Long time readers might remember a 7 hour window in my Philly Photo Timeline, in which I mentioned running/dancing a PR Marathon next to the world’s most amazing friend. I said the RR was coming…I think I originally thought I’d finish this sooner! So sorry for the delay, and the rambling. I dont think I make a lot of sense…but do I ever???
Race Morning
The awesome view of the city came at a price – the zombie Apocolypse outside was deafening, even from the 18th floor. CK got up a ton to turn up the air in an attempt to drown out the sound. I was grateful, but lets just say we’re not bouncing on a DT bed with a glass of wine on it anytime soon.
I went across the hall to get a bagel from the OSOM Linnea. She even had PB and Honey (my fav!) so she’s up there with one of my fav Loopsters, even though I’m pretty sure she thinks I’m crazy 🙂 and then it was time to put on the costume!!
CK and I had come up with the Gladiator idea in May or June so the idea was almost as old as Loophest. It was awesome to see it come together. Costumed runs are the best but these lovely ladies took it to a new level!
In the DT Lobby – I definitely had costume envy!!
Then Megan and I got ready for our meeting with Mr Bacon. We were really hoping to get a pic with him in his MrBacon sweatshirt!!
Sadly, no yummy pieces of meat would ever see these 😦
Journey to the Start Line
Rather than cab it, we walked to the start. It took longer than expected, even though we went a direct route instead of the mindless wandering we seemed to do a lot of in Philly. We had fun though….It’s impossible to not have fun around these people.
Love this one! Esp with Berg’s new rando friends. Kev looks jealous.
By the time we made it to the start, Meg and Dave had to find Bart Yasso for the prerace interview. Some went to go see Mr Bacon at the GW statue. I seemed to be stuck in and endless line for bag check and portapotty.
That’s mass chaos behind us
We stood in the portapotty line forever. CK and Clynn eventually gave up and we to the corrals. Well, I wouldn’t exactly say CK gave up on using the potty….
Please dont report my blog – her vag didnt fall out!
Megan eventually found me and Jessica in line. We weren’t moving. National Anthem. Still not moving. Race started. Still not moving. Finally we moved to a different set with a shorter line. A man in jeans and a backpack (which I took as a sign he wasnt running…but who knows?) was nice enough to let all 3 girls cut.
Philly rocked, but they gotta fix the portapotty situation! I have no idea what corral we started in, but we were about 20 min behind the clock.
Gladiators, READY????? (the boring stuff – you can skip and I wont be madatcha/notice)
The first 5 miles were a blur. I dont remember much about the scenery except that we ran through Chinatown (My mom used to make us go to Chinatown in every city we went to….so my childhood memories of Philly are of the Liberty Bell and Chinatown)…apparently we ran by Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell too…but I didnt notice! Megan and I just bopped along, chatting about who knows what. I love this girl. The mile markers came up quick. It didnt even feel like we were running (I know to all you fast people we weren’t running…. but shut your mouth when you’re talkin to me!).
Miles 1-5 – 10:11, 10:29, 10:11, 10:52, 10:41
Chestnut Street was one of my favorite parts of the first half. Please screamed so loud I missed Greg blowing on the vuvuzela at the 10k mark. People were awesome cheerleaders so MK and I ate up the attention. Most people didnt know what we were…but they knew we were having fun and played along.
Continuing on Chestnut, we crossed the river and entered Drexel University’s campus. I barely noticed we hit a college campus until we hit Frat Row around mile 7.5. The kids were out in full force giving out beer and high fives. College memories were flooding in.
Soon after passing the frat boys we saw Philly Runatic and Clynn!! Both were lookin fab. Runatic said she was going for the full (she had asked me what I thought earlier in the week and I told her to do it because she is totes BA). I dont really remember what we talked about other than at some point it started to smell…Crystal looked up and said “Oh, we’re passing the Zoo!” We also run by the Zoo in Nike…what’s with marathons and running by zoos?? They stink!
Around that time we hit a hill. I had known about it. I didn’t like it but it wasnt bad. We hit another one that I was less prepared for. Yes, I had just done a marathon in San Francisco and came away with, “the hills werent that bad” and I’m telling you I hated this hill. We lost Philly and Clynn on it so I hate it even more.
More blury miles: Seeing Philly on one of the out and backs. Road was really graded so we ran on the sidewalk. Dude yelling “GLADIATORS!!!!!!” from an overpass. EvansJamie ahead looking good. Half to the right and Full to the left – This is when the work really begins.
Miles 6 – 13: 10:51, 10:16, 10:54, 10:25, 10:38*,10:31, 10:08, 10:21 (*lapped watch at Mile 10 because I was .2 off. 2:30 was the time between when Garmin said Mile 10 and the actual 10 Mile mark – our slowest paced split of the race)
We planned on hitting the half in 2:18 and doing a negative split. We hit it at 2:19:01, which is pretty much nailed to me…but I did know how much I would be able to hold it together for another 13.1 miles. Negative split didnt seem possible.
It was quiet as we turned away from the finish. MK and I still chatted about who know what but the miles ticked by slower. Boathouse Row – more like BORE-A-house Row! I started to get really scared at this point – No Crowds, I was fading fast, and the realization that it’s an out and back and I felt like we were going downhill on the out. Poor MK had to listen to me freak out for about 3 miles. “I cant believe we’re still going downhill. How am I gonna get up this at mile 23? This is mean.” But we did pass a spectator dressed as Batman playing the Batman and Rocky themes on a Trombone…and who can be grumpy around that??
Luckily, things got interesting…The glory of an out and back when you’re with a squillion friends. We saw Whitey looking fabulous, moving right along with the 3 hour pace group. He flashed us a Hollywood smile (seriously, anyone else have a feeling Whitey is a Famous TV star in Canada and we are just the dumb Americans who treat him like a normal person?) as we hooted and hollered. We had our eyes peeled for Mr Bacon, but we saw Corc next! Actually, I think she saw us first. She’s the cutest…and was totes chicking all the guys 🙂
Speaking of chicking, in my head we saw Shaun first, followed by Maranda. We might have seen her first though. Either way, we knew she was looking incredible by her smile. She looked so fresh and carefree. Shaun gave us his signature smirk, but compared to the smirk he gave during the out and backs of the Raleigh Rocks Pimermi (which he killed) I could tell he wasn’t having fun.
Pretty soon after that we saw JJ, Mr Bacon, JB, and BSquared. It was so much fun seeing people, I didn’t want to turn off onto the bridge for the dumbest little tick on the map ever. Didnt the course know we were only a few minutes from seeing Zam, Gumbo, DReyna, Dave, Steph…..the list goes on!!!
Miles 14-16 10:15, 10:44, 10:38
Time for the Eliminator (aka The Suckfest)
We saw Philly coming back off the bridge, she was about a mile a head of us and still all smiles. This perked us up. However, the bridge was dumb….the small out and back to a cone was even dumber. As was the downhill to get to the dumb cone. Luckily the uphill on the other side of the cone didn’t feel uphill. Was my mind playing tricks on me??
KirstenH9 was on the side of the road stretching and we picked her up as we got back on the bridge. She was hurting but stuck with us for about a mile, through the most isolated part of the course. This part BLEW!
An oasis popped up close to mile 19 – Manayunk!! It was a party that seemed to come from no where. Music played. Beer was flowing. These were our people! We danced to relieve the pain….it felt so good to move a different way!! The crowd went wild. The costumes attracted a ton of attention, including Megan’s friend who only spotted her because he husband said, “Checkout those runners dancing”
I had no idea my pic was being taken. This fun is not faked!
We both stopped for a beer before heading out on the lonely stretch back to the finish. I’ve never had beer during a marathon but it was delicious. I remembered I had my camera and tried to take a pic of us with out beer…but it was obviously a fail.
So not only is the lens sweaty but I cut out MK. We were too “Lazy” to take another.
The 3 oz was a perfect pour….you’d think the marathon officials had hired them!!
Miles 17 – 21 11:10, 11:21, 11:27, 11:21, 11:18
We tried to pick it up, but at this point we just wanted to be done. There was another dance party around mile 23, where fantastic spectators cheered us on and we ate it up as much as possible. I was thankful that the “uphill” wasn’t as bad as the “downhill” on the way out suggested and was fairly happy with how we pressed in these miles…but after too many miles in the 11s, we knew we weren’t hitting a 4:30…even our fuzzy math couldnt rig a fast finish.
Miles 22-24 10:24, 10:41, 10:50
I’m pretty sure mile between the 24 and 25 markers was the Twilight Zone. After what felt like 3 hours I’d look down to Garmin to find out we’d only gone .01 mi. It was like being at work at 4:55 pm on a Friday. Time was going backwards. I’m certain my personal Hell will include running Mile 25 for all eternity, desperately scanning for the mile 26 sign. I’m pretty sure I had a glimpse of it, because during this mile we saw a pair walking like an 80s couple (you know, hands in each other’s back pockets, walking like their legs only move when one squeezes the other’s butt) and just when we thought it couldnt get any more nasty, the guy grabbed the girl’s face and licked her cheek. LICKED HER! EW EW EW! Who does that?? I’m pretty sure they had shirts on that said “Ultimate Fuel.” Vomitorium. I’m impressed we passed them without yacking.
Running away from Gross Licking Couple
As if the race gods wanted to apologize, very soon after (about a week later, mile 25 Twilight Zone Time) Bergeaux popped up behind us!!! Loopsters are so awesome (even if the BF clause obligated him to come back for us, it was awesome. I wanted to cry but I think in my Mile 25 frustration I either growled or grunted at him.
MK smiling and Jenster finishing Little Jason’s Tigger dance (he growls at the end if you havent seen it)!
Mile 25 12:01 – Longest Mile Ever!!!
Finally the glorious mile 26! We can do anything for a mile, right?? Thankfully this mile went more quickly….and another Loopster popped up to run us in!!
It’s Eliz!! OMG, it was awesome. If there’s a runner up to Dave for Spirit of the Loop, it’s Eliz. I know she had to be hurtin after her race, and she came back to make us finish strong. And I think we did!
Double Bangle!!! Start together, Finish together. I love this girl.
Mile 26 10:33, 1:50 (last .22 – 8:10 pace!)
Final Time – 4:43:35.
That’s a 7 minute 54 second PR (only 34 days after another marathon…on the most half-assed training ever. Honestly, I’ve always said I wanted to be in shape enough to wing a marathon. Done and Done. But I think I need to bump that goal up to race a marathon).
The first race photo I ever bought – because me and MK look pretty darn good!
We got our bags and sat in the grass for a while before finding the energy to get up. We ran into JGrant, who was on the hunt for his dad, and headed to the Loop Meetup area for some post race recaps. The only thing missing was beer
The nice thing about it being so warm – throwaways get put in gear check!!
I hope I’m saying something interesting
Kirsten had the worst blister I’ve ever seen!
All in all, I couldn’t have asked for a better race. Thank you to every single Loopster there physically and in spirit. I’m not a very sappy person….but you all have a place in my heart.
I def didnt say it enough, but I couldnt have done it without MK. When I got negative, she just kept saying I was gettin that PR, and I’ll never forget dancing in the street multiple times during the last 10k. It’s an amazing friend and an amazing person who will stay by you for 26.2 miles (in costume!). She’s definitely as good as it gets. Thank you for being a (fantastic and fabulous) friend!!
Jenster's Adventures 