Philly Distance Run

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Philadelphia Distance Run
September18, 2005

I know it’s early in the fall racing season, but for me this race was the culmination of my year, everything that comes between now and December is just for fun. PDR was my very first half marathon, and I must admit I was more terrified going into it than any previous race. Mostly because on my last 13 mile run leading up to this I had a pretty bad bonk, literally had to be helped to a nearby restaurant and forced to eat and drink to revive myself. Not pretty, and it weighed on me heavily.

I continued my streak (2 for 2) of meeting up with RF’s favorite Popo Joe in local races with more than 10,000 runners, who was running this one with his sister. And even being such a big event I managed to see my neighbor and cheer her on, but really I was pretty tense in the corral and I can’t thank Lauri enough for talking me through it and calming me down a bit. We started a few minutes late, and just before the horn blew and the first folks started moving I realized I really should’ve peed one more time. Oh well, we were off.

I was determined to go at a pretty even pace, and to rehydrate myself at every Endurathon station, because I think a large part of my bad time on that last 13 miler was due to having no water or Gatorade for 11 of those miles. I was trying for about 10 minute miles, knowing I’d probably speed up and slow down through the race. In general it worked pretty well.

Travelogue moment: My adopted hometown of Philadelphia really is a beautiful place and running down from the towering Art Museum, past City Hall, through Old City is just great. I love my town and it never looks better than when the streets are filled with runners (unless you’re a pissed off detoured driver, I guess).

By mile five we had cut back onto the Ben Franklin Parkway and the corrals where we had started and I managed to finally take care of that bladder issue from the start of the race (I do believe I visited the same porta-potty I had used earlier, what kismet!). From there it was onto the River Drives—long stretches on both sides of the Schulykill. The first part I knew pretty well since it’s where I’ve run a few 10ks and five milers. I was keeping a good pace, too, managing to catch up with the pack I had been with through Center City that I had to abandon during my necessities break.

The Friday before I bumped into my friend Rich at Reading Terminal Market and had asked him to meet me at the Falls Bridge turnaround with a cold beer. The thought of that beer got me through mile 8, but when I got to the turnaround at Falls Bridge and passed the famous bagpiper just before 9, it was clear that he hadn’t been able to make it. (What do you expect, he’s an Art Professor!). Instead I got some really super-sweet endurathon that was a problem. Even mixing it with water I had to toss it and I really needed something right then and there.

From that point things get a little fuzzy. Not that I hallucinated or anything, but I did kind of mentally disassociate for a while. I looked at my watch and saw numbers like 22:42 and thought, “Did I just run a 22 minute mile?” I was later reminded by several folks that a person could walk a mile faster than that, and despite my slowing pace, I wasn’t going that slowly! Seems like I just didn’t hit my split correctly on my watch. Also, the Endurathon crap was tasting really, really sweet—even with water I could barely get it down, it was a hotter and more humid day than expected and, man, I really needed it.

But I got it together by mile 12, helped in part by some downloads on my MP3 player of some favorite tunes that I didn’t even remember putting on there. Coming past Boathouse Row I revisited the exact spot where I lost it on that last long run, but this time I knew I would make it. It was in these miles that I saw more and more crashed people—twisted ankles, heat problems, sheer exhaustion and the like. I really didn’t think I’d succumb to that. And hey, I didn’t. At about Mile 12.5 I put my sopping shirt on again and, Wow! it was like a cool wet cloth, just what I needed to finish. And then at 13, cresting the rise to the Art Musuem and with the finish line in sight I saw Go and the Goettes with a handmade sign cheering me on.

This was clearly the biggest athletic and physical accomplishment of my life. My 20th race, 15 of them in 2005, and I was pretty pleased, despite being wiped out. And I even got a cool Liberty Bell finishers medal.

Maybe had I trained a little better through the summer I could’ve been faster, but that just gives me something to look forward to for future halfs, which there will certainly be. And next year, with some perseverance and good training, the Philly Marathon in November.

Time: 2:19:57 (10.22, 10.04, 10.10, 9.55, 10.33 {with a pee break!}, 9.39, 10.40, 10.10, 11.05, 22.42 {y’know, for two}, 11.43, 12.49 {1.1})