Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half - Part 2 THE RACE

Heidi

 

This is a little late and I apologize.  I have been a little bit busy since the race.  I also apologize ahead of time because this is going to be a little bit long. 

 

So Sunday, September 14, 2013 came awfully early....4:30 am early to be exact.  I was ready though!!  I jumped out of bed, woke up Justin and went downstairs to eat my oatmeal and blueberries (breakfast of champions.)  I usually eat my oatmeal while watching the news but at 4:30 am, there isn't any good news on.  So therefore I found the movie, Airplane.  Can't beat that classic to calm your nerves before a long race.

 

My bag was pretty much packed the night before so all I had to do was get dressed and decide which old sweatshirt I would wear and then give to charity.  These big races usually have a charity to donate your clothing to that you don't want to wear during the race but are too cold before the race to not have anything on.  You don't want to wear anything expensive or nice because you won't have anyone to give it to once you are in the race corral.  I went through all of the old sweatshirts I have the night before.  Low and behold, they were almost ALL Disney sweatshirts.  Oh the decision I had as to which one I would donate.  Even though I never wear them anymore, it was a sin to have to give any away.  I chose my Winnie the Pooh one.  (sniff sniff).

 

So Diana and Kristen made their way to my house by 5:30 which was the estimated time of departure. Troy (the driver) was almost ready to go.  I had woken my youngest up and he said he didn't want to go because he wasn't feeling well.  We get into the car and hit Route 1 when Troy's phone rings.  It was Tyler...he now wanted to go.  We were about 5 minutes away from the house so I made the executive decision to go back home and get him.  I could hear the winces from the backseat.  I just wanted Troy to have someone to hang with for the super long time he would be there waiting for me to finish.  (I knew Kristen and Diana would be in the beer garden.) 

 

Finally, on the road again.  We make a quick potty stop at the Wawa before we get to Route 322.  Troy talked to some random folks that were also going to the race.  As we were rolling down Route 322 and then I-95, we tried to put in an address to a parking garage.  Of course there is no real address, just the corner of 21st and Arch (I think).  Troy freaked out but then realized that the car in front of us were the people he was talking to at Wawa and were going to the race too and we should just follow them.  Makes sense to me.  I mean we are already 25 minutes behind schedule, but OK.  What could go wrong??

 

While we were in the car, Diana and I made Kristen put our chip thing on our shoes.  We apparently couldn't figure that out.  Thank goodness for Kristen.  It was probably funnier in person.

 

 

 

We get into Philly and there are people everywhere.  We can't really find the garage and I start to get nervous and make Troy drop us off on a corner near some port a potties.  (I had to pee again!!)  We so were not ready for this.  We thought we would have time to put our numbers on and get our gear together in the parking garage.  SURPRISE...let's go.  Poor Diana forgot her headband.  Luckily she had an extra bobby pin to keep her hair back.  I somehow let all of my safety pins fall out of the envelope they gave us.  Luckily my two good friends and son each gave me one and Diana dubbed our team name as the Three Pins.  I also forgot my water.  Kristen to the rescue...she bought me one from a street vendor.  She and Diana had just been talking about bringing money and Diana's Starbuck's card....just in case.  "What nonsense," I thought to myself.  Hmmmmm.  

 

We stand in a very long port a potty line.  We take some pictures where Kristen looks like an angel in them.  Then we say goodbye to Kristen and Justin who are in the fast corrals.  Diana and I were in corral 22 and 23 and we still had some time to kill.  Another port a potty stop, the playing of the National Anthem and then we decide to get rid of our sweatshirts and get to our corrals.  We still had plenty of time to kill.  I was so far back that I was able to take a picture of the art museum.  The race started probably a good quarter of a mile in front of my corral. 

 

 

After about a good 35 minute wait, it was my turn....Corral #23.  OH CRAP!!   What have I gotten myself into??  And off we go...  I settle into a good pace as 800 people pass me.  "I know I run slow but I can do this.  Just can't take off too fast," I keep saying to myself.  I get passed by a dude dribbling two basketballs...in the first mile.  Awesome!!  At about mile two I get passed by a girl I went to high school with.  She claimed she was slow on Facebook.  She lied.  You go Traci!!!!

 

We ran all through downtown Philly.  The tall buildings helped with shielding me from the sun.  It was a beautiful morning to run.  Not too hot, not too cold but the sun always makes it a bit more hot.  As I passed a few bars around mile 3, I decided I should have brought some emergency money.  I could have stopped in for a few brews and then somehow jumped back into the race at the end.  Maybe my friends weren't so dumb after all.  Darn!!  I did however see Billy Penn (again), the building where the Liberty Bell is in and some other cool sites.  Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all...

 

Finally we finish running through downtown and get onto Kelly Drive.  I was excited to see the back of Boathouse Row.  Kind of cool.   I also saw the balloon go up over the Philadelphia Zoo.  I decided then it would be a good idea to take my phone out and take a picture.  I was also drinking some water and eating a GU so how much time could I lose?? 

 

Philadelphia Zoo Balloon

 

 View of the Schuylkill River

Motivational Sign

 

Kelly Drive took FOREVER.  I was at about mile six or so and I was getting bored.  That is when a juggler passed me.  HILARIOUS!!!    Apparently around the 10k area is when people start to fade.  I decided to see how many racers I could pass.  Turns out, there were many.  Well kind of....they would walk, I would pass them, they would run, they would pass me.  It was a game of sorts.  There was a whole group of peeps that had  Run For Joe shirts on.  I passed them.  Hooray.  I passed all sorts of people.  When you are at the end of the race, you find  quite a bit of characters out there.  Old men, old ladies, couples yelling at each other, couples that didn't have numbers on and shouldn't be on the race course.  Oh and my favorite...the old ladies that had running skirts on.  One of them said she wanted to sit down.  They had to wait for her.  They weren't happy.  It was kind of funny. 

 

I finally get to the bridge which is about mile 9.  This was the turn around point of when you can run back to the finish on West River Drive. I take in a GU which I should haven eaten around mile 6.  I know better.  I know how I trained but stupid me thought, "I feel good.  I don't need a GU yet."  Mile 10 told me otherwise.  I see a port a potty and decide "Yup, it is time.  Maybe I can run better with an empty bladder."  I also got to hear the band that was playing right outside of the potty.  Bonus!!!  I texted Kristen (because I know she is done the race by now) that I was at mile 10 and fading fast.  She gave me some pep talk about how I only have a 5k left and off I went.  But first I had to take a picture of my real motivator....a blow up arch of Michelob Ultra.  BEER!!!!  That would be waiting for me at the end.  GO HEIDI GO!!!!

 

MMMM...BEER!!

 

I ran to mile 11.  Decided to take a walk break.  My splits were getting worse and worse by the minute.  Ha Ha.  No, really.  I originally wanted to finish at around 3 hours.  After a few long training runs I knew that wasn't going to happen.  I would have been happy with 3:15.  That is an overall 15 minute pace.  Yes, extremely slow but when you add in walking, what can you do??

 

I had to play head games with myself for the last two miles.  Run 1/2 mile, walk 1 minute.  Run 1/4 mile, walk 2 minutes.  Run 1 minute, walk 3 minutes, Run to the next pole...you get the idea.  It was getting ugly.  FINALLY....I see the light at the end of the tunnel.  And a blurr of  "Run For Joe" shirts.  Bastards sprinted to the end (because they walked practically the whole course) and were racing each other.  It was actually comical to watch if I hadn't been so ready for this race to be over and that I didn't beat them after I passed them twice. 

 

OH WAIT....A HILL!!  "OK, I will walk up the hill and then run to the end.  This will be my last walk."  And I did....3 hours, 15 minutes and 11 seconds later....I FINISHED MY FIRST HALF MARATHON!!!  YUP, my time stinks but I don't care!!!  Now I have plenty of room for a new PR!!

 

Congratulations to Kristen for a new PR, Diana for completing her first half in record time, and for Justin for completing his first half in spite of being left behind by Kristen and then lost.  Ha Ha.  So glad I was still running at that point in time. 

 

So I finished my race, called Kristen to find out where she and Diana were (the beer garden, naturally) and drank my beer.  Although not my favorite, still delicious. 

 

 

That is when I realized that I got a different medal than Diana, Justin and Kristen.  Somebody had stolen a box of medals and they only had generic Rock and Roll Series medals to give out.  WHAT???  See, I am all about he medal.  What is the point of running if you can't get a medal??  It is a long running joke since I ran the 5k in Disney in January about me and my medals (or plastic luggage tag in that instance.)  Never fear, Tyler was given a real medal (probably from the thief herself) and now I have two.  Now I just need to decide what my next Half Marathon is....WHAT DID I JUST SAY???