Half Marathon #7 Scheduled

The past few months have been pretty bad in terms of running. I haven't been out on the streets much, even when I had a race. But, I ran the KidsPeace Trick-or-Trot 5k Saturday and had fun. It was the first time I've run in awhile where I had fun.

And since I had fun, I signed up for The Love Run! I've been looking at this race for a few months and wanted to sign up. Hubby isn't running Shamrock again, so I didn't want to make us drive back to Virginia Beach for me. The Love Run is in Philly and since I had to skip the Philadelphia Half Marathon in November, this gives me the chance to run in Philly in March in a first time race.

I'm really excited! And I'm in need of a good race, so I know I need to:

lose weight

strengthen my core

add flexibility

gain stamina

build muscle

I started using My Fitness Pal to keep track of my food and exercise. The past two days have gone well. I've tracked both in the program and it's interesting seeing the stat of "if you ate like this everyday you would be x pounds in 5 weeks." I like that, Right now it's saying I'll be about 10 pounds lighter. I'll take that.

So, I'm committing to all the above to run a strong and happy The Love Run Half Marathon. I want to finish that race (hopefully with a PR) like I did at the end of the Shamrock Half Marathon in March 2012. I had a 25 minute PR, but more than that I felt like I could run for another 2-3 miles. I felt good. I felt exhilarated. I was happy. I want that again (and the 25 minute PR wouldn't be turned down!). 

I've got five full months to get myself in tip top shape. I can do it. I'm looking forward to it.

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Atlantic City Half Marathon Recap - Sunday

Race day! We had a wake-up call set for 5:45 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. We got both. But, I didn't want to get up. LOL! I eventually got  up about 6:10 a.m. and started getting ready. And I was ready way earlier than I thought. Oops! I was all ready to go and it was 30 minutes before I wanted to leave the hotel. Strange...

We headed out of the hotel about 7:15 a.m. I figured getting to the start about 7:30 a.m. would work. As we walked down the hall we passed a fellow runner going away from the elevator. She walked down the 12 sets of stairs to the lobby. Wow. More power to you! It was the elevator for me. :-) When we got in the elevator there were three additional runners going down. We were asked how we were getting to the start line. Thought it was a bit funny, but said we were walking. Two of the three laughed. Apparently their friend wanted to take a taxi or one of the rolling chairs to the start. Oops. Sorry!

It was a cool morning, but not freezing. I've read it was in the 50s. I would have preferred a bit chillier, but that's just me. We got to the start and did the pre-race photo.

The start was at the Courtyard at Bally's to my left. Shortly after the photo I took off my sweatshirt and made my way to the corral. I walked in from the front, which was a mistake. It was hard to get to the back this way. They asked us to line up by corral, but there were no corral markers so... I made my way to the back since I knew I didn't want to block the faster runners.

Runner's are friendly! I had a nice conversation with a gentleman running his 2nd half marathon. We shared our stories about running and our hopes for the day. He also does the run/walk method so we chatted about that. He was a nice guy to chat with before the gun went off.

I crossed the start line about 2:30 after the gun. I thought it would take much longer, so that wasn't too bad. I ran a little bit before seeing hubby on a bench looking for me. LOL! I saw him first and he got a couple shots.

We left the boardwalk at Martin Luther King Blvd and off we were away from the ocean.  Garmin went off at my first half mile at 5:55. Whaaa?!?! This is not good. Then it went off at the first mile - 11:59. Crap! This was WAY too fast for my lack of training. And it showed later...

I ran past the 1 mile water station. Who needs water that early? I was waiting for the 2.5 mile water station. It being more in tune with the way I hydrate in training. From the 1 mile water station we headed towards the highway...and an uphill entrance ramp. It was crazy! The positive was it was short. I walked it. I knew my training was not what it should be and I wasn't about to kill myself on the hills. Hit the top and made a right down a nice downhill into a tunnel. There was a slight incline, but not bad. It wasn't until we got out of the tunnel did we see the incline. Walked again. And got caught walking by the course photographer. Doh!

The highway we were running along took you out towards the Borgota and Harrah's. Shortly after this incline we leveled off again and there was a radio station blaring music. Which was nice, sorta. It was the only music on the half course. We ran around them and we passed the three mile mark. At the 3.1 mile mark there was a clock and apparently a reader to mark the official time. Mine wasn't too bad - 41:12. With the amount of walking I did up the inclines, I was ok with it. Just passed that we went up again, another on ramp. This brought us to the Borgota. We ran around the back of that and up another incline. From the Borgota we headed to Harrah's, which was fun since hubby and I have spent several of our wedding anniversaries there at the pool. Lots of traffic jams around there I can tell you!

Now I get a little fuzzy because I'm not familiar with the areas we went into next. We had several miles to go before heading back to the boardwalk and this is what I remember:

* There was a marker at mile 5 (I mention this because markers weren't at every mile that I saw)
* Somewhere just before 6.55 miles there was a funeral home. I had to laugh.
* At the 6.55 marker there was another tent where they read your bib for split times. Mine was 1:24:12. Blargh.
* The houses in the Water Basin were beautiful! And there is a statue of Neptune out there!
* I think I saw Donna out there, but wasn't 100% sure.
* There was a woman saying we were halfway there. No lady, we're not.
* Water stations did not seem to be accurate based on the map.

I was pretty excited to see the turn for the boardwalk. I knew when we got there 8 miles were in the books and only 5.1 more to go. I was struggling by this point, but I thought I could do it.  I walked up the ramp to the boardwalk between Revel and Showboat and made the right onto the boardwalk, immediately seeing hubby on a bench looking for me. Yea! He got a few shots here.

And now it was just 5.1 more miles to the finish. I knew I would have to pass the finish line and then turn around further down the boardwalk before coming back. That was a mental block to get past. As I'm running along I realized the race officials did not close off any of the boardwalk for runners. This means until you reached the finish line you were weaving between tourists, having to pass them or get stuck behind them if you couldn't pass. Then, once you passed the finish line, you had to weave among the tourists and the runners on their way back! I can tell you, at one point I seriously considered just turning around before the official turn around point and finishing. Yea, I know it would be cheating, but it was so frustrating having to weave among so many people.

But, while I thought it I didn't do it. I did almost get run over by a cop on a motorcycle as he turned his bike around and then stopped about 10 feet in front of me. I was a bit ticked. And now more honesty. Around 9.5 miles I started power walking. I couldn't run. My feet hurt (along the bottoms), my right hamstring was bothering me randomly, as well as my left knee. I was feeling a bit defeated and I started walking. And I started passing people. LOL! I was power walking faster than I was running. How disconcerting. But whatever gets you to the finish line, right?

I finally made the turn around and kept moving knowing it was just about 2 miles back. I had to guess this of course because at this point the mile markers were for the marathoners...who the first ones were starting to pass me. Slightly upsetting. But I ran/walked back to the finish. I got close to Caesar's and saw a photographer and decided to run it in from there on out. Which worked in my favor because the photo does show me running. Now because there were no lanes set aside we had been running on the left side of the boardwalk. To cross the finish you had to be on the right. So, in the middle of very large crowds (plus) you had to cross from one side of the boardwalk to the other (con). Ugh.

I crossed over and looked for hubby. I got about 5 feet into the finishers lane and saw him.  Yea! I knew the finish was soooooo close. Just a few more feet.

FINALLY! I crossed the finish line and I could stop. I was handed my AMAZING medal by the gentleman in the blue and white shirt in the above photo. The two in the red shirts were photographers. I passed through the shoot and grabbed a water. I walked into the finisher's area where there was all sorts of goodies - Rita's water ice, bananas, oranges, pretzels, and a few other items. I then headed over for my free beer. :-) I found hubby and we sat on the boardwalk and listened to the winners.

After I finished my beer, we headed back to the Continental for a Champaign-O-Rama. Yum!  Then off to breakfast at a little place we found last time we were in AC that served breakfast all day. Had a delicious banana walnut french toast and potatoes. So good!

After breakfast we stopped and checked out the boardwalk kitties. There is an organization that makes sure these little guys are fed and cared for throughout the year. We happened to walk by just as they were feeding the kitties.

Then it was back to the hotel for naps. So tired...

Reflections on the Philly Half Marathon

Pro

1. It was my second half marathon!  Woohoo!  Very exciting to know I trained and completed two half marathons in one year!!

 2. This half marathon was in one of my favorite cities, Philadelphia.  I was so looking forward to running the streets and seeing all the cool sites. Philly has such a rich history and it was fabulous to see it while running.

3.  The first 9 miles flew by.  It was amazing.  I couldn't believe how quickly they went and how little effort it seemed to take.  I was shocked.  I was happy, but shocked.  Even the hills between miles 7 and 9 were fine.  I'm not a huge hill person, but they didn't seem impossible.

4. I PRed.  I ran basically the race time-wise I expected to run and PRed by 5 minutes.  I will say slight disappointment that my 10k estimated my finished to be 16 minutes faster than I actually ran, but eh.  It is what it is and I have a new PR.

5. The crowd support.  I'm not one for being excited about people cheering me on.  I run by myself in my training runs and crowds yelling for me usually turn me off, but the crowds in Philly were different.  They called my name, they cheered loudly, they had fun signs.  I even joked with some people and high-fived others.

Cons

1. The hill between miles 9 and 10.  Seriously.  The worst hill I've ever dealt with.  Worse than the hill between Mount Wolf and Manchester.  Without that hill this race would have been 100 times better!  And I would have had a better finish time!

2. The lack of directions at the start for the corrals.  It was chaotic and hard to find where I was supposed to line up.  Good thing I'm slow and I knew to just walk to the back.  The signs for the corrals were not as well marked as they could have been.

3. Lack of port-a-potties on the course itself.  The start and finish areas were packed with them, but once out on the course, it was hard to find.  I stopped about mile 5 to use one because I didn't know when the next one would be available.  Not good when you have 25,000 people running at the same time.

4. Post-finish line had several issues:

1. By the time I finished I was given a Marathon medal.  While sweet, I ran the half.  There should have been separate finish lines for the full and half so each race received the right medal.  And when I finished there were only three half medals left.  There were some pretty darn upset people I'm sure after me because there were more than 3 people on the course when I finished.
2. It was crowded with too many volunteers at the same spot - handing out water, handing out medals, directing traffic.  The water people should have been further along.  The congestion was incredible and I've never seen the like.  It was impossible to understand/see/know where to go.
3. With all the people handing out water, there were only two people handing out the blankets.  The ratio was a bit skewed.  It was almost impossible to get a blanket.
4. Food. Big fail.  I got in line, waited close to 5 minutes without getting close to the food, then got out of line because I felt sick.  The set up was completely wrong.  I just ran 13.1 miles (others ran 26.2) and we have to wait 10 or more minutes for a granola bar or banana?  Come on!  More areas where food is located, more space, and quicker lines.  
5. The photo station should be before the water, blankets, etc.  I got my photo taken and had to dump everything I had to get it shot.  
6. Overall, it seemed like once you crossed the finish line everything was just one big cluster you-know-what.  Too crowded, no organization, and too many people.

 Overall Impression

Overall, I really enjoyed the race.  I loved the first 9 miles and I think miles 11 through 13.1 would have been more enjoyable had there not been a 90 degree angle hill I had to go up from miles 9 to 10.  I felt as I ran through Old City, along Delaware Avenue, and up Chestnut Street that this really was an amazing race.  One I would recommend to anyone.  Now, I would recommend it, with the caveat that you have to do hill training.  They say this course is flat and for the most part it is, but miles 7 through 10 have elevation and that mile between 9 and 10 is just killer.

But, if you want to see the best of Philadelphia, go for it!  It's a wonderful way to see the city, get your run on, and have a fun Sunday morning.  

And as much as I am complaining about mile 9 to 10, I'm still happy I PRed.  I'm still happy I ran it.  I'm still happy I felt practically normal come Monday.  I obviously trained better this time around than last.  
 So thank you to everyone who organized and volunteered.  Thank you to the police, fire fighters, and EMTs at the race.  Thank you to all the friends and family who cheered not only their loved ones, but everyone who ran by them.  Thank you to all those who hung signs on the side of the road and those who carried them as they cheered.  And thank you to all my friends and family who believed I could run a half marathon even when I didn't!

Check out the course

So, for months I've talked about training for the Philadelphia Half Marathon.  Want to see where I'll be running?  Check out the course.  I'm thrilled that there will be water stops about every 2 miles.  This allows me to skip wearing my water bottle, which I think come miles 10, 11, 12, and 13 hurts my back.  Check it out!