A chilly one to finish off the decade - Philly Marathon RR

The Philadelphia marathon certainly attracts some serious talent near the end of November when everyone is ready and available to tackle on one more qualifying time for the next big race in 2020. 

New for 2019, the race organizers separated the events over the weekend allowing some reduction in bottlenecks. The half marathon was on Saturday. The marathon was on Sunday.

Travel in Philly is easily manageable without the car. We were able to hop on the next bus from New York. The bus and train terminals and convention centre race expo and start and finish all within walking distance of each other. In addition a Trader's Joe grocery store even popped up only a month before this race and near the convention centre. 

Celebrities were also on hand. It was the Meb and Des show. 

Des said to Jen, "I remember you!" 
Funny it must had been from seeing her in San Antonio last year.

Security gestured 1 minute to hold up the crowds as Meb and Jen briefly exchanged some kinds words while I failed to look into the camera.

The route is a giant single clockwise loop similar to Berlin, with the start and finish close to a landmark feature (i.e. the Rocky steps). There is an out and back latter half section in the scenic Fairmount Park just behind the Rocky Steps. The stretch between 8 to 12 kilometres is my favourite section running straight through the downtown core on Chestnut Street with lively cheers.

I was able to settle in with the large packs to shelter from the cold, wind and rain. Every time I made an attempt to grab drinks at the aid stations, I could feel the weather elements, but shortly afterwards I was able to tuck right back in the groups. I was actually running the same pace and working together with others, unlike Berlin where there was a lot of congestion pace shuffling. The sub 3-hour pace group did a perfect job. This was the race to nail a good time even despite the harsh conditions. 

To give you a sense of size and depth of the marathon field, this race is basically a third of Berlin Marathon.

• For Berlin, I finished in 3:03 at roughly 2,900 out of 44,800 marathon finishers with an official time. 
• For Philly, I finished in 3:05 at roughly 520 out of 13,000 marathon finishers with an official time.
• Also earlier in the 2019 year for DC, I finished in 3:03 at roughly 50 out of 1,500 marathon finishers with an official time.

Welp at least one positive is all three 2019 marathons had 1:29 half split. Consistency is my constant.

The wheels came off around 30km. It's too bad my hips and calves died, but given my recovery post Berlin and lack of build up, I'm not surprised. I was ready to burst into tears at the finish. Soul crushing.

What surprised me was my age group rank at 117th was already broken down by gender and 5-year rankings. I didn't even crack top 100!! I can see why Philly is advertised as one of the top 10 races in the US.

Lucky for me the finish was not at the top of these Rocky steps.

Yes, the Liberty Bell rings too.

As published by marathon investigations, hundreds of cheaters were removed from the results page. Despite this, it is was too bad that my rank still didn't improve...haha! Also in regards to the incorrect corrals starts, I did struggled but eventually did find my proper corral in the dark and wet morning. Race organizers should note that letters would had been better.  

Start Map

Pre Race

Post Race - Philly Cheesesteak with American cheese was a must!!

Post-Post Race - New Haven food trucking...amazing!

Jen decided taking selfies wasn't her in plans but running it was - the Rocky Steps. 

We had time to check out the Christmas markets and gondola in New York! Well correction: Jen really wanted to squeeze in a swim workout in between actually! We went to the local pool on Roosevelt Island.

Thanks for reading. Happy new year!