Half Marathon!

Penelope and I before the race!

On November 23rd, my friend Penelope ran the Philadelphia Marathon and I ran the Half Marathon! This is a glorified way of saying that we got up at the butt-crack of dawn to drive downtown and go run around in the freezing cold while wearing lots of spandex. That's right. Be jealous.

After crawling out of bed around 5:15, Penelope and her friend picked me up around 5:45 and we headed to the Philadelphia Museum of Art (think Rocky) downtown, where the race began. We stood around in the freeeeeeeeezing cold for about half an hour until the race finally began at seven. Then we stood around for another half an hour (but this time insulated inside a gigantic crowd of people) until we actually started running at 7:25. Evidently we had gotten into the very, very slow wave (there were even walkers), because we spent the next two miles weaving our way in and out of slow people that we wanted to pass. This was fun! And exhilirating! Until we realized that, in all our excitement, we were running eight minute miles, which was a weensy bit fast for both of us, given that I still had to run eleven miles and Penelope still had to run twenty-four.

So we slowed it down a little bit, got closer to our usual 8:45/9:00 pace, and settled into a rhythm. The first seven miles of the race were AWESOME. I felt happy and strong, and this race is a great course--a wonderful way to see the city. Preston met us around mile seven, where he ran up and down the street trying to get pictures of us, which makes me love him even more. I think I'll keep him around for a while.

After mile seven, however, things went rapidly downhill (except not literally, unfortunately) and it became painfully obvious that I had really only trained up to seven miles. We reached mile nine and my body basically said, "All right, Mary Frances. This was fun. And now it's time to stop." Alas, it was not time to stop, but time to go up the longest hill IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. OK, slight exaggeration, but it was really long. And gradual. And made my legs feel like jelly. I slowed down to a ten minute mile between miles nine and ten, and really don't know how I could have gone faster without vomiting on myself. Or Penelope. Crowd support is pretty low for miles eight to twelve and three-quarters, and I just started fading.

By mile twelve, I wanted to walk so much that I did something I haven't done in a race EVER--I STOPPED running and started walking (this is really, really rare--I don't even like stopping when I'm training for races). However, Penelope, knowing that I wouldn't want to walk, got me going again. For the rest of the race, I looked and felt like death warmed over, minus the warmed over, but she kept me going. She encouraged me, tried to make me laugh, and helped me up the final hill at the end of the race. I finished the race without her, as she continued on the Marathon course, and I finished pretty strong. My goal was to finish in under two hours, which I did, coming in at 1:54. Still lots of room for improvement, but a PR for me, and one of which I'm proud. As usual, once the race was over and I'd gotten something to drink, I was immediately thrilled that I'd done the race. There are few feelings that parallel how I feel when I finish a race. The combination of endorphins, the pulsing energy of the crowd, the fact that everyone looks like shit but no one cares...I think it's fantastic. I hope I can keep running forever.

I found Preston right away, which was good since he had brought me many, many layers of clothing to put on over my spandex, since it was approximately ZERO degrees outside. I was able to find him really quickly because I actually ran with my phone zipped into the back pocket in my leggings. Right before the race started, I zipped my phone up and, although it's cute and little, I became a little worried that I would feel my phone slapping against my back/butt the entire time; however, my worries were in vain. For the entire race, my whole butt was SO NUMB that I couldn't feel a damn thing. So it all worked out! And then Preston and I went to Starbucks and I spent the rest of the afternoon recharging by eating lots of food, doing minimal amounts of work, and watching the excellent Foyle's War.

I'm still on the fence about doing this marathon in March...I definitely want to keep running through the winter, and I'd love to run a marathon one day, but I'm just not sure if I have the energy to prepare for it. Plus, there's a half marathon that same day in D.C., which I know I could do. Because it's old! And familiar! And comfortable! I think my hesitation is, at the moment, due to the fact that I am exhausted and the thought of adding anything new and different to my plate right now is completely repulsive. At any rate, after I turn in my last paper on December 31, come January 1, I plan on sleeping for an extended period of time. And I'm not sure if "marathon training" and "long winter's nap" really go together so well. Hmm. More photos from the day on Flickr.

Back at home with my fancy medal.