Made homemade vegetarian lasagne last night for two friends of ours, with garlic bread and salad. We ate at 6, and while they went to a production of Les Mis, I stayed at home to read and go to sleep by 10pm.
Up at 5:45am, out the door with Stevie by 6:30 and on the train into Philly by 6:45. We arrived at the starting area around 7:25 and immediately got in line for the Porta Potties. We then stood in line for a solid 40 minutes. It was truly the worst wait time I've ever experienced at a race, and because of it I missed the start of the race. I was supposed to start in the first corral, but by the time I jumped into the sea of people, it was the 8th corral's turn to start.
I know from experience how important it is to start in the proper corral. I was kind of freaking out about it while in line, and for good reason. Once running, I constantly had to dart right or left to get around people, and frequently had to slow down for several seconds while I waited for a space to open up so I could move around. When I tried to pass people and it was going to be a tight squeeze, I tried to alert them by yelling "on the right/left," but almost every one of them had headphones in and couldn't hear me.
The first five miles were extremely frustrating.
Once we hit Kelly Drive, there was a bit more room to navigate, but the dodging and weaving didn't stop entirely. I'm proud that I never threw in the towel but kept trying to give it my all. Because of this, I was still knocking out sub 7 minute miles towards the end and realized I still had a chance at a PR, but it would be close.
I wanted that PR badly, but as you can see I fell short by about a minute. I did, however, achieve my secondary goal, which was to come in under 1:32:30. Double that time for the full marathon is a BQ, so coming in under that time was a good confidence booster. (Runner's World's race time predictor puts me at a 3:08:37 given today's time, though)
Overall I'm happy with today's performance. I wish I could have bagged the PR I feel I deserved, but still feel I ran the best race possible given the circumstances. I now have two months and two days to train harder and return to Philly to kick ass in November. Stevie has already started recruiting friends for a full support crew, which excites me greatly because having people I know and love out there makes such a difference.
Keep reading, folks. The next two months are going to get wild, I promise you that.
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