Race Recap: 2019 Philadelphia Marathon

I am so excited to be typing up this recap for the Philadelphia Marathon this past Sunday because to be quite honest, I'm shocked I made it to the finish line. For those of you who didn't know, I ran the Philadelphia Marathon this weekend with minimal training considering I won the entry just a few short weeks ago. You can read all about that here if you'd like!

So like I said, I went into this marathon with very little training. For the other 3 marathons I've done, I put in 18 weeks of training with long runs going up to 20 miles. Because this was a last minute decision, I followed a half marathon training schedule up until the Hershey Half at the end of October. After that I ran a 17-miler, 12-miler, and 8-miler as far as long runs. I actually felt good going into marathon weekend. I'm sure I would've been fine if the weather hadn't been less than ideal. My best running friend, Rachel, and John braved the cold and came with me to cheer me on! Anywho, onto the recap which just a bit of a warning, probably will just be a jumbled mess of my thoughts so bear with me! It was quite a day...

The expo was fun, as always!

The forecast called for rain most of Sunday morning so I tried my best to dress accordingly. I wore capris and a tank with a long sleeve tech shirt over top. I started the race with a light jacket over top but more about that later. When I woke up that morning, it was lightly drizzling out. Once we got over to Philly and parked, it has started to let up. At that point I made the decision to wear the light jacket over my long sleeve shirt and a pair of throw away gloves. The coat is sort of water resistant so I figured it would work well. Unfortunately, it had rained all night so there were a lot of puddles everywhere and my feet were already getting wet on the walk over. We got through security fairly quickly. I made the decision to use one of the first port-a-potties I found and honestly, it was the BEST decision because the ones closer to the corrals had ridiculously long lines. I went a bit earlier than usual but I probably wouldn't have even gotten the opportunity to go if I didn't stop earlier.

John and Rachel stood with me for a bit near my corral until the first corrals were starting to leave. They moved towards the start at that point so they could cheer me on as I crossed the start line. As usual, I was in the last corral (#teamturtle) so I didn't end up starting until about 25 minutes after the first corral. Like almost every big race, the start is crowded so I spent the first mile or so darting around people so I could fall into a comfortable pace.

Within the first 3 miles I started to get an odd feeling on the inside of my right foot. It felt like the sock was bunched up so when I stopped to use a port-a-potty at the first group of them where the line wasn't ridiculously long (I think around mile 3?), I tried fixing it. Once I started back up running, it still felt funny so this time I stopped and actually took my shoe off. At that moment, I found the last thing I wanted to see this early in a race: a huge blister forming.... I quickly got out my phone and called John to see if there was any possible way he could get to me before mile 14 (it was planned for them to see me at the start, around halfway, and the finish) with moleskin, bandaids, or any other stuff that could help me. He looked at the map and sadly could not figure out a way to get to a drug store and make it to where I was in a timely manner but he'd get something for me to put on at mile 14. I was bummed until a lightbulb went off and I remembered I had a spare piece of KT tape in my hydration backpack that I kept there for emergencies. I ended up wrapping it around where the blister was forming in hopes it would protect it and stop the pain. While it was a great idea, unfortunately it helped very little. I also ended up having a second blister form on the inside of my left foot.

This looked prettier in person...

I focused most of my attention on the pain the blisters were causing as I cruised through the earlier miles. Normally the hills between miles 7 and 10 would absolutely kill me but I couldn't even think about them. I honestly don't even remember if it rained again at all. I was so excited to see John and Rachel around mile 14. I made the decision not to put any of the bandaids on that John had gotten in fear that if I took my shoes off, I'd never want to put them back on. Instead I handed off my light jacket and gloves as I was getting pretty warm. 

BIG. MISTAKE.

Once I left John and Rachel, it started to rain again. Like, freezing cold rain that was permeating everything I was wearing, making me feel frozen to the core. The rain was angled so it was going right in my face. At this point in the race, we were running along the Schuylkill River so the winds were much stronger and frequent. I tried my best to focus on the sights (I absolutely LOVE Boathouse Row) and all the spectators. I was honestly surprised at how many people still came out the spectate even with the weather. 

So glad John captures this wonderful picture of me as I ran up to him haha I must’ve looked miserable the whole time. 

As I headed towards Manayunk, around mile 18ish, I was starting to lose my motivation. I began thinking about how I'd feel if I just gave up at this point. I knew that quitting this late in the race would just be silly since I had less than 8 miles left to go. I would be lying if I said the thought didn't cross my mind a couple more times before I finished...

Manayunk pumped me up like always! It's like one big party as you cruise down the main street towards the turn around. And then the party keeps going until you leave the town. Once I left Manayunk, the spectators started to die down and so did my drive. The frustrating part is that for the back of the packers, like me, you see a lot of spectators cheering on those between miles 23-25 while you're still around mile 16 because of the way the course is. Those people also cheer for those on the other side of the course which I mentioned above that I saw. But once you get to that area like an hour later, there aren't many people left. This usually is my least part of the race and it was again this year. Spectators are what keep me going at this point and without them, I was left to my own thoughts.

The new mural going into Manayunk is so nice! I just had to stop on my way out to snap a picture. 

The last few miles or so were brutal. I was absolutely soaked. Even the one dry spot on my back that was covered by my hydration pack was wet at this point. I kept getting chills, my teeth were chattering, and the only thought going through my head was "I have no clue if I'll ever warm up after this!" Since my hands were frozen, I hadn't eaten a Gu since at least mile 16 and I struggled to even hold the mouthpiece on my hydration pack so I could drink some water. Millions of thoughts were running through my head. One that kept returning was that thought that I'm not sure I've ever ran a race that was this brutal before. I've ran the marathon distance 3 other times, ran a half marathon in the snow, ran a 10-miler and a half marathon in the rain, and yet this was truly the toughest of them all! I was getting pretty out of it at this point. I've heard of people starting to get a bit crazed at this point in the race and for the first time, I was. I honestly couldn't even keep track of my mile markers and my body just kept shaking with cold.

Once I hit mile 26 on my watch, I knew I only had less than a half mile to go. My watch was off by about .20 throughout most of the race. At this point I just wanted to be done so I put the pedal to the medal and pushed myself to that finish. I knew John and Rachel were somewhere towards the finish line so I scoured the sidelines for them. I heard them yelling my name before I even saw them. At that same time I heard them announce my name over the intercom along with all the other runners who were finishing at this point. That was all I needed to fly right through the finish line. I literally stopped running as soon as I crossed the line because I was DONE. Usually I'll go a bit longer to stop anybody from running right into me but I didn't even care. I was close to tears as I got my medal and heat sheet. I couldn't believe I actually did it! For a race I was considering giving up on as early as 3 miles in, I couldn't believe that I was able to push myself to that finish line!

I’m just smiling because I could see the finish line... oh, and I love running!

I probably looked like a hot mess as I tried to collect my snacks in the tent after the finish line. A pretzel and a banana dangled from my frozen fingers as I tried to also hold a cup of warm chicken broth. Not going to lie, I thought about that warm chicken broth for at least the last 10 miles. I stood there shivering and drink the broth when I finally saw John and Rachel walking up. They had thought to bring me my jacket from the car and oh my goodness I could've cried! They hugged me and all that fun stuff before we made our way to a less crowded spot to take pictures. I looked like a drowned rat and I couldn't hold my medal too well so those pictures turned out just wonderful... From there we went to the car so I could start to defrost. It probably wasn't until we got home and I removed every piece of wet clothing and put on sweatpants and a sweatshirt that I finally started to feel some sort of warmth.

There is probably so much more I could've added to this recap or even took out, but this jumbled mess represents how I felt during the whole race. Never have I felt so defeated during a race. I thought to myself many times that I should've just used that free entry for the half marathon but in a way I am glad I did the marathon. It was a chance to prove to myself that I can do hard things if I set my mind to it. I am strong!

Marathon recovery = chai tea and fuzzy socks!

Race Recap: Hershey Half Marathon


On Sunday I ran my 6th half marathon, the Hershey Half Marathon! The Hershey Half was my first half back in 2014 so it was exciting to return. My sister, who had her second baby 4 months ago, decided she wanted to train for and run this race, so I decided I'd join her. I knew running the Philly Marathon was out of the question for me this year considering I missed a big chunk of training time with my wedding. I knew a half was completely doable for me so once I knew I'd be good, I signed up. I am so glad I did because I had really missed running half marathons! Before I share too many details, I'm going to jump right into my race recap! In my head, I split the race up by the first 5 miles, the next 5 miles, and the final 3.1 so that is how I'll arrange my recap. I'll also throw in the pre-race details because why not?

Packet Pick Up/Pre-Race

John and I drove up to Hershey early on Saturday to meet up with my sister, her husband, and kids and also my parents. As part of your registration, each runner receives 2 complimentary Hershey Park tickets which we decided to use that day. Once we arrived, we quickly went through packet pick up which was easy-peasy. I resisted looking at too much because I knew I didn't need to buy anything. We headed straight to the park and spent most of the evening there going on rides and hanging out.

Pre-race rainbow :)

The race started at 7:30 am on Sunday morning and roads would be closing by 7, so Ashley and I planned to leave our hotel by 6 am to be safe. Thank goodness we did because traffic was even crazy that early! I woke up around 5:30 after a surprisingly super restful sleep, got ready, and grabbed a bagel from the continental breakfast area before leaving for the start. The forecast showed rain for most of the morning but luckily it wasn't raining when we arrived at the start, which was right outside the Hershey Stadium. I made the decision to not wear my running rain jacket for the race. I thought it would be too hot over top of my tank top and long sleeve top, which would've probably been true. We jumped right in the port-a-potty lines when we got to the start area but still managed to wait awhile. We literally left the port-o-potties and got right in the big mob of people that was moving towards the starting line since they already had started. For once I was thankful the start was slow because otherwise we might've missed it or crossed it by ourselves.

Miles 1-5

The race start is right outside the Hershey Stadium. As luck would have it, the rain did not really start until the middle of the first mile but it was steady from there on out. The first few miles wrap around the whole parking lot for both the park, Hershey Stadium, and Giant Stadium. John cheered us on right before we crossed the starting line and again when we were in part of the parking lot because it was easy to walk to that area. Once we left the parking lot and went up a main road, we circled back in to go through the park! For those of you familiar with Hershey Park, we come in around the area of the park that is near the Boardwalk, run by a bunch of rides such as Fahrenheit, Lightning Racer, the ferris wheel, a big portion of the Boardwalk. Somehow it loops us back out near Storm Runner and then brings out an exit near there.

We started out at a decent pace. {I should probably add it in now that we were NOT running this half for time. My sister just had her second child 4 months ago and my training was broken up a lot with my busy schedule. We knew we wanted to just run it for fun and to spend time together.} The parking lot portion didn't have too many hills so we just cruised along. My ankle was a little sore for the first few miles, as per usual, but settled down after awhile. Once we exited Hershey Park, we ran around a residential area and also back near the factory. I love seeing the Hershey smokestacks up close! That area was pretty hilly, which slowed us both down.The rain wasn't too heavy at this point so we were able to actually enjoy the views which included the Hershey Country Club. It was still pretty even in the dreary weather!

I love this "temptation station" a spectator had set up with beach chairs and snacks!

Miles 6-10

This is where the rain started to pick up. I distinctly remember it being heavy around the halfway point because that is where we passed the relay start/finish area. Those who ran the first portion of the relay were finishing and getting the medals and recovery bags. I was cold and had soaking wet socks by this point so I was jealous of those who were finished and heading off to their warm cars. We kept pushing, though! 

Our favorite part of the race was during this portion: The Milton Hershey School! A good chunk of the race goes through the Milton Hershey School campus and it's always the best because of the spectator support. A lot of the students come out and cheer on the runners which is the cutest thing. We were nervous the crowd would be small this year but there were actually a good amount of kids out! This portion also has the worst hills so the signs and spectators were a great distraction.

Miles 11-13.1

Around mile 11ish we were running up Chocolate Avenue with the cute little Hershey kiss street lights. I love that part! It is also where they hand out mini Hershey bars, which I stuck mine in my pocket for later!

Then this was where we started to lose steam. The rain was picking up, my shoes and socks were soaked, and it seemed like we were running uphill the whole time. The final portion of the race cuts back through the Hershey Park parking lots and then makes its way towards the stadium. Add the way we felt with this boring part of the course and you can just imagine how this part was. Luckily, we were close to the finish so we attempted to use whatever steam we had left in us to push to the end. We actually hit 13.1 on our watches outside of the stadium so pushing that last bit into the stadium seemed to drag. Once we were in the stadium, we saw our family cheering us on which gave us that last power boost to send us over the finish line! It felt so good to get that medal and pick up our recovery bag full of goodies... but it felt even better to change out of my wet socks once we got in the car!

Well that pretty much wraps up my Hershey Half recap :) I’m sure I left out some details. Writing about it a day or so later is tough. I tried so hard to remember details during it but 13.1 miles is a lot to remember!

Gloucester Township 5K Recap

On Saturday I ran my second race of the year, a small 5K in my town called the Gloucester Township 5K. If you remember from my post back in December, I had said I would only run 1 race this spring. Well, since I didn't sign up for any "big" races {half or full marathon} I decided a few small 5Ks would be nice! I heard about this race through my town's newsletter and figured it would cool to run a super local 5K that didn't cost much. I knew John would be away for the weekend so I recruited my little brother to run it with me! It was an interesting race for me so read on if you want to hear about it.

This race morning started unlike many race mornings for me because I didn't have to be up at the crack of dawn {WIN!}. Being less than 5 minutes from the race location meant that we could sleep later and take our time getting there. The start time was 9 am but we still needed to pick up our bibs and shirts so we decided to leave my house around 8:15 to get there with plenty of time to spare. The location of this race was at the senior citizen community center in town that happens to share a parking lot with a park so the parking situation was great. At this point in the morning it was drizzling so we ran into the community center to pick up our stuff. We were amazed at how much thought was put into such a small town 5K. There were handmade signs posted all around the big room everything was in such as the check in and post-race breakfast buffet and they even had a couple of local sponsors handing out freebies. We grabbed our shirts and a few freebies and while heading to my car to stash them away, Dale realized he wasn't sure where his wallet was. Being so close to home, I suggested we drive home real quick to see if it was there. It really worked out because then I was able to use my own bathroom pre-race {there were real flushing bathrooms at the start, as well!} while Dale found his wallet, and we still made it back to the start with time to spare!

The start of the race was a bit odd. The whole race was chip timed but we didn't cross over one of those timing mats in the beginning. It makes me wonder how they figured out the timing then. Anywho, once they let us start, I immediately took off because it was already apparent that there would be a bottleneck ahead where we had to narrow down into a smaller portion of the road. Dale stayed with me at this point. We had agreed beforehand that if I felt like I wanted to push ahead to try and place in my age group, that was fine. I wasn't sure what my plan was because the weather was already so hot and humid, something my body was NOT ready for. I continued to keep pushing and eventually pulled away from Dale after about a half mile because I saw a girl in my age group wasn't too far ahead of me {with this being a smaller race, I was able to easily pick out people in my age group}. I kept pushing but eventually the girl flew past me and I couldn't even try to keep up. 

I didn’t take many pictures but I did manage to  get a picture of Dale crossing the finish line!

My ankle started bugging me around mile 2, which was when another girl in my AG started closing in on me. I had kept turning around to check on Dale and eventually realized how close she really was to me. I had to let myself stop real quick to stretch out my ankle and within that time, the girl passed me. At this point, I assumed I was in 3rd, which felt good. As I neared the end of mile 3, a girl who looked like she was in my AG flew by me without warning. I tried my best to push myself in that last quarter of a mile but the heat was really dragging me down. I crossed the finish line with a time of 28:31 {1 second faster than the Phillies Charities 5K 2 weeks ago!}, just 24 seconds after the 3rd place female in my AG. I was so mad at myself for pushing so hard in the beginning because I believe that was what made my ankle pain flare up later on. I threw myself a quick pity party before letting it go and promising myself to continue working on pace to better myself!

I

The post-race breakfast buffet was really nice and I was thankful to have a bagel and some orange slices to fill my stomach. Overall, this was a well put together 5K that I am looking forwarding to running again in the future. It had been awhile since I ran such a small, local 5K and this one made me remember how much I love them! The obvious community pride made me feelgood about the town we chose to move to and call our "home."

Question of the Day: Have you ever done a small town race? If so, what were your thoughts?

Phillies Charities 5K Recap

On Saturday I ran my first race of 2019 and my first 5K race in almost a year! To be completely honest, I forgot how different it was to do such a shorter distance race, but more about that later! A few months ago, I stumbled across an ad for the Phillies Charities 5K on Facebook. I mentioned the race to John and he actually seemed interested! A little preface about John and running: he has a love/hate relationship with running and races. A few years back, he would run with me a lot. He has completed a good amount of 5Ks, one 10-miler, and one half marathon. He may or may not have ran the half without any real training... So once I realized John actually might want to run a race with me, I jumped on it! After some research, we realized the perks {a cool race shirt, tickets to a Phillies game, a medal, and more!} that came with running this 5K were great and John was convinced!

Snappin’ some selfies in the car while we wait!

Okay, now that I've rambled on enough, let's get to race day! The race did not start until 9 am and it was less than a 20 minute drive for us, so John and I were pretty pumped to have a later wake up call. We woke up about 45 minutes before we had to leave. I pretty much just woke up, got dressed, and sat around. I normally don't eat anything before a run that's shorter than 6 or so miles, but because it would be awhile before I started running, I ate a few fig newtons as my breakfast. We arrived at Citizen's Bank Park {home of the Phillies baseball team and the location of the start/finish} around 8 am. Knowing it was super windy out, we sat in the car for awhile to soak up the heat. Finally, around 8:20, we sucked it up and got out so I could use the bathroom. Man, oh man, was the starting area CROWDED! John overheard someone mention the race was sold out and I 100% believe that. There were a ton of port-o-potties to use so I was thankful!

So many people! We hid from the wind in between all these crowds!

After waiting around, and squeezing through the crowds to block the wind, for what felt like hours, it was finally time to start. John and I had discussed our plans for the race that morning and both of us had agreed to stay together in the beginning, but if one of us wanted to get ahead, we could. I had woken up super congested, so I planned to just take it easy and assumed we'd probably stay together. Once the gun went off, we had to weave through the crowd to find some open areas. From what I observed, this seemed like a race that many people came to walk. That wasn't a problem because it only took a few minutes to break away from that crowd of people.

John and I stuck together until about a mile in. He wanted to slow down a bit but somehow I was feeling speedy, so he told me to go ahead. I'm still not sure what got into me, but I was keeping a pace between 8:30-9:00 and I was feeling great. Maybe I was trying to finish as fast as possible to get out of the wind and cold? Probably. To be completely honest, I don't remember much of the race. I know that a few parts of the route were an incline and that was when I really pushed my pace. I skipped the water station around mile 1.5 because I wasn't really thirsty, I didn't want to slow down, and mainly, my hands were so frozen from the wind that I couldn't either fathom the idea of cold water spilling on them. I wasn't really looking at my watch so I didn't even realize I was almost to the finish until I saw the 3 mile marker. All I kept thinking was "wow, I feel like I just started!" 

When I crossed the finish, I took note that my time was less that 29 minutes on the clock. That made me feel great because going into the race, I just wanted to run a good race. I never thought I'd be able to run sub-30 minutes on such a windy day while I was feeling sick. I walked a little past the finish and then stood off to the side to wait for John. John was only a few minutes behind me! He told me that he only had to walk a few times which I find successful considering he has only ran once in the past few months. He finished with an official time of 31:09 and my official finish time was 28:32.

We continued through the chute to get our medals. After looking at it later, I realized the medal has a magnet on the back. So cool! There were water bottles, bananas, and prepackaged soft pretzels for post-race fuel. I'm always happy when there are soft pretzels at the end of a race! We kept walking with the crowd which lead us into the stadium From there we did a cool down lap on the stadiums warning track. It was super cool being able to walk right on the field! We were able to see both dugouts and get an up close view of what those look like. Of course John and I stopped and took some pictures!

Once we exited the stadium, John and I went to the car to grab the ticket vouchers so we could go redeem them at the ticket windows. Each runner received a ticket voucher that gave you redeemed for 4 tickets to a baseball game on one of the selected dates given to us. Between the 2 of us, we got 8 tickets for a game this Sunday! The only downside was that we had to wait in a long line at the ticket windows while the wind blew and chilled us to the bone! I wasn't sure I'd ever thaw out after that!

We both agreed that we were hungry and exhausted after that. I found it funny that I felt so tired after a 5K when I've ran much longer distances and felt better. It must've been the wind and the fact that I was sick! Since we were in Philly, we stopped for Geno's cheese steaks! Instead of sitting outside in the wind or eating in our car, we made the decision to bring them home to eat in our warm house. After that, we took a much needed nap :)

Overall, the Phillies Charities 5K was a great race! It was very well organized and I was happy that my watch and the route lined up pretty much exactly mile-wise. The goodies were received and the experience we had made the price worth it!