Rock N’ Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon

This weekend I ran my third half marathon, the Rock N’ Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon!

Philly was a special race for me, because it was a chance to introduce two of my favorite people to the wonders of the half marathon. Both Carlos and Misty (my sister-in-law) were signed up for this race, so it was fun to experience race weekend with other runners, and to be the “experienced one” for a chance! I’ve learned so much from my running buddies, so I was excited to share my knowledge (little as it is!) with others!

We all met up in Philly mid-day on Saturday at the race expo. I was surprised that the expo seemed small, for as big as this race seemed to be. I guess since my first race expo was Disney, which is one of the biggest expos around, they’re all going to feel small? I did still manage to spend enough money to get the VIP porta potty pass. In my defense, Brooks is one of my favorite brands of running gear, and the race shirt was crap. So I picked up a few things I had my eye on (a running jacket) and a replacement race shirt, plus a shirt to just wear around. It was also fun to see the RunDisney people at the expo, who were showing off all of the January bling I’m going to earn!

After the expo and a bit of rest, we headed off to Fork for our pre-race meal. What can I say, we’re foodies, so we like fancy pre-race dinners. No pasta for us!! It was however, almost painful not to have a glass of wine with dinner. I just love wine so much, but hydration is more important on race weekend!

Race day morning (Sunday) started relatively late for a race day. Since our hotel was within easy walking distance of the start and we had heard from others in our hotel that they weren’t strict about getting in the corrals early, we met up with Carlos and Eileen at a Starbucks near the start about 7.15. After relaxing a bit and (SMARTLY) using the Starbucks bathroom (this was a blissfully porta potty free experience!) we were in the corral about 7.45 for a quick wait before we were off.

Carlos, Misty, and I all lined up together at the start which was a nice way to pass those jitters I always get in the last few minutes before a start. They made me promise that once we were over the line I would just run my own race and not worry about staying with them or pacing them. So I did. We crossed the line and I took off.

(I didn’t take off quite as fast as these guys, who were on their way to running the fastest half marathons on US soil!)

I had hopes of PRing at Philly, since my training has been going well since my minor injury this summer and the weather for the race was basically perfect. So I set off on an ambitious pace, which I’m happy to say I pretty much held for 13.1 miles. The end result? A new, 2 minute PR, of 2.07.20!!

I do feel like that PR was hard earned. I felt like I struggled with self pacing the entire race (since I was running alone) although now that I look at my splits, it looks like I did a better job at pacing than I expected. I also learned that I need to work on running tangents (my watch read 13.5 miles at the end, ouch) and I really should spend some time reviewing the course map before a race! I only glanced at the map in Philly, and not knowing the turn around point on one portion of the course really hurt me mentally at one point. Lesson learned!

Carlos and Misty also had AWESOME races. They blew their goal times OUT OF THE WATER, finishing with amazing first race times of 2.14 and 2.16 respectively. I’m so proud of them both, and so grateful to them for joining me on this journey. I’m so fortunate to have such great people in my life. I also owe a huge THANKS to Eileen, who rocked out our cheer squad with a sign, a cowbell, and the camera! Some of my favorites of her shots from my team during the race:

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