November 20, 2011

Philadelphia Half-Marathon Race Recap

Dear Philly,

I don't like your sports teams but I love running in your city.

Love, Christy

Hi.

Remember when I was all..."I have no idea what to expect and I'm terrified about racing this weekend?"

Well, those feelings brought back to me all of the nervous excitement that I had been missing out on from running so many times this year.

Since Marine Corps, I had run a total of 24 miles before today...2 of those runs, I dropped out of less than half way through my planned run because of knee pain and none of those runs were longer than 5 miles.

My goals for Philly were to:
  1. Have fun reliving the nostalgia of running on the same course of my first marathon. Check!
  2. Run smart and listen to my body. Check!
  3. PR if at all possible. CHECK!
I had a blast at this race.The weather was perfect, I hit all my goals and for the first seven miles, I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face. 

I heard that Garmins tend to get a little wonky in Philly so I turned off Auto Lap and then accidentally only lapped my first mile so unfortunately, I don't have splits for this race. Unless you count this as a split:

How's that for positive splitting?
I loved running the course and having, "Hey! I remember this" moments. It was so much fun! Philly was the first course I've ever run twice and I loved knowing what was coming. 

Sunrise at the starting line
I was maintaining a pretty consistent pace of between 8:43 and 8:47 all the way through the 10k and then I just started feeling good so I picked up the pace a bit and was 8:37. Around Mile 7, I started fading a little bit. I was keeping my pace but my legs were starting to get tired so I decided to take a Gu at Mile 7.5.

After the stomach issues I had at Marine Corps which I realized had nothing to do with my dairy intake, I was nervous to take a Gu because Gu is the only thing consistent with my stomach issues and running. I decided to space it out and took it over the course of the next mile. At this point, we started hitting some rolling hills. Nothing serious at all but I didn't remember them from last year and had really only remembered the hill around Mile 9. I kept my pace consistent through them and was really happy.

My plan was to speed it up for the last 10k if I was on target for hitting a PR but that wasn't happening. I was feeling great but I just didn't have it in me to pick up the pace anymore, so I kept my pace steady and made my way to the Finish Line which I crossed in 1:54:14...a 1 1/2 minute PR. 

I was am elated. The hazelnut truffle in my mouth may have something to do with that. Or maybe it was meeting Katie's awesome first-time marathoning husband Thom out on the course at Mile 3. Or maybe it was the fact that I had a 91 second PR in my last big race of the season. 

D. All of the Above.

Only the Hot Chocolate 15k, some final papers and 3 more weeks of school stand between me and a month off from training. I can't wait.

Thanks for all of your support this weekend! I had an awesome time!

9 comments:

  1. LauraNovember 20, 2011 at 10:11 PM

    Wow that's amazing.
    I have just started running and am aiming to do a 10k sometime next year.
    I can't imagine running as many races as you have! well done! ><

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  2. Kaity B.November 20, 2011 at 11:46 PM

    Congrats! It's one of my goals to run a 1/2 marathon. Thanks for the inspiration :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. C3November 21, 2011 at 12:24 AM

    Congratulations on your run! I have just started to run and have really enjoyed reading your blog!

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  4. OliviaNovember 21, 2011 at 1:05 AM

    3 more weeks of school. awesome. same here :)

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  5. AmandaNovember 21, 2011 at 9:20 AM

    ;asldkfj;alsdk;alskd

    That's my happy noise! Congrats on such a great PR!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. LauraNovember 21, 2011 at 10:49 AM

    Congrats on a PR!! Sounds like you did an awesome job :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. KatieNovember 21, 2011 at 11:04 AM

    BAM!!! So happy for you, and SO glad that I got to see you yesterday! Congrats!

    ReplyDelete
  8. LAPTNovember 22, 2011 at 12:45 PM

    Congratulations!!! That's a nice little PR, and I bet it felt good coming off of those runs with knee pain!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Richard SNovember 22, 2011 at 7:41 PM

    Nice job! It was good seeing you up there and thanks for all your help!

    ReplyDelete

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