Philadelphia Marathon recap

I am going to preface this post by saying that the Philadelphia Marathon was great.  Yes, that needed italics and bold.  That's how great it was.  So much nicer than my previous marathon, where it was cold rain for the first quarter of the course (ew).  The weather started in the upper 30s and was no more than the mid-50s by the end.  Could not have been better.  The course was great--there were two hills that I walked, but the more gradual inclines posed no problems (I am still a hill wimp).  And most importantly, I PRed!  And I PRed by 15 minutes!!!  Whoo!

Not my actual time, I was in the final corral of runners, so I had a delayed start (like, by more than 1/2 hour).  Also, you know that you ran hard when your finish line photo is this wimpy.

There was some other walking, particularly near the end when I was getting tired.  Compared to the last marathon, though, the last 6 miles wasn't nearly as bad.  I had some crazy and grandiose plans for counting down, like trying to count out 6500 steps (no), which then became 4 x 1000 steps (walk break after 1000), which then became some other counting down, eventually culminating in 4 x 250.  I think I needed to walk in there somewhere too.  But I did push myself pretty hard during the actual running segments.  For a while during the race, I was with the 5:30 pace group, but I told myself that that would be unrealistic.  I didn't wind up all that much slower than them, though, so yay!

The course was very cool in that you got to see a lot of different parts of Philly.  There is an out-and-back for much of the last half of it, but it is along the Schuylkill River, which I like.  This time, I didn't find myself doing a lot of sightseeing or staring at rowers, like I did last summer.  Mostly I was focused on the course.  But being focused on the course evidently paid off since I did PR.  Whoo! <-- This doesn't get old.

Streets of Philadelphia

Perhaps the best part of the weekend was when Rocky aired on the local PBS the night before.  I could have totally done the stairs at the museum faster than him the first time that he tried them.  Maybe not so much the second time.  But definitely the first time.

I think that I can attribute the PRing to Crossfit, or at least the fact that I am much stronger than last time.  While I did slack off for some of the more recent workouts, in general the strength training really paid off.  I am glad that I got started with it and that I recognized its potential for helping my running; the original plan was to do Crossfit for a month then focus on running but I think that I made the better decision.  Also, I can kind of/sort of do pushups now.  Kind of.  Let's not get too hasty here.

What's next?  I have no idea.  Honestly.  I have been wrestling with this for a few weeks now.  I was thinking of doing a triathlon, but after lots of contemplation, I realized that right now is not the right time to attempt this challenge (I did one, years ago, which was not fun, but that is another story).  I may do the 10-mile run in Canada when I am home for the holidays, which takes place on Boxing Day (December 26).  Other than that, not sure.  I will definitely continue with Crossfit and am definitely taking this week off.  We will see where things go from there.

I'm running a freaking marathon....again!

Lots of exciting running developments over the past week.  Let me start by announcing that I am running another freaking marathon!  No, not New York.  I didn't get in to New York and I am far too lazy to get a bib via fundraising (anyway, I am saving all of my fundraising mojo from this point forward for another event).  So after much contemplation--by which I mean a whole evening of thinking and sleeping on it before registering--I decided to do the Philadelphia Marathon.  Why?  Here are a few reasons:

• It's in November, so the weather should be pleasant
• It is mostly flat
• I've heard good things about it from others
• The course is awesome, as I know from running some of it last summer.  Yay scenic courses!
• When I was driving into work the morning that I did not qualify for the NY Marathon, I heard Elton John's 'Philadelphia Freedom.'  Obviously, it is very easy to substitute the lyrics, 'Philadelphia Marathon.'  So I mostly have Elton John to thank for this.
• Most importantly, there were still spots open

And that is that!  It is November 18, so the weekend before Thanksgiving.  To celebrate, I have officially ordered my first carton of caffeinated sport beans.

I'm not quite on schedule for the half-marathon, although some of it is by choice.  Last week, for instance, I decided to pool run one of the 5-milers because it's hot out and I haven't been totally keeping up with the plan, so I didn't want to injury myself.  Yesterday, I was supposed to do the 10-mile run, but I just completely was not feeling it.  Lousy reason, maybe.  But I am doing it later today, so it's not a total loss.  After talking to someone yesterday about the myriad of advantages to running later instead of earlier at this time of year, I had even convinced myself that this was the better way to go.

Encouraging end to the week

Two encouraging accomplishments to finish up the week of running:

1) 3 x 1M: Friday's run was three one-mile runs, with walking in between.  For a variety of reasons, these had to be done on the treadmill.  So I decided to make it fun, where 'fun' means 'let's see if we can get through this or not.'  I decided to try and do the three at a pace of 10-minute miles.  I don't usually run this fast.  Definitely, in the hot weather, I come nowhere near running this fast.  But everyone should have some 'fun' sometimes.

And I did it!  Of course, there were walk breaks between them, but that was the whole point.  It feel like a major accomplishment even if it did knock me out later.  This was definitely a 'fun' week of running!  Okay, it was actually very challenging.  That is the better word.

2) Long run: this week was 9 miles.  I followed the route suggested by my friend and yes, I did run up the Rocky steps.  I also saw the Rocky statue, along with many other scenic Philly sites.  The run along Ben Franklin Parkway is fantastic! 

And then....and then....and then.... there were boathouses along Boathouse Row (pretty ones too) and I got to watch rowers on the river while I was running.  Yay.  I thought I might run into something, actually, because at times I got pretty obsessed with this.  But it was super nice to have this kind of distraction during a run.

Besides the scenery and the rowing, the route had one more major advantage: strategically placed drinking fountains with cold water.  It was slightly warm this morning, although nowhere near the oppressive ick of Florida.  The temperature was in the 80s but -- get this -- the dewpoint was in the low 60s and the humidity was around 50%.  My GOD.  What a difference these conditions made.  Add in some strategically placed drinking fountains and life is beautiful.

I liked it so much, I ran 9.01 miles.

This run was very encouraging and made things much better after the frustrations earlier in the week.  Also, I think I have solved my running distances in Florida problem.  I shall run strategically planned laps around the drinking fountain!