September 29, 2013

Rock n Roll Marathon Series: Philadelphia

The half marathon course in Philadelphia is by far my favorite course I’ve run in the Rock n Roll series. I’ve also done Brooklyn, Virginia Beach, San Antonio, San Jose, and New Orleans. The course starts and ends in Downtown Philadelphia. The finish line is right in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. What’s the significance of ending in that specific spot, it’s where the Rocky steps are located. One of the most appropriate ending spots for a race, in my opinion.

The expo was at the convention center which is also conveniently located in downtown Philadelphia. We met up with Heather to pick up our race bibs and goody bags. Unfortunately due to family circumstances Heather wasn’t able to run the half with me, but she was picking it up because someone else was going to run in her place. You’re not allowed to sell your spot in the race, and it was too late check if she could defer to the next year. After a quick visit and dinner she headed back to home to New Jersey.

We headed back to our hotel, which we choose for the first night because it was close to the expo and start line of the race. We didn’t have anything booked for the second and third nights of our stay because we originally had booked through Air BnB, but there were issues with that rental and we choose not to stay there. That’s a story for another time. While searching for our next two night accommodations I happened across Hotwire deals. It’s where you choose your type of hotel (ie: 3 stars) and what area you want to be in, but they pick a hotel for you and it’s super cheap. They are filling the empty rooms at the last minute so you get a great deal. We ended up staying getting the Sheraton right in the middle of the downtown area for $75/night. We’ve never used that type of booking before, but it worked out great and we’ll definitely keep it in mind next time we travel.

Race day morning we were up and on our way to the starting line by 7am. The race didn’t start til 8 am so that was nice. Most of the Halfs I’ve done back in Central Florida start closer to 5:30-6 am! Sleeping in was nice, but we we had to walk about a mile to get the starting area. Luckily it was nice out so it was a nice morning walk. Once we made it to the starting area we waited for We got there and waited for the corrals to start moving. There were 25 different corrals so it took a while for everyone to start.

 There are so many reasons I like the Rock n Roll series of running events, there’s always tons of people so you never feel alone on the course, they provide so much motivation and entertainment along the courses, as well as lots of water and support staff. It doesn’t hurt that they host them in so many great cities around the country and even a few international events. I always make the trip into a vacation as well. I’ve heard people call them “runcations” which pretty much encompasses what the weekends. All events are planned around the runs so you don’t tire your legs out too much before and don’t have to work them too hard after. It’s quite a balancing act. These signs are always my favorite though, they have them on every RnR course and usually right around the point where you’re ready to quit to give you that little extra to make it to the  finish line. My personal favorite is the one that says, “One day I won’t be able to do this, today is not that day!”

Not gonna lie this was probably my hardest half to date. I have been working out regularly, but not running as much as one should t prepare for 13.1 miles. I walked probably about 80% of this race. I refused to look behind me because I did not want to know if no one was behind me! ( I did finally see behind me once we crossed the bridge and I was definitely not last. That made me feel better).  Speaking of crossing the bridge, from mile 5 to 13 the course runs along the Schuylkill River. It’s beautiful and one of the reasons Philadelphia is one of my favorite courses.
When I finally reached the finish line and they handed me my medal, I jut took it and looked for a place to sit down, I didn’t even really look at it. Then I noticed that some of the people walking around had blue ribbon on their medals and mine was red. I looked at the medal to realize that I was given a generic Rock n Roll series medal. My first thought was that for some reason you only got the real medal if you finished before a certain time and my 3:40. That’s about an hour slower than my usual pace so I assumed I must not have made the cut for the “real” medal. Seemed weird, but what else could it have been. Then my next thought was “if I had know that I would have quit when I wanted too.” I mean I read all the pre-race info and the medal info and I didn’t recall it stating anywhere that there was at time limit to get a medal!! If you have any experience with doing any type of organized runs, then you know it’s mostly for the bling!! I was pretty mad about this, I didn’t travel all the way to Philly to not even get the real medal!!
After going back to the hotel, showering and moving to our new hotel, I text my friend and told her that I got a generic medal. I think I actually said “I got a pity medal!” haha. A little later on while browsing Facebook I saw that the Rock n Roll Philly page posted a status congratulating every one on finishing the race that day. I commented on this status “Not happy that everyone didn’t get the same medal. We all finished the same course!!” I noticed that I wasn’t the only one commenting about the medals. Not too long after those comments were made the series commented on the post as well. Their story was that 1,000 medals were stolen from the finish line and that they were going to mail the actual finisher medals to participants that finished after they ran out based on clock time. The next morning I received this email:
 UPDATE: My medal did arrive in the mail a couple days ago and now I feel legit. I hung it with my other medals in our work out room, I put them on the wall in front of the treadmill in hopes that it will give me a little more motivation when actually training for the next one.

 

Here’s to next time and getting back on the training wagon . . . . .

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