Philly Half Marathon Recap

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Anyways… so year, not any serious expectations especially since I signed up for the race about a month ago.  The course was pretty awesome- most of it was through the city, passing by some of Philly’s landmarks, absolutely loved it. Definitely wasn’t ready for the couple of hills we had to climb- note to self- hill train next time! My overall time was 2:00:20. Damn, so close to be under two hours… but when I crossed the finish line my gps said 13.5 miles (as did some of my other friends) so whatever, close enough, haha.

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Anyways… so year, not any serious expectations especially since I signed up for the race about a month ago.  The course was pretty awesome- most of it was through the city, passing by some of Philly’s landmarks, absolutely loved it. Definitely wasn’t ready for the couple of hills we had to climb- note to self- hill train next time! My overall time was 2:00:20. Damn, so close to be under two hours… but when I crossed the finish line my gps said 13.5 miles (as did some of my other friends) so whatever, close enough, haha.

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Mile 1: 8:38- Hello crowded course! I don’t even know where my corral was since I need to pee at least 3 times within a half hour before the start of a race

Mile 2: 8:37- Saw the hubs at the beginning of mile 2 and he snapped a pic… settling into a good pace

Mile 3: 9:08- Course still cluttered, water station slowed me down a little

Mile 4: 9:08- Settling into a new pace

Mile 5: 8:57- Maybe picking the pace back up?

Mile 6: 9:10- Just kidding

Mile 7: 8:27- Saw the hubs again (although he wasn’t quick enough to snap a great pic) gave him a quick kiss and was energized to pick up the speed!

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Mile 8: 9:18- Hello first hill of the course (in university city-near Drexel and the Zoo)

Mile 9: 9:01- trying to get back on pace after that hill

Mile 10: 9:28- nooooo another hill and this one was worse!!!!! (struggled a little here)

Mile 11: 9:33- Hill recovery, ouch 🙁

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Mile 12: 8:54- Determined to make up the past two miles

Mile 13: 8:53- One last push

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This is the first time I’ve ever use a GPS watch in a race… it’s the Nike one with TomTom GPS and I’m not sure that I’m a fan. The last two miles it reported my pace was around 8:30… also when I would slow down for water it would really slow down my pace (to like 12:00) and it would be hard to get it caught up to what I was actually running (closer to 9:00) so a lot of the time I really had no idea what my pace would be… guess I will have to experiment with the settings a little and see if I can change anything. I really did love this course, minus the hills, haha.

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All in all, slightly disappointed with my time, but I guess it was about what I expected.  This is the first year I did more triathlons and less runs so my focus has been off running. And it will continue to be… I’m taking December off from running to let my body chill a little and to put more focus on strength training. However I would definitely do this race again… perhaps the full if I’m feeling ambitious!!

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