ODDyssey Half Marathon Race Recap

I know I keep saying it, but it still seems surreal, I can't believe I ran a half marathon!

We got up at 5 am, left the hotel around 5:55, parked, walked over, and arrived just before 6:30.

We immediately got into the long porta potty lines and shortly after my family arrived!

Next thing I knew it was only a few minutes before the race was starting and we were lined up in our corral.

7 am... after walking for about 2 minutes up to the corral (as opposed to almost 40 at Broad Street), we were off!  It was pretty crowded at the beginning, but nothing like Broad Street, we weren't almost tripping over people.  We passed my family and Dave right in the beginning!  Tom was cheering SO loud.

The first few miles were a big loop around the start, which was nice because we got to see my fam multiple times.  It was super cloudy, which was amazing because you could feel the humidity right from the beginning.  I was feeling pretty good and these miles were fairly uneventful other than checking out all the funny costumes people were wearing, not to mention this guy who juggled the entire 13.1 miles!

Then we headed down a big hill around mile 4 and I got a mini side stitch.  I think it was from running too fast down the hill, but it subsided pretty quickly once we started our out and back.  I didn't enjoy the beginning of this part because the road was super slanted.  But soon we had some beautiful scenery with the river and the art museum approaching.  And then we started seeing the leaders come back which was inspiring and provided some eye candy, hello shirtless Mr. America hehe.

Next thing we knew we were at the Art Museum turning around.  Passing all the runners behind us was kind of fun, I felt fast and we were cheering on all the people towards the end that looked like they needed some inspiration!  Shayna had her ipod on her arm, so we decided some tunes would help pump us up.  Next thing I know we were headed into the next out and back for miles 8-12 and the sun started to come out but a lot of this part was shaded by trees, thank goodness!  Around mile 9 there was a band along the course, they weren't playing and we were kind of bummed, until we realized there was a girl passed out next to them.  Thankfully she had some medics with her, but it definitely gave me the chills to see her laying there.

My knees started to ache as we approached double digits, but I was still feeling pretty good and I knew we only had a few miles left.  Around mile 11 Don't Stop Me Now by Queen came on and it totally pumped us up, we were singing and loving it.  I hope the people around us liked Queen :)  I was really starting to anticipate the big hill at the end and then we started to hear the crowd cheering ahead of us...

I was like, oh somebody has some fans, those people are loud.  And then I saw my dad across the street in a tie dye shirt that he wasn't wearing at the beginning of the race.  I was like oh, hi Dad!  And then he points across the street and I realize... OMG those people cheering are MY friends!  I was blown away!

Over a dozen of my friends were screaming for us with matching tie dye shirts holding homemade signs!  I couldn't believe how awesome they were!

That gave me the perfect boost for the end of the race!  As we passed the mile 12 marker I kept thinking, omg only 1 left, I'm going to finish this thing!

And then around 12.5, the big hill came.  I knew there was a hill right at the end of this race from reading people's race recaps from last year and I knew what to expect since we ran down it in the beginning of the race... but then here it was.  My knees and hips were both in pain, but I didn't care... I was definitely ready to make that hill my bitch!  All that hill training in Valley Forge was worth it because I killed it.  So many people were walking up the hill and I felt like a champion passing everyone.  I refused to walk and soon enough, the hill was over and I could see the finish!

Passing Shayna's mom and her boyfriend gave me some energy and next thing I knew I was passing my huge fan club of friends and family all screaming my name and I sprinted to the finish!

 

 
I wanted to finish in 2:15, but I was feeling kind of disappointed when I looked up at the race clock and it said 2:16... but then I realized we didn't cross the start line until 2 minutes after the clock started!  I hit my goal and finished in 2:14:44 (chip time)!  Here are my splits!

 
Seriously, I ran the mile with the ridiculous hill at a 9:32 pace?!  Shayna finished shortly behind me with a smile on her face too!

 
Jenn came in strong a bit after us but apparently my team of photographers was a bit distracted, sorry Jenn!

After I finished, I got my metal and headed back to my fan club to give everyone sweaty hugs and get tons of congratulations!

I DID IT!  I felt amazing after finishing and having my family and all my friends there really just made it so special!  What an amazing experience!

ODDyssey Race Expo & City Eats

Let's start at the beginning...

After eating an entire box of mac & cheese out of the pot I made it in (hey, I was carb loading!), we headed down to Philly to our hotel.

Shortly after we checked in, we hopped a cab over to Boathouse Row to meet Shayna and Jenn at the race expo.

After Broad Street, this expo was a little bit on the sad side, well it was just tiny!  But we were super pumped to be there anyway.

The back of the shirt is really cool because you can fill in your finishing time using a sharpie to fill in the yellow to make the numbers!  We were mildly disappointed when we couldn't find any 13.1 car magnets, but Shayna actually found some at a running store after the race.

After parking Shayna's car and hanging in the room for a little while, we walked across the street to meet up with Michelle and Alex for some dinner at Pizza Rustica.

 

The menu was loaded with so many mouthwatering choices it was hard to pick just one, so Dave and I decided to split the pollo a la rustica pizza (roasted rosemary chicken, mushrooms, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, tomato sauce and mozzarella) and a Philly style supreme pie both on a wheat crust.

The food was SO delicious.  Just in case we weren't full enough, we spotted a frozen yogurt place a few doors down.  I'd only been to a build your own froyo once before when I was California a few summers ago, but now I officially need to hunt one down closer to home.  I felt like a little kid building my own sundae with all the best goodies.

After we settled into our food comas, we headed straight to bed.  I was feeling a little anxious about the next day, but also excited that the big day was finally here.  I fell asleep pretty quickly, but woke up with my heart pounding when someone was knocking repeatedly at our door around 12:30.  When I finally got up and answered the door, some random kid was standing there looking really awkward when he realized he was at the wrong room.  I settled back into bed and tried to relax because I knew my 5 am alarm was looming!

To be continued...

Broad Street Run Race Recap!

This is what I look like amped up at 5 am...

Do you see the crazy in my eyes???  My alarm went off at 4:45 am, but I was already up!  Shayna slept over in the guest room and TJ arrived promptly at 5:30 am.  Shayna prepped our breakfast (mini cinnamon raisin bagels, with a choice of almond or peanut butter, and bananas) while Dave packed the cooler full of post race goodies.  We left around 6, not sure what traffic on 76 would be like but made it down to North Philly in a record 25 minutes!  Dave dropped us off near the start and we were feeling lucky when we found some porta potties that hadn't been used at all yet!  What a race day gem!

Next we headed into the Central High School football stadium to kill some time singing random songs, meeting new people, and making jokes about the guy with the shortest shorts ever (and the odds of his member making an appearance at the race)!  We got there pretty early, but I was glad that we weren't dealing with the craziness of the crowds in the subway. 

Next thing I knew we finished an awesome warm up and were headed to our corrals.  There were a ton of people but it was easy to find where we were supposed to be.  We even found Jenn!

Since our corral was second from the back, we waited around 40 minutes just to get up to the start line.

And then we were off!  The beginning was pretty intense, running with so many people was so exhilarating but also pretty crazy.  We spent the majority of the race weaving in and out and passing people.  The first few miles ticked by.  There were random spectators along the sides of the streets yelling for us.  And then we started passing bands, rappers, DJs, there were even some zumba dancers!

We knew Dave was waiting for us around city hall, but we weren't sure if the cross street was before or after so it was kind of fun looking ahead to each street to see if it was the one.  It really made the miles tick by.  Then the crowds really swelled when we got to city hall, and right as we came back onto Broad Street there was an awesome band and we saw Dave!

 

After city hall things kind of died down.  The crowd was scattered and my knees were really starting to ache.  Miles 7 and 8 were probably the hardest part.  I just kept saying we got this and almost there to encourage myself, Shayna, and everyone around us that could hear me.

Then all of the sudden I realized how close we were to the finish.  Shayna and I ran together until 8 or 8.5, but I started to lose her in the crowd around us so I told her I was going ahead.  And then I was off!  I started hauling it and passing a ton of people.  I just wanted to be done.  The course kept getting more and more narrow towards the end, which was annoying because it was hard to get through but I just kept pushing and pushing!

Next thing I know, it was over!  I did it!  I crossed the finish line and received my metal!

I didn't really have any specific goals for this race, I just wanted to finish.  But in the back of my mind I did want to beat the 1:47:42 I ran my 10 mile training run in.  I killed it.

Seriously look at those splits!  I hadn't done any of my long runs nearly this quick.  At the beginning I was worried we were going out too fast.  I didn't want to burn out at the end, but the pace felt natural and every time we tried to slow down, we ended up around the same pace anyway.  It ended up working out, because I felt great throughout.  And look at the last 2 miles!  Holy moly!  My official race time was 1:40:32 as well and I placed 21,425 out of 33,988, not too shabby!  I think the distance on my Garmin ended up being a little over 10 because we rounded city hall on the outside, something to think about for future races.

The aftermath was crazy, there was no cell phone service since everyone and their mom was trying to meet up with someone, and it was mobbed.  I wandered around for a while and ran into Ricky, someone from my Tuesday night group runs, and a neighbor from college!  Eventually we all found each other and headed back to FDR park for some tailgating.

And then the rest of my day was spent doing a lot of this.

(I'm pretty sure Dave is snapping to get the dog away from licking my face and waking me up!)

So that was Broad Street!  It was a great success and I'm definitely feeling ready for the half.  And for some weird reason my knee doesn't even hurt today.  Win!