Philly Half

Somehow running the Philadelphia Half Marathon in September has become a yearly tradition in our family.  It has dwindled a bit each year, and I think this may be the last year that we do it, mainly because of the cost.  The first year William, John, Anna, Dad, Rachel, and I all ran.  The second year Anna, John Aunt Beth, Dad, and I ran.  The next year Anna, Dad, and Aunt Beth ran.  This year, Anna, Tim, and I ran.  Cheerleader, Mom, and Organizer/Motivator, Anna, have been the only constants at every race.  As you see, we are slowly putting this torturous, and yet somehow fun, tradition to rest.  Although, I'm sure Anna will see to it that it lives on.

The race is always on a Sunday and the day before is the expo were you pick up your race number and timer.  It is quite an event with tons of vendors.  Tim and I had our feet, ankle, knee alignments measured with the help of a laser.  Of course we both "needed" the expensive inserts the company was selling ... maybe another time.  We were in line to run on a treadmill and have our video-taped foot-strike analyzed, but out parking meter was about to expire.  We did get a few free samples, but mainly the expo gets you excited for the run the next day.

The actual race is a lot of fun.  I'm always glad that I did it, as much as I grumble about it during the months of training beforehand.  It's unbelievable to me that tens of thousands of people sign up for this race.  We started in corral 16 and it took about 25 minutes for us to reach the starting line after the gun went off!  The course is beautiful.  The run begins through old city, continues up Kelly Drive, and then finishes down MLK with the finish line in front of the art museum. 

While this was not my best time ever, I was thrilled to finish as strongly as I did, considering my lack of consistent training.  Something crazy happens to me at the end of each race.  I suddenly believe that I love running.  I think, "How could I have ever not wanted to go on a training run?"  The result is, then, at my sister's encouraging, I sign up for another race.  A much longer race.  A marathon.  I decided to run my first marathon right after my first half marathon.  Now, for some reason, I agreed to run another marathon.  I'm not sure this one will actually happen, though.  I haven't quite fully forgotten the pure torture of running miles 20 through 26, and I'm less well trained than last time I agreed to do it.  I haven't officially signed up yet, so, we'll see.

Update:  From the time of initial writing to publication, I have decided against running the full marathon.  I need a much better training base than what I had.   I'll run another one some time, it just wasn't to be this time.