~Philadelphia Marathon 11/23/08~

[Jodi]

Good Morning DisBotMcPhillys

Lou - Just a quick note on allergies...have you ever tried Quercetin (not sure that's how it's spelled), you can get it @ the health food store, DH, who has asthma, allergies, etc, has had some luck with this. Also, as I'm sure you've heard, a teaspoon of locally harvested honey is another natural way to fight the crappy season. I can't imagine having allergies so severe that it'd keep me inside. As far as the ultra goes, I'm doing the 50K (aka 31 miles) - and don't give any credit here, I've yet to do it You KNOW if it's bad weather I'll just bail out! Hope the 7 or 8 goes well today

So maybe I'll run today... going into the City on Sat., so no running then...maybe Sun? Oh, & I can't run tomorrow 'cause it's supposed to rain !

 

[lourodrigis]

Lou - Just a quick note on allergies...have you ever tried Quercetin (not sure that's how it's spelled), you can get it @ the health food store, DH, who has asthma, allergies, etc, has had some luck with this. Also, as I'm sure you've heard, a teaspoon of locally harvested honey is another natural way to fight the crappy season. I can't imagine having allergies so severe that it'd keep me inside. As far as the ultra goes, I'm doing the 50K (aka 31 miles) - and don't give any credit here, I've yet to do it You KNOW if it's bad weather I'll just bail out! Hope the 7 or 8 goes well today

Jodi - Thanks for the tips on allergies. That's what I was looking for. I'm convinced that the over and behind the counter allergy meds are practically useless when the pollen gets real bad. I live in the NJ Pinelands...the name basically implies POLLEN is everywhere. When the buds come out I go inside. I'm going to try the honey remedy (which I heard of recently) and the health stores. I think that is the way to go this year. I'm just going to try to run outside this Spring no matter what.

Good luck on the 31 miles. I'm interested to hear your thoughts about it when its over.

Lou

 

[Jodi]

Lou - The Pine Barrens or something like that? That's real wilderness, no?

 

[CynthiaCindy]

Checking in. Ran 3 easy miles this morning with DH because he wanted to make sure he ran really, really slowly. Last run before the race. I am currently obsessively checking the weather for Saturday morning. Looks like it is going to be in the high 30s for the race. Not sure if I want to wear gloves . . .

Sara - I wish you luck on figuring out the iron thing.

Lou - I wish you luck on finding something that works for your allegeries.

Jodi - your Ultra looks interesting. 3 laps? I thnk it would be too tempting for me to call it quits after 2

 

[Jodi]

Cindy - Yeah, I'm not too keen on the "3-lap thing", I think it's going to be a total mind-meld . Your DH sounds like mine..."wanna run with me today? my back is killing me so I'll be running slow" What a D-Bag! Weather sounds great for Sat! Bring some disposable gloves with you & chuck 'em (preferably in Mike's face) when you get hot.

 

[lourodrigis]

Lou - The Pine Barrens or something like that? That's real wilderness, no?

Technically I do not live in the NJ Pinelands but I'm close enough. The NJ Pinelands is basically protected land in southern NJ that is filled with lots of pine trees and lots of underground drinking water. I shouldn't complain because, as an engineer, the fact that the state created the Pinelands leads to engineers like me getting lots of work. If you want to build anything down here it costs lots of money to hire engineers to make sure that what you build doesn't screw around with our precious trees and water supply. Sorry for the details.

 

[CynthiaCindy]

I've got a busy day at work today, but I wanted to stop by and thank everyone for all of your support and encouragement. In order to get a flight at a reasonable price, we are flying out of BWI at 5:45 AM on Sunday morning. We have a lot of errands to take care of before we leave, but I'll make sure I stop by tomorrow afternoon to let you all know how the race went.

 

[Jodi]

GOOD LUCK TO CINDY & MIKE!!​

HAVE A GREAT RACE TOMORROW GUYS, I'LL BE THINKING ABOUT YOU BOTH (NOT SO NICE STUFF ABOUT MIKE)

 

[Theta]

GOOD LUCK TO CINDY & MIKE!!​

HAVE A GREAT RACE TOMORROW GUYS, I'LL BE THINKING ABOUT YOU BOTH (NOT SO NICE STUFF ABOUT MIKE)

Yes, can't wait to hear the race reports!

 

[Optimator]

Thanks for the well WISHes!

It's been a bit of a crazy week.

Kathy, DD4, and I went to the race expo today. Not much to tell there. Small, nothing there. It was in the Armory just like the MCM expo but what a difference!

At least the race director has tons of confidence in everyone. The race shirts they gave out for the full all say "26.2 mile Finisher". Now I really have to finish or be forced to throw it out.

It's gonna be in the 30's-40's in the morning. Just in that in-between range. Too cold for standing around pre-race and in between shorts and tights for the race. I guess it's better than 70's-80's and 100% humidity.

Gotta go!

Check in tomorrow afternoon, God willing.

 

[msblrobs]

Cindy & Mike - Have a BLAST out there!!! Thinking of you guys today (I've already prayed for you both this a.m.) and hoping it's a great race experience for you . Please check in post-race so we know you're okay

Mike - Go with the shorts

Cindy - Travel safe

I am ready to eat a steak . The anemia is a direct result of my donating blood, I am convinced of that. Lesson learned and now I just have to eat enough iron rich foods to replenish my iron stores and I should be fine. I hate feeling so lethargic and so I seriously may try to choke down some red meat as a last resort. Probably not but it's an option .

I hope you guys are all doing well and I will try to post a bit more later this
weekend . We got MORE snow

 

[CynthiaCindy]

Thank you all so much for your good WISHes!!

Chip time of 2:01:11!!!

I am thrilled!

I'm really happy with the time (its a PR of over 7 minutes) and I also really feel that I ran a good race. I think I got that "comfortably hard" thing down for the first time, at least for the first 10 miles. After that it was just plain hard and I had to push myself (especially at around 11.5 miles when I felt like I was going to pass out for a minute - luckily that passed). I really feel like the training I did worked. I'm really excited!

DH Matt ran a 1:47 with no leg, hip, or knee pain, so he is pretty excited, especially since he's had some pretty bad races lately. It's much more fun when we can both be happy about our race times together.

We found Mike and Kathy in the port-o-potty lines before the race. (Kathy - thanks so much for standing in line to check our gear bags for us!) We were able to chat for awhile and then made our way over to the corrals. Mike and Matt stayed up with the 8:00 minute people and I moved back to the 9:15-10:00 group.

The course was a little hilly, but much less so than I had imagined in my head from having driven the streets in the past. I did feel like there were more downhills than ups, so that was nice. I can't really tell you much about what we ran past because I don't ever seem to pay attention to that stuff.

It was pretty cold (the wind chill was in the high 20s at the start), but was actually good running weather.

I can't wait to hear how Mike did. Matt said they kept passing each other for the first 8 or 9 miles, which would translate to a super fast marathon time for Mike if he kept that pace up!

I guess that's it for now. I actually have to go into the office for a few hours

 

[Optimator]

Cindy - Fabulous time!!!! WTG. I'm glad you had a great race. How did you get your chip time already? I don't see that they're posted yet.

Tell Matt congrats as well. It was fun leap-frogging with him. I do feel like such an insensitive dope though. I completely forgot to give him my condolences for his grandmother. Please apologize for me.


My race went pretty darn good as well.

Clock time was 3:41, chip time should be a couple of minutes less so this should be a PR for me (I was too dazed and confused at the finish to remember to shut of my Garmin).

It was great meeting up with Cindy and Matt prior to the start and yes, it was cold. Sara, I went with the shorts but had to sacrifice my 15 y.o. painting sweat pants for throw aways . They were stylin' (ask Cindy).

Like Cindy said, the course was alright; a little hilly but not too bad. There was a big steel grate draw bridge to go up and down at mile 19 that was no real treat, quite a few rolling hills over the last 4 or 5 miles that I didn't appreciate, and the always popular uphill to the finish line .

I didn't see too many oddities but Kathy (thanks so much for enduring a cold morning just to see me pass by a couple of times ) did see 2 blind people (not leading each other, thankfully), a guy juggling 5 or 6 balls as he ran, and two Navy guys running in a cardboard ship.

My highlights included being passed by the mayor of D.C. around mile 25 and some truly entertaining woman up on a balcony "singing" the Star Wars theme at the top of her lungs. It was too early for her to be drunk so I'm not sure what the deal was but it sure made me chuckle for a few blocks.

The post-race grub was pretty good. I had a couple of Starbucks iced coffees, a cup of ice cream, a nice and salty soft pretzel, and a fabulously cold beer. I think there was some other stuff but I was more than satisfied with what I got and was ready to make like Jodi and get the hell out.

I was real happy with how everything went. I had a plan going into the race that I was able to stick with. I was able to keep running when what I wanted more than anything was to just stop. I was completely spent at the finish but now I feel REMARKABLY well. No hobbling or crying on the stairs! Tomorrow may be another story but I'm happy for today.

O.K., I'm gonna go relax for a bit. We have a birthday party at "The House of Bounce" for the kid next door tonight. I'm thinking no bouncing for me!

 

[AmyBeth68]

Mike and Cindy: You guys just ROCKED it today! Major kudos on awesome PRs....way to represent the green!

 

[CynthiaCindy]

Cindy - Fabulous time!!!! WTG. I'm glad you had a great race. How did you get your chip time already? I don't see that they're posted yet. !

We stayed around for awhile to watch the men's and women's marathon winners (and have a beer ) and they had printed the results and put them up on a board.

 

[CynthiaCindy]

Oops, I accidentally hit post above - I wasn't done!

Mike - Excellent job on the PR! I hope you are able to do stairs tomorrow!

Tell Matt congrats as well. It was fun leap-frogging with him. I do feel like such an insensitive dope though. I completely forgot to give him my condolences for his grandmother. Please apologize for me.

No worries. We were all focused on the race. It was great meeting up with you and Kathy. Matt normally gets really nervous before races so having someone to talk to (besides me) helped a lot!

I didn't see too many oddities but Kathy (thanks so much for enduring a cold morning just to see me pass by a couple of times ) did see 2 blind people (not leading each other, thankfully), a guy juggling 5 or 6 balls as he ran, and two Navy guys running in a cardboard ship.

Saw they ship guys - it just seemed weird. The joggler is always at local races. I've seen him at 3 races in the past year.

My highlights included being passed by the mayor of D.C. around mile 25 and some truly entertaining woman up on a balcony "singing" the Star Wars theme at the top of her lungs. It was too early for her to be drunk so I'm not sure what the deal was but it sure made me chuckle for a few blocks.

She stopped by the time I got there, but Matt heard her. (and never assume what too early to be drunk is)

 

[Theta]

Thank you all so much for your good WISHes!!

Chip time of 2:01:11!!!

I am thrilled!

:

That is awesome!!!

I wish I could have had at least one of those results. I always hoped for a under 2:10 half marathon, but never achieved it. You should be very proud of yourself!!

 

[Theta]

My race went pretty darn good as well.

Clock time was 3:41, chip time should be a couple of minutes less so this should be a PR for me (I was too dazed and confused at the finish to remember to shut of my Garmin)!

Ah, pretty darn good?!?!

I should say so!!!

That is a fabulous time! And what's this all about spending time with Cindy in the porta-potty line, you steppin' out on me, Sara and Jodi? OK, OK, we will let you away with it this time.

Seriously, congratulations! Excellent effort and sounds like you are already recovering well from it!

 

[msblrobs]

And what's this all about spending time with Cindy in the porta-potty line, you steppin' out on me, Sara and Jodi? OK, OK, we will let you away with it this time.

Yeah, what's up with you stepping out on your #1 non-related race women ? We will let it slide since we Cindy like a sister .
YOU GUYS TOTALLY ROCK!!!PR's all around and feeling fine. I am not even about thinking I may never be able to run a 1/2, let alone a full, again since I am just going to get my runners high from living vicariously through you guys

Cindy - As I said before, travel safe and I hope you & Matt make the best of AZ. Congrats to you both .

Mike - Loved your race report and glad you had such a good one. I hope Kathy took some pics that she'd be willing to share with those of us that were only there in spirit today. Rest up and enjoy the afterglow !

I got in 6 miles today but solely as a sign of respect to my McPhilly teammates who I knew were tearing it up in DC. My leg is suffering now so I will take it easy for a few. I have to work a 5K in the a.m. for my running club.

 

[Optimator]

Thanks for the support everyone.

Sara - Have fun working the 5k. Rest the leg!

Colleen - Don't be talkin' like you're never going to achieve your running goals. Still lots of time!

Cindy - Have a safe trip.

I forgot that you would be the authority on when it's a good time to be intoxicated!


Just to put a cap on it: Chip time of 3:40:35. A PR by 23 seconds!!!!