Philly Distance Run

[Mouse Skywalker]

Thinking of all my WISH friends, and hoping you all had a fantastic race.

 

[Suzy Mouse]

Sorry I missed you guys before the race. Had I checked in her the last few days, I would have seen this taking place.

I hope everyone had a great run. I beat my goal of 2:30 by coming in at 2:20! Does anyone know how many runners there were? It said there were 12,247 finishers?? I thought there were over 18,000.

 

[FireDancer]

Hello all. I just got home from the run. Sorry I missed the WISH meet. I got there a little later than usual so I just went to find some water, drop the gear, do some stretching, and do a little warm up jogging. I have to say the start was a bit more chaotic than most of the RnR races. I'm sure the fenced off finish area was part of it. I also think they over allocated the first and second corrals. The barrier had to be removed to get everyone in there.

After the first half mile though everyone filtered out and it was running as usual. I decided not to go for a PR but wanted to try and beat 90 again. The course was really fast and I am sure I left some time on it.

In the end I finished in 1:29:26 which is my second fastest and I am happy with it. The next long race is my first marathon, can't wait.

 

[jbucci]

It was nice to see some of you this morning. Huge thanks to Cam and Howard for the loaner sweatshirt prerace I hope everyone had a god day.

Butch did pretty well coming in at 2:02 (although he really wanted to break the 2 hour mark I'm still pretty proud of him)

I ran a PR with 2:38-- not as fast as most of you, but a good showing for me. We enjoyed the race and even hit the PF Changs lettuce wraps for a snack post race. We tried to wait around at the end but didn't have much luck finding people.

Congrats to everyone- look forward to seeing you again soon.

 

[lourodrigis]

I ran a PR with 2:38-- not as fast as most of you, but a good showing for me. We enjoyed the race and even hit the PF Changs lettuce wraps for a snack post race. We tried to wait around at the end but didn't have much luck finding people.

Jen - Congrats to you and Butch. Way to go on the PR! I hit the PF Chang booth too. That was a nice touch. I actually enjoyed the free MGD 64 beer too! The beer was okay but any free beer at the end of a race will attract me like a magnet.

I managed to PR the race (1:37:24). I really felt good today. I think the cool/dry temps had a lot to do with the PR.

Congrats to all the WISHers!

 

[Kira G.]

It's great to get some race reports. Everyone did great! It really was a beautiful day for a race!

I was thinking about all of you. I can't wait to hear from the rest of the WiSH team.

 

[KeenHo]

Great job everyone! Great efforts produced great results today.

Here is the scoop on my efforts today:

Miles: 13.24
Time: 2:03:28 (Garmin) 2:03:25 Chip
Pace: 9:19
Splits: 8:55, 8:38, 8:59, 9:23, 9:10, 9:26, 9:21, 9:56, 9:34, 9:39, 10:14, and 9:26.

I ran pretty well and was ahead of my 2:00 pace band by a minutes or more until mile 11. That is when time drew even, then surpassed me. I did stop to get a couple hugs (Cam and her partner from her law firm), and stopped at all but two water stops. I didn't carry liquids this time.

Overall I am really happy with my effort and the results given my lack of training and health history since March 6.

I didn't partake of any of the post race beer, or lettuce wraps supplied by PF Changs. I just wanted to get out of there and home to the shower and some football.

I have another half marathon coming up in just two weeks up in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Have a great night and a great week ahead.

Howard

 

[K80K]

Sorry I missed the WISH meet. We underestimated the walk from our hotel to the start and ended up getting the short end of the port-a-potty line stick. Turns out ours was only feeding 2 port-a-pottys and we ended up ditching the line and just going to the start so that we could hit some on the course. Lucked out to be standing right in front of Jen in the corrals so we got to chit chat some while we waited for the start.

I set out with the goal of practicing my MCM race day strategy...2:1 for 13:30 miles. Worked out great! Crossed the finish line at 2:59:11 which is a 13:40, but my watch had me going 13.4 at 13:21. That 13:21 is the number that means the most to me. The trick would be not to stray from the tangents so much on marathon morning.

The course was beautiful. Could have used more bands out there, but after VB I was used to there being a lot more. The medal is adorable and I can't wait to get my Beach to Bell.

 

[jbucci]

Lou: Awesome time, I'm impressed. I hope your shoulder is doing ok after all of that hard running.

Cam: If you get time to post it, I'd love to see the pre-race picture.

Katie: I'm glad to hear your race strategy worked out well. I wound up running 13.41 according to my Garmin, so I know what you mean about adding extra steps. Of course my Garmin got a bit confused a some points, so who knows...

I feel surprisingly good this morning and did not even have trouble going down the steps which shows only how flat the course was I think, not any real fitness gains on my part. NOw for some serious Goofy training...

 

[mla1977]

I'm not sure about the Garmin that you guys use for running or the Garmin for cars, but I know that my TomTom gets lost in the city amoung the tall buildings.

 

[ms.mightyduck]

We had a great race! Pre-race, we met up with our WISH friends. So glad to see Jen was wearing her lime RaceReady shirt--we were feeling mighty conspicuous! It was great to see everyone.

Pre-race group photo:

We moved to the front of our corral with Meghan. Even though we predicted a 3:00 finish, we were in corral 18, the last corral. Standing by the portapottys for an extra half-hour made me have to go (the power of suggestion!) so I stepped out of line to go. Of course, while in there, I heard the announcer yell, "Are you ready?! Get set..." and I wasn't ready. When I got out, Noah had moved back to meet me. We were now at the end of the last corral-not where we wanted to be! But it was a glorious morning, although a bit chilly. Here I am at the start:

At mile 1, my friend from work (the one who convinced me to try a half-marathon in Disney in the first place!) and her mom were there cheering us on:

We ran around City Hall:

Not long after this was taken, we spotted the police vehicle 200 feet behind us taking down the road closures: sweepers! We sprinted ahead a bit and never saw them again.

Noah and I walking through the historic district:

Noah's self-portrait along the Schuykill:

Megan, somewhere near mile 7:

Megan crossing Falls Bridge:

I was a few minutes ahead at this point, but Noah had no problem sprinting back and forth. Megan got to see what it's like to race with my personal paparazzi!

Noah found this flag and said something about military training and not letting a flag fall and forging ahead into battle:

We had negative splits the last five or six miles, I think. Here I am realizing I'm about to beat my Disney half:

Clock minus :30, making my finish 3:11:58. Woohoo! Noah was :59 because he stopped to take my photo.

Victory!

We went with our friends out to lunch at Fridays. I'm no where near as sore today as I was in January (challenge me to mini-golf today!).

We are excited to train for the Donald (me) and the Goofy (Noah). Can't wait to see all our Disney friends in January!

 

[jbucci]

Thanks for posting all of the awesome pictures and congrats on the PR- it was the perfect day for a race.

I'm also blessedly not too sore today.

 

[lourodrigis]

I was a few minutes ahead at this point, but Noah had no problem sprinting back and forth. Jen got to see what it's like to race with my personal paparazzi!

Hey guys - It was great meeting up with you before the race. I think you have Jen crossed up with Megan. Jen was the WISHer in full lime green attire and Megan had the pink top on. I'm sure we will catch up again in January.

LOu

 

[ms.mightyduck]

Doh! Of course, I know that's Megan. Sorry, Megan!

 

[mla1977]

Yup! That's me! I feel a lot better today than I did after the Priincess half. Here's hoping that I keep getting better for the full!

 

[mla1977]

FYI - In the future I plan on having something with lime green on. The shirts should be coming in soon and by January, hopefully, the visors and hats will be in. Go order a hat or a visor from Tracy!!!

 

[disneyrunningnut]

Jen and Lou, - Congratulations on the PR!!!

Howard -- Good race, good luck in Ridgefield.

Suzanne -- Great job beating your goal.

Frank -- A sub 1:30!!! awesome. That is one of my 3 running goals (BQ and sub 40 10K are my others). What is your PR?

Katie -- Good job working on your marathon goal pace. That has to give you confidence for MCM.

David

 

[FireDancer]

Frank -- A sub 1:30!!! awesome. That is one of my 3 running goals (BQ and sub 40 10K are my others). What is your PR?

David

Thanks David. My half PR is 1:28:39 which I set waaaay back on September 6 at the Rock and Roll Virginia Beach. It took me quite a few tries. I missed it last year by 23 seconds last October and was quite annoyed. Keep trying, when you finally do it you feel great .

I would love a BQ but it will probably be a couple of years. I'm doing my first full in October in Niagara Falls and while it should be cool and the course flat I have no idea what I will finish in, but I doubt it will be the 3:10 I need for Boston.

 

[K80K]

Did you see that in the newsletter from last night that they are rebranding this race? Next year it becomes the IGN Rock 'n' Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon. So we ran the last Philadelphia Distance Run.

Also they ahve it set up so that you can watch yourself cross the finish line: http://philadelphia.competitor.com/features/finishlinereplay/