I had this whole race planned out with regards to packet pickup at the Expo and a Forum Encounter (FE) with people from Runners World Beginners Forum on Saturday the day before the race. Well Thursday evening Liam’s soccer coach throws us a curve and moved his game from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm. Well the plan was to go over to Philly around 3:00 pm and spend some time at the Expo – Kim really needs to pick up some running gear with the fall and winter approaching. Then we would just go meet everyone for the 5 pm dinner reservations at Spaghetti Warehouse. See that would be only one trip into Philly on Saturday. Well what I ended up doing was going into Philly around 11 am with just one of my daughters and coming home for the soccer game and then bringing the rest of the family back for the Dinner and FE.
The Expo was nice but the 5 year old daughter was not liking it so didn’t spend as much time there as I would have liked. The Dinner and FE was great that night. I thank Daleen again for making all the arrangements and getting us all together. With families and friends we had between 35-40 people. I will try to hijack a few pictures from RWBF and post them here. It was great talking to people in person and really getting to know them. Just picking each others brains about running and all that stuff was nice.
These are all the Runners World Peeps without family. So 14 of us was a great turnout.
Below are the future runners of the group.
We went home got the kids to bed and had a nice night of sleep. Of course woke a few times during the night, I mean come on I was in a race the next day so waking up every hour is par for the course. I got up for good around 5 am due to a sneezing fit I was having. Got dressed and ate some food – more on food below. Left the house by about 6:10 am so had plenty of time to get there find parking and be ready to go.
Nutrition
Saturday morning Kim was going to Dunkin Donuts to get some breakfast. Asked if I wanted anything and I asked her to get me 4 bagels with nothing on them. So I ate these throughout the morning and afternoon. And for lunch (as the bagels was not enough) I had a salad and a piece of chicken breast. Also on Saturday I drank about 100 oz of liquid during the day. Half was water and unsweetened Iced Tea and the rest was water mixed in Cytomax. Then at Dinner I had the 15 layer Lasagna with bread and salad. And I had to try a little of the desserts that Daleen and Paulette brought to dinner (hand made). They were delicious by the way.
Sunday morning I had oatmeal and 24 oz of Cytomax chased by 24 oz of water. Then picked up a banana about 20 minutes before the race.
Pre Race
The plan was to meet Jeff at 7 am right at corral 12. Well when I got to the race and saw the lines already for the port-a-potties I knew I had better get on one. So I was a few minutes late meeting Jeff. I think he understands since he was racing as well and knows the lines also. We did get to talk for a good 30-45 minutes before the race. Turns out that we worked not to far from each other many moon’s ago in Edison NJ. Time flew when we were talking and before you knew it, it was time to line up and get the show started.
Race
Race started and I wished Jeff luck as he was going to walk the first 10 miles then run the last 5K (got to love injuries right Jeff). Well Jeff didn’t stick to plan and turns out he ran at the start. It was a real nice course that stated through Center City for the first few miles and then heads into and through Fairmount Park. Wow I have to get back to this park I think the family would enjoy it. There was not a time that I was not running with an enourmous amount of people during this run. It was tight through the city but once we got in the park it opened up a bit. My foot (nagging 2 week injury) was fine up to mile 3.5 then I felt it. It really is not that bad while I run but the pain is there, minimal as it may be. I was just plugging along trying to stay at a sub 10 minute pace while keeping HR in the 150 – 155 range. They had about 10 bands spread out throughout the course which was nice to get to hear a little music (didn’t have my IPOD).
Really the race itself went smooth I was concerned because during the Broad Street Run in May I hit the wall at mile 9 so was hoping that, that would not happen again. But I sailed past mile 9 with no problems (if you can call 9:51 mile sailing). One funny thing happened as we past mile 9. A guy told, I assume his wife, “OK honey only a 5K to go”. Her reply was are you F-ing crazy that would only be 12.1 miles (she didn’t say f-ing, she used the whole word). His answer was “OH”. Glad I am not the only guy that has the ability to say stupid things to their wife.
Hit mile 12 and was very tired, legs didn’t want to go any more I slowed to a 10:42 pace and just wanted to stop. I knew I wouldn’t stop but I wanted to so bad. I also knew my goal time of 2:10 was with in reach. And I thought to myself a year and 4 months ago you couldn’t run a ¼ mile without stopping and there is no way you are stopping without finishing this 13.1 miles. I also thought there is no way I could do a marathon, nor am I sure I ever want to do a marathon. But now writing this a day later (even with the pain in my foot) I know that someday I will run a marathon. Hopefully two someday, first would be the NYC marathon and the 2nd hopefully will be after I get to swim 2.4 miles, and then ride my bike 112 miles. That 2nd goal however is much further down the road. Finished the race, got my medal, they took my chip timer, I thanked a ton of volunteers that were there working, and I looked for food. To my surprise I didn’t find any, I didn’t spend a lot of time looking for it because at this point (stopped running) my foot was in pain. So I walked about a mile to my car and went home to eat. Called Kim to let her know I was alive (more on that below) and she already knew my time as she was tracking me on the website the whole race.
Drove home and when I got to the house and got out of the car the whole body hurt. The 30 minute drive home felt good while I was driving but not when I had to get out of the car. Good thing I have a “Truck” that is high off the ground and can just fall out of. I don’t have a truck Kim gets a laugh when I call my “Mini Van” a truck. Got home took a cold bath for like 5 minutes and then turned on the hot water and just laid there for a few more minutes. I don’t know how you people do the ice baths, I can’t. Got to lounge around for a few hours, checking for Mike and Jenny’s results from there DU, but then it was off to Soccer with the girls (I am the coach). So yes I got to run around the field with the team for an hour. No I didn’t get to stand on the sideline, see at this age (5) the coaches are on the field running with the kids and barking out instructions. And my one twin Caitlyn scored her first goal. I don’t know who was more happy her or me.
Woke up today with more pain, the pain has gone away after about two days after long runs. I think I will see a Doctor this week if it doesn’t.
I think that is it, this has to be my longest post ever.
Nope I told you more on Kim on the computer.
See Kim really wanted to go to the race with the kids but I don’t like her driving in Philly by herself with 3 kids. I knew she would have to park a least a mile away and walk, with them complaining every step about the walk and then have to wait the 2 plus hours it would take me to finish. So she agreed (gave in is more like it) that she would only go if the kids were up when I left (so we could all go in together). Trust me when I tell you it is not unusual for all 3 of our kids to be up by 5:30 am on the weekend. But happily for me they were sleeping when I left. Would have been great to see the family at the finish but I know it would not have been fun for Kim over the 2 plus hours entertaining them.
