Philadelphia 1/2 marathon

A very good race, and a very good time!!

Jill, Sara, and myself headed down to PHL on Saturday morning. An uneventful ride, got stuck in traffic through the Bronx but no big deal. We dropped the car off and went down to the race registration to pick up our bags and schwag. None to be had.... All we got was a t-shirt for the race and some coupons. blech... not even any safety pins.

We met up with a bunch of folks and headed to an awesome Italian place for dinner, we got to the hotel and went to bed early.

On Sunday AM we got up early, ate, and timed the walk to the start really well. Got there 15 minutes early, found a bush, lined up with the pace that we wanted (Sara, Dave, and I w/3:30) and we were off!! The crowds were super tight for the first 2-3 miles and I lost some time around corners due to the mass of people slowing down to get through. I stayed with the 3:30 pacer for the first 5 miles or so then they slowly started to pull of and I didn't have the legs to stay with them. There was 2 hills on the course, the first very managable and the second pretty difficult at mile 9. I averaged a 178 heart rate for the race and I think that if I had pushed the HR too hard earlier I would have cracked on that hill.

Things started to get real difficult at mile 11, at that point it was really just sticking it out and trying to finish as strong as possible.

Distance: 13.1 miles Time: 1:54:44 Pace: 8:45 Average HR: 178
Place (overall) : 592 out of 1979
Place (division): 45 out of 157