, and competitiveness filled me. My husband became less nervous and excitedly took pictures posing on the steps. I grabbed his hand on the top step in front of the Museum and told him to take it all in. I told him this was a true treat to run your very first half marathon at such an enormous event such as this.
Us at Corral 20 & 21:
Even though we were 19 – 18 corrals behind the best of the best in the running world, we were still running the same route and streets that these famous Olympians, Kenyans, and world class athletes were running. Now if that doesn’t make you feel special….
As the starting siren went off, we literally crept to the starting line. About 30 minutes into the beginning of the race, we weren’t even at the start line and corral 1 was coming back towards the Art Museum approaching their 5th mile!! It’s crazy right???
Well, we just cheered them on as the spectators’ cheers and cow bells rang out from the opposite side of the street. Just then, John Bingham welcomed us to the starting line with a little friendly banter with a Rocky Balboa look alike on the starting stage. With my hubby at my side, I looked down at my ipod and set my stop watch and headed out on the 13.1 mile trek. My hubby and I weaved in and out and around the walkers and slower runners. Faster runners weaved in and around us - some gently pushing their way to the front of the corral. We made our way around Logan Circle which put us directly in front of City Hall. In that moment I felt like Rocky in Rocky I the moment where he comes out of the side street and in front of City Hall. How majestic that part of the city looks at that time of morning with the thousands of people racing through the streets. At mile 2, I could tell my husband was in a primal element and told him to tear it up and take off. He headed into the sea of athletes and I trucked along at my training pace. The music blared in my ears from my ipod’s special setlist I created for this event and every now and then I’d pause it to enjoy the rock music of the bands that played along the route. What an awesome treat to run to bands that were there to cheer you on! People yelled and howled in the streets and several of the people on the side of the road who were without homes themselves cheered us on and clapped. I pushed forward as we rounded out Chinatown near Reading Terminal.
Heading backup to the Art Museum, we heard “Fly Eagles Fly” as a band played Philly’s triumphant team’s song and cheerleaders from local squads and kids yelled for us. My heart skipped a beat as children 4 & 5 years of age held their hands out for me to give me a high five. When I saw them with their hands out, I would cross over to the other side of the street just to high five and let them know how much I appreciated their support.
We got near mile 5 and we heard that the front runners were about to come across the finish line. As I crossed mile 5, a man running looking straight up was juggling 5 red balls in the air. As he blew past me, I thought, hey if this guy is juggling and running, I should pick up the pace. Heading through the rock tunnel down Kelly Drive to the left a beautiful picturesque view of the Schuylkill River appears.
I thought to myself, what a gorgeous day for a race. It was truly an amazing sight. A few runners to my right and left began to fall back as I picked up my pace, approaching mile 7 I knew I was coming close to the Fall Bridge turnaround.
Some people were beginning to get dehydrated or fatigued, paces became slower and some people were getting sick into the bushes on the side of the road. I kept pushing on. Each time I would see the next mile marker in the distance, I would pick up the pace full speed ahead and glance down at my ipod to check my ipod stopwatch. I had 2 wristbands on, one with a pace time of 2:45 and one with 3:00. My hopes today were to finish under 3 hours. That was all I was asking of my body at mile 8.
I knew I had 7 miles to go as I crossed the Falls Bridge. I saw mile 9 at the turn and slowed my pace just a little. The second half of the race had a slight incline and almost completely in direct sunlight. Those were the 2 factors that slowed me down from the 10 -11 min per mile pace I was kicking. More people began to fall back and to the side. Gaining on mile 10 was when the ambulances started to patrol regularly and more or less race down the road to pick up the stragglers that couldn’t bear the elements. All I kept thinking was break it down into 3 mile increments. 4 sets of 3. I can do this. When I got to mile 11 I thought, hey it’s a 5K, I’ve done it in training and I’ve done it in races. 3 miles was nothing. Little did I know the last 3 miles were a bear!
I plugged along refusing to walk or even slow to a jog at the Cytomax and water stations, for some reason my legs wouldn’t let me walk, I had to run. I’d do a drive by as I called it. I took 1 shot blok with a cup of Cytomax, a cup of water at the next table to wash it down, then a cup of water to pour over my head. That combo seemed to work and keep my going.
From mile 12 – 13 I could see the back of the Art Museum in the distance but that last mile was a 30-40% degree angle slant up to the left and also up hill. My mouth was dry and the backs of my thighs began to cramp, I knew I had to push through the pain and continue on. I kept saying to myself, “Let’s get under 3 (hours)” “You can do it! It’s worth the pain and pushing through it. You can rest later when you’ve crossed the finish line”. From the advice Sarah Stanley gave my husband and I at the Expo the day before, I kept telling myself, “There is no wall”. Somehow, those words helped me get through and I made it to mile 13 where I saw my best friend leaning over the guardrail to give me a high five. A up the ramp a bit I saw my parents and my sleeping 3 year old in the stroller. I trucked up that last 10th of a mile uphill and saw the finish line within my grasp.
I picked up the pace with tears in my eyes from sheer joy and sense of accomplishment - I flew over the finish line.
A little woozy, my eyes scanned the crowd of volunteers for water. At that point, water was more important to me than a medal. Someone handed me a 16 oz bottle and there were 3 volunteers waiting to place the medal I worked so hard to earn over my head. Someone snapped a pic of that moment - a moment, I will never forget and I gave a thumbs up.
My husband, spotted me and ran over to me embracing me in a giant hug. Our heavy race medals clanged together as we hugged and told each other how proud of one another we were.
The ASI Photogs snapped a pic of the two of us and I headed for the nearest trash can. I hate the wave of nausea you get when you know you’ve over done it. It wasn’t until my husband came over to me to see if I was ok, that he said, “Hey Hon, You did it in 2:59!!!” “You did it in under 3!!!” All I could do was breathe a sigh of relief that I had done what I had set out to do – beat my PR! I was slightly bummed that I felt so nauseous after I crossed the finish line but my husband said something that made me change my attitude completely he said, “If you feel like this when you cross the finish line, that means you gave it all you got and left everything out there on the course.” He was right! I knew I gave every ounce of myself on that course and I accomplished my goal for that race - finishing in under 3 hours!!
We tiredly made our way back to the car – the walk of victory with other runners wearing their medals of courage and sweat and headed to my parents house to shower and relax. Around 5pm we headed out to Red Robin for a celebratory dinner! Will wore his Philly Rock & Roll shirt and I wore my Philly RnR Finishers shirt. We both proudly wore our medals!!
What an amazing race! This is one I surely won’t forget for a lifetime especially since I am so proud of my husband doing his first half marathon and finishing in 2:40!!! Congrats, Honey!!! I am so glad we got to do this together and it is something we will remember and cherish for the rest of our lives.
For anyone considering to run the Philadelphia Rock & Roll Half Marathon, do it!! It is by far the best and most exciting race!
