Love Run Recap

1 10

Sharing is caring!

1

2

As I write this Monday morning I am one exhausted lady! After the Love Run Half Marathon Sunday morning, I spent the rest of the day moving up the street (renting a bigger space!) and let me just say never plan a big run and moving in the same day. I am sore and very tired. Anyways let’s talk about the race!

Well first of all it was FREEZING! Literally- at the start I think it was 25 degrees… this is below the average for Philly, FYI. For those of you that are wondering… I wore two long sleeved tech shirts…. Some people wore one… some people are obviously more warm blooded than me. I also wore my mittens and took them off at points during the race and carried them. I either got windburn or sunburn, maybe both. Above I’m bundled up before the start in my throwaway extra layers and yup I’m as cold as I look.

Best thing about this March race that’s only a half- smaller crowd… meaning less lines for the porter pottys, yesss! I am a big pee’er… I must pee right before the race starts, like two minutes before and then run into my corral or any corral I can get to for that matter. A lot of times I pee twice in 5 minutes…. Sorry if that’s a TMI. Anyways I peed and then got into a corral, might have been mine, not sure.

3

4

5

And we were off… wasn’t too crowded which was nice, saw Pat right after the start! I give him and all the spectators lots of credit for standing in the freezing cold and cheering.

The first few miles felt good, I actually ran the first mile around 8 minutes and had to force myself to slow down because who are we kidding- I’m not keeping up that pace for 13 miles.  My 5k split was 27:13, pace of 8:46- this is a good pace for me… spoiler alert: I did not keep this pace. This was also all flat and through the city, which helps! Saw Pat again here and this is me mid-blowing a kiss!

6

7

Next couple miles were down MLK drive, which is across the river from boathouse row…. Less crowd support and then the biggest hill of the race is right before mile 6. Took my first gel around mile 4-5. This hill was in the Philly Marathon last fall (I ran the half) and it was a bitch! I saw a woman throw up at the top of the hill and was impressed a few miles later when I saw this woman in front of me- pukes and is maintaining under a 9 min mile pace- very impressive! So I definitely did ok on the hill this time… and weaved around Fairmount park area and the Please Touch Museum before heading down a small hill back to MLK.

After that we ran up the ramp to Strawberry Mansion bridge, across the bridge, up a small hill, down a small hill, back down across the bridge and down the ramp. Uphills and downhills over. I took my second gel at this point, mile 9-10. I tend to eat them gradually instead of downing the whole thing at once. After the turnaround point its basically a quick and flat 5k. Well quick if you’re in good running shape and not tired from already running 10 miles. Ha.

8

Saw Pat right around mile 13 right before the finish in front of the Art Museum. He was quite bundled but ready for photo action and was actually getting the live updates of my 5k and 10k times. Sometimes for other races they have been delayed and he has no idea how I’m doing or where I am. This pic is terrible and hilarious- had to share! Plus you can see Waterworks which is behind the Art Museum so you know we were getting close to the finish!

9

I finished under 2 hours, yay! Official time was 158:53. I didn’t have any real goals for this race but I feel like for me a finish under two hours is a standard goal… glad to have just made it. This was the hilliest and coldest half I’ve ever run so given that plus with my lack of training I was very pleased with my time.

10

I’d like to run another half this spring but my schedule doesn’t look favorable. Broad Street Run the first weekend in May is the next run I’m focusing on and for once I’m actually going to try to “PR” and improve my speed…. #lazyrunner…   We all know how I feel about PR’ing but it’s always nice to know you’re making strides towards improvement. Typing this here is totally holding myself accountable, haha.

11

Did you race this weekend? Any Love Runners!? How did you do? Any recaps for me to read, comment and share your link!

12

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Privacy Policy
Scroll to Top