2015 Philadelphia Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon – Race recap

November 17, 2015ianesenior 4 Comments

On Halloween my wife and I ran the Philadelphia Rock ’n’ Roll Half Marathon. This is a race I have run since 2011 and my wife and I have run together since 2012. Every year we seem to say to each other that we should probably skip this race as we have done it so often but somehow we always find a reason to sign up. I will point out that we have already signed up for 2016 thanks to a $50 registration offer that was emailed to us the day after this race. What can I say, I guess this is going to be part of our annual plan going forward.

What was different about this year was the actual event date moved from mid-September to October 31st due to Pope Francis’ visit to Philadelphia falling on the usual race weekend. I guess he has priority (although judging from the pictures when he was here there were far more port-a-potties for that event than the half marathon!!!). With the race falling on Halloween that was just another excuse (should we really need it) to run in costume.

We were unable to attend the expo this year as the race fell on a Saturday and not a Sunday as was always the case on the original dates. My father in law was kind enough to go down to pick up our bibs and race packets on the Friday when we were at work so that was a big help. It’s tough for people coming from out-of-town to do packet pickup for a Saturday race especially of there is no general race day pick up option. They did offer a $30 day of race option but that was limited to 750 participants (out of the 15,000 expected).

Another change in the event was the course this year. On the same day that the race was taking place, Temple University were playing a football game against Notre Dame University. ESPN hit town and they had set up around Independence Mall with an all day pre-game show. The course traditionally (well at least since I’ve been running this event) takes you down past Independence Hall and back up through China Town (behind the Convention Center) up Arch street and back up to the Art Museum. This year the course had to be changed and I hadn’t really taken notice of this until my father in law pointed it out the night before the race.

My wife and I had just completed the Marine Corps Marathon the Sunday before which had been a little rough for us, so heading straight into a half marathon was a little unnerving. Don’t get me wrong, my wife and I had done the Goofy Challenge earlier this year but the difference in that event was that we were feeling great. We struggled the week before during the Marathon. I had realized that my issue was self-inflicted (shoe laces too tight) and I had some nice recovery runs during the week but I was concerned about my wife and how she would hold up.

On race day we picked up my father in law around 5:15am and drove into Philadelphia. We made pretty good time and parked in my usual spot, a parking garage a couple of blocks away from the Art Museum area. It’s about a 10 minute walk from the parking garage to the pre-race area. We arrived just after 6am and my wife refused to get out of the car. I guess she was still tired from her recent trip to California and also still in recovery mode from the previous weeks marathon. My father in law also chimed in and said we didn’t have to be the first people there. Around 6:30am I turned the engine off and reminded them that Rock ’n’ Roll are notorious (at least from my experience and some friends experiences) for being very short on providing port-a-potties. Why take the risk? Last year there were long lines and this is always a big race packed into a small starting area.

It was still dark when we headed out. It was a little colder than planned. My father in law was not in costume and wasn’t very surprised that we were. I’m not sure he totally appreciated our efforts as I was getting into my costume in the parking lot (judging by the eye roll when I put it on!)

Making our way to the starting area. Still the middle of the night if you ask my wife.

Partial costume reveal while my wife is trying to stay warm.

As we got closer to Eakins Oval where the race started and finished it began to brighten up and we immediately got in line for the bathrooms and then on to bag check. It was a little crowded but we were able to have a bathroom break and gear check done and we went over to one side to stretch before the run.

Sun was rising as we arrived

My wife and father in law keeping warm pre-race

Our costume choice – Alice in Wonderland and the King of Hearts

As it happened, we were not hanging around too long. We had just finished stretching when we saw a whole bunch of folks sprint past us. People took a quick look and asked who they were. I noticed that they had different bibs from ours and I realized they were the elite athletes who were being transferred from their warm tent somewhere to the front of the corrals. Sure enough, as soon as they passed us we started to hear the National Anthem being sung. We were not even in our corral yet. I was surprised how little time we actually left ourselves pre-race. Not my style really. I’d rather be there early than stress out. We were in corral 10 and my father in law was in corral 22 or 23. We got into our corral and couldn’t see how far back my father in law had to go, so we pulled him in with us. No-one was checking our bibs and he was still wearing a trash bag. Listen, I’m sure he wasn’t the only one in corral 10 who was supposed to be further back, but as I’ll get to later it worked out well.

Waiting in our corral to be released

The starting line with City Hall in the distance

That’s a lot of corrals behind us.

I knew there are bunch of people from my running team (the Mickey Milers) in this event and as it was a local race for us there were plenty of other people we knew who were running the event but it was so crowded and we had very little time before the race that we ended up not seeing anyone 😦 although I did bump into Sarah and Matt pre-race which was nice. I got to wish them congratulations on their recent engagement.

The race announcer was British and his name was Ian. I liked him for some reason. Anyway, it was soon our time to go and we wished each other a good race and went off on our way.

I knew early on that the course had changed because there were a tight turn to the right within the first mile. I hadn’t seen the new map but I actually preferred the new route to the event this year. As we could not run down to Independence Hall we now took a route up John F. Kennedy Boulevard and turn back down Market Street before rounding City Hall. In previous years were would have started off similarly but we would have gone down towards Independence Mall and then turned left to go behind the Convention Center. Here the roads are pretty narrow and there are cobble stones (I recall) and some tight turns. The new course took full advantage of the wide streets around City Hall and after the loop around took us back towards the starting area.

Normally we would be hitting the starting area around mile 5 but we had just reached mile 3. They were still releasing the corrals as we passed by. I think it was number 22 at this point and there were more to go. Wow. What a long wait. I’m glad we pulled my father in law in with us. He would have still been waiting to go as we were already 5K in.

I was intrigued as to where they would get the extra mileage from as the loop around the East River and West River Drives is 8 miles. As we approached the Art Museum we took a right hand turn up Spring Garden Street which turned out to be an out-and-back. It was a nice gentle uphill with wide areas on both sides of the median. I actually enjoyed this so much better than the old course. I hope they decide to keep it. We ended up back at the Art Museum at the 5 mile point and from there the course would be the same as previous years.

Course map for the Half Marathon

The changes to the course for 2015

With the new course, the great temperatures (now that the sun was up) and the fact that the streets were wide (one of our complaints from the prior weeks Marathon) my wife and I were actually running a decent pace. Where we had both struggled last week it seemed we were different people. It did help that our costumes were getting us a lot of shout outs from the spectators. It’s good to be the King.

We had a very enjoyable run from mile 5 to 8 up to the Falls Bridge. I mentioned that I was looking forward to hearing the rocking bag pipes band that we had seen every year and just as I said that we saw that they were just getting on the stage we were passing. Sadly, we were too fast this year to hear them!!!

The race at this point was no different from prior years. The course was the same. The only difference was that with the timing of the race being in October it was much cooler and less humid than prior years (note – it is back to the original time period of mid-September in 2016) and that there were plenty of people running in costume which was fun. Some were very creative although this was not a runDisney event where you see many people run in costume. For some reason we saw a lot of ‘Waldo’s’ so it wasn’t really hard to find him at this event. The other major difference was that we were kicking it!!!

I ran this race in 2011 and this was my first sub 2 hour marathon. The course is fairly flat and fast. We have run as a couple every year from 2012 and run anywhere between 2:02 and 2:06 together. We were looking at being close to 2 hours at our current pace as long as we could hold it together.

Seeing the ‘Rocker’ towards the last 5K of the course. He’s a lefty.

Enjoying our little costumed run.

With the last couple of miles ahead we focused on our pace. I think my wife was a little uncomfortable. I know she was having a hard time running directly into the sun the last few miles and regretted not bring her sunglasses. Something to do with them not matching her costume. That’s dedication. Me? Sunglasses always…I couldn’t look any worse.

If you haven’t ever run this race before, the finish line is at the bottom of the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (think Rocky). However, the last 0.2 miles are uphill. Very uphill. Yup, we had to power up the hill but we did and crossed the finish line together again. We just missed out on the 2 hour mark with a final time of 2:00:35. So close. Considering how we ran the week before I thought this was an awesome time and we both felt very good so that’s what was great about our final time.

With our medals after crossing the finish line.

Our splits for the half marathon

As we made our way out of the finish line area and back to the post run finishers festival we saw two runners who passed us in the last couple of miles. I know there was a costume contest as part of the event and if they were entered I truly hope they won. Awesome costume…especially running a half marathon in jeans!!!

Party on Wayne and Garth!!!

There are always lots of food choices post race but by far my favorite is the chocolate milk. So glad they have this at the finish line. Good stuff.

We went over to pick up our bags and stretch out a little. It wasn’t too long after that my father in law came over. He ran a 2:23 half marathon. I guess putting him up in the higher corral worked to his benefit and he ran a great time.

With the afternoon being full of activities for our boys on Halloween we didn’t really have much time to stick around. The headline act at this Rock ‘n’ Roll race was the Gin Blossoms. My wife knows their music as I think they were big in her high school or college years. I was still in England in those days and was unfamiliar with them so I wasn’t too upset either way. I’m sure it would have been a fun event.

We all had a great run

Father/Daughter combo

It’s good to be the King

What was nice about the medal this year (after finally using nice ribbons last year) they actually themed the medal around the change in date and it had a Halloween theme to commemorate the event being run on October 31st. Nice touch Rock ‘n’ Roll group.

Our Halloween themed medal

As I mentioned very early on in this post, we have already signed up for 2016. We say every year we are going to pass. We figured at the $50 entry fee we may as well sign up. If one of us cannot make it then we are not too much out-of-pocket as the full cost is around $90 I think if we have to decide later. At least we have something on the calendar to work towards. It’s a local race so no matter what I’m sure we will end up running it again the year after too 🙂

Thanks for reading.

September 2015 – Month in review

October 18, 2015ianesenior Leave a comment

September 2015 – Nike+ Summary

Another busy month. According to my Nike app I ran 143 miles and my MapMyFitness calendar showed I had a total of 207 miles (143 miles running, 62 miles cycling and 2 miles swimming).

September – Map My Fitness

This month included the Hightstown Triathlon, my 3rd(ish) and last triathlon of the year and also the last few weeks of training for the Marine Corps Marathon so plenty of training during the month in preparation.

Fall definitely made an appearance during the month but luckily it was still fairly warm during the triathlon so I was able to enjoy the last days of summer. Our boys went back to school, my youngest is now in Kindergarten so both boys are together again at the local elementary school.

My two guys heading into school together

Also, as he has now moved up to Kindergarten, he is now at Sunday school every week vs every other week like last year. This allowed my wife and I to have 3 hours together on Sunday mornings so we were able to get some marathon training in together which was a great as we probably hadn’t had a chance to run together as a couple since the Pittsburgh Marathon back in May.

Nice opportunity to get out on the trail together

We’ve been taking the opportunity to get some of the long runs in along the Delaware Canal as it is fairly flat but very close to where we take the kids for Sunday school so we can save some time. It’s been great running there as the temperatures have cooled. We changed our route up a bit this year and crossed over the Delaware River at Washington’s Crossing so we ran both on the Pennsylvania side and the New Jersey side. Just to mix things up. On one of the times we were running together we crossed back to the PA side and saw a group of Revolutionary War re-enactors walking around Washington Crossing Park. We got a bit of a surprise when they started shooting off muskets and it didn’t really help when we ran through the park and my wife pointed out to them that I was British…thanks Babe, appreciate that.

The British are running…the British are running…

Work is ramping up again so I am back to traveling for a while and finding some time to squeeze my training in. I find fitting the swim training in a bit more difficult as I’m not close to my gym but I did manage to find an LA Fitness near the hotel in Atlanta to allow me to get a swim day in before the triathlon. My triathlon races are done for now for this year and once I am back home during the winter months I can ramp that up again with plans for next year.

So we end the month just a few weeks away from our big race of the year, the Marine Corps Marathon. My wife and I are really looking forward to running this together. We will be travelling down without the boys this time around as it is going to be a pretty quick trip. I definitely want to take them next summer to visit the museums and enjoy the sites. That will be a fun vacation. We can scope it all out as we are running along the route.

My upcoming race calendar should now be set through the end of the year (perhaps):

October 25 – Marine Corps Marathon (Washington, DC) – This will be our first time running this event.

October 31 – Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon – I ran this event on my own in 2012 and as a couple in 2013 and 2014.

November 1 – Cooper Norcross Run the Bridge (Camden, NJ) – I ran this event for the first time in 2013.

November 22 – Philadelphia Marathon – In 2011 this was my first marathon and also the first where I broke 4 hours in 2012. My wife and I ran this together in 2013.

November 26 – Bucks County Road Runners Thanksgiving 5 Miler (Langhorne, PA) – We try to run this every year (since we started running) and only missed it last year by being out of town. Here is my last recap of that race.

Looking forward to October and beyond. Thank you for reading.

August 2015 – Month in review

September 10, 2015ianesenior 1 Comment

August 2015 – Nike+ Summary

126 miles this month logged in the Nike app.

August – Map My Fitness

However 233 miles in training. 126.3 miles running, 100.4 miles of cycling, 6.3 miles of swimming. I think it’s the first month I’ve gone over 100 miles on the bike. I think I’m most proud of how far my swimming has come. This August was 5 years since I set foot in the gym. I’m slowly inching my way up to 7,500 miles since I started recording my runs. 🙂

My running has increased from prior months as I am now ramping up the training to the Marine Corps Marathon this October. I had the pleasure of running 15 miles with my wife one weekend when our boys were visiting the Baseball Hall of Fame with their grandparents. They had fun and so did we. Not a bad deal.

A highlight for me this month was completing my first triathlon at the Medford Lakes Colony Sprint Triathlon. It was lots of fun and the weather cooperated this time. I am actually having fun doing things other than just running and it feels great.

Lots to look forward to in September, October and November. I am all signed up for the Hightstown Triathlon in mid-September. In October my wife and I are running in both the Marine Corps Marathon and on Halloween the Philadelphia Rock and Roll Half Marathon. Finally in November I am running my 4th Philadelphia Marathon and my wife and I are running our annual Bucks County Road Runners Thanksgiving 5 miler. Lots of training to do between now and then.

This is the first year since 2011 that I haven’t a runDisney event on my calendar for January so I have a little break from training this December. My wife and I did sign up for a spring marathon so we will be training again through the winter months. We signed up for the New Jersey Marathon on May 1st. This will be my 3rd New Jersey Marathon (and home of my marathon PR) and my wife’s first. It’s a nice fairly local race so it’ll be fun for us. The plan is that we look for a spring and a fall marathon to run together each year. I like the sound of that.

Thanks for reading.

2014 Philadelphia Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon race recap

September 24, 2014ianesenior 4 Comments

2014 Philadelphia Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon

This weekend I ran the 2014 Philadelphia Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon. I have run this event since 2011 and the last 3 years (2012-2014) I have had the opportunity to run the race alongside my wife, Shari. This was my 15^th Half Marathon and 4^th this year. With a few years of this race under my belt I feel like I am now able to make some reasonable comparisons to prior years and note what is good/bad compared to the prior years.

The course is the same as in the prior year and takes you from the start along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, past Independence Hall and the National Constitution Center, through China Town and then the 8 mile loop from the Philadelphia Art Museum up the East River Drive (Kelly Drive) and back down the West River Drive (Martin Luther King Jr. Drive) and finally finishing at the steps of the Art Museum.

Course Map

The expo was held as in previous years at the Philadelphia Convention Center. This year the expo was positioned at the far end of the Convention Center near Broad Street. We had parked in our usual place when coming down to this expo and this was much further away (and not very well sign posted). I, like many other runners, entered the wrong end of the building. No big deal but I hadn’t thought to check on this being any different this year.

Bib numbers picked up and ready to Rock ‘n’ Roll

The expo as usual featured Brooks Running as a main sponsor and all the official race gear was Brooks apparel. All this is pretty much full price so I go to see what is new and then look at either the Brooks website or my favorite running store if I want to get something for a little less without the race logo. What was different this year was that the Brooks Run Happy Tour Bus was not present. Last year they had set up some a cool area with some chances to win some Brooks promos and play some games (remember the mechanical shoe/bull?) and they also had a shoe fitting consultation area. Back in 2011 they had a fun area and I think also in 2012. Nothing of that sort was there this year.

Plenty of Brooks race gear as main sponsor

Once into the expo proper there were the usual vendors you tend to see at expos (One More Mile, Spibelt, Fitletic, etc.) but what was noticeable was that there were few other races represented. There was a small table set aside for the New Jersey Marathon and the Baltimore Marathon but I didn’t see any other races present. There was no runDisney booth as there had been in prior expos. We did see the Atlantic City races and noticed that they have changed their banner (we were on the old one). Even the Rock ‘n’ Roll Series booth was pretty sparse compared to prior years. They used to have some fun props to take pictures and the displays were definitely more ‘blinged out’ in prior years. It was very low key this year.

I did stop by the INKnBURN booth to say hello (I’m an INKnBURN Ambassador) and also managed to buy something else while there. They had a really cool banner on their stall which showed the races they were attending. I was lucky enough to get one of the drop bags that showed this art. Cool. (FYI – If you are interested in any of their gear you can use my Ambassador code for a discount on your purchases. My code is ‘INBians14’).

INKnBURN booth

Cool artwork representing the INKnBURN brand at the Rock ‘n’ Roll series

Anyway, we got what we came for (our bibs and shirts) and I had plans to meet up with my fellow Mickey Milers for dinner. My wife and the boys headed back home and I stayed around for a while until it was time to meet for dinner. Fortunately the Convention Center is located on top of the Reading Terminal Market and so that is a great place to wander and investigate (plus it got me out of spending any more money at the expo). I grabbed some fresh baked cookies and headed to Maggiano’s Little Italy to meet up with my fellow Mickey Milers who were in from out of town and able to make it to dinner (Janee, Brittany and David). The cookies were good.

Wandering around the Reading Terminal Market

I grabbed a bakers dozen of fresh cookies

Mikey Milers bonding over round carbs at dinner

At home that night we did our pre-race routine of setting out our gear so that we could be up and out early for race day.

Flat Ian the night before

Flat Shari the night before

At 6am on race day we picked up my father-in-law who was running the event too and headed down to Philadelphia. It was a warm morning as we arrived and there was no need for any throwaway shirt or trash bag to wear in the corrals. As we were walking to the corrals I met up with my fellow Mickey Miler, Joe, who I ran with in the Gary Papa 5K back in June. He has been working with a coach and the results are definitely showing.

It was really crowded near the bag check and port-a-potties and it took a while to get through the lines. I wasn’t able to attend the pre-race photo for the Mickey Milers that morning as I was in line. Once we were all checked into the gear trucks we made arrangements with my father-in-law where to meet post-race and Shari and I headed to our corral for the start. We were in corral 7 so not too far back. We saw the last corral (22) starting as we were heading back up the Parkway around mile 4. My father-in-law said he was in his corral (19) for almost 40 minutes before crossing the start line. It was a big race with 15,537 finishers (per the official results).

Arriving at the starting area pre-race

Busy morning looking back along corrals

In our corral waiting for the word to go

In our corral waiting for the start

While standing in our corral my wife mentioned that she wished she had something to drink. I also said I wish I had drunk a little more before we got in the corral. It was a warm and humid morning. It was muggy enough that you could not see the top of the Comcast Tower a few blocks away on Market Street. My wife, of course, found someone she knew in the corral. We just cannot go anywhere without bumping into someone we know 🙂

Cloudy and muggy morning

We set off just a few minutes behind the leaders and started the race. We may have gone out too fast (well, not may, we did) but we had in mind a goal of breaking 2 hours for the day. Around mile 2 we bumped into our friend Mayela and her friend Matt. We have run half marathons in 3 States (including California) and at some point during these races we have run into her. She seems to be our lucky charm.

Running down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, John F Kennedy Boulevard and Market Street provides a lot of space for the runners as the streets are wide, but then around mile 3 you turn into the older part of the city and then the streets get a little narrower and runners start to bunch up. It is not unbearable but it does get noticeable in spots. However, the run up Arch Street (through Chinatown and behind the Convention Center) leads directly back to the Parkway and the loop around the River which widens up quite a bit.

This is, of course, a Rock ‘n’ Roll race and so we are to expect bands on the course throughout the race. Anyone who is a first timer to these races may be somewhat disappointed by the number of performers out on the course. I think it was similar to the last couple of years so I wasn’t too surprised to see them spread out throughout the course. There were definitely lots of quiet stretches around the river. The Philadelphia Marathon (and Half Marathon) in November seems to have much more enthusiastic and deeper crowds along the route.

One thing of note for anyone considering this race is that for all the half marathons held in Philadelphia that I have run (Rock ‘n’ Roll, Philadelphia Marathon/Half Marathon and the LOVE Run) all have different routes around the city. That is a plus as it does offer variety to the runner and you get a different experience every time. I have to say that my favorite route is the first half of the Philadelphia Marathon.

With it being a warm morning and already being thirsty in addition to having gone out too fast it all began to take its toll on us. Both my wife and I are in the peak of training for the Baltimore Marathon next month and we are in the middle of those 20 mile runs so understandably we are a little fatigued. In addition, my wife worked the day before and was on her feet (and apparently not hydrating too much) while she was working an event. I think it all caught up with us today.

My wife is a speedy little one and we both have half marathon PRs in the low 1:50s so we were thinking 2 hours was definitely possible. We had finished the last two years at 2:05 and 2:03 so we figured we would be around 2:00 without issues. This unfortunately did not turn out to be the case this year. We slowed down but the damage was done around mile 4. My wife developed a bad stich in her side and we took it easy, walked it out when necessary and just plugged through.

Around mile 8 as we cross over the Falls Bridge to the other side of the river she felt a little better and you can see from the splits that we did indeed pick up the pace. It was getting warmer but thankfully the sun was still behind the cloud cover so it wasn’t too hot but it was certainly humid. The last few miles were very much a ‘head down and focus’ effort so nothing too exciting (although of course more people knew my wife out there).

One thing I noticed as did a few other runners along the course with us (and my father-in-law agreed) was that the mile markers seemed off. This is a certified course and I know that we non-elites tend to weave around people a lot but by mile 3 my Garmin GPS watch said 3.25 miles. That 0.25 mile differential was consistent through the rest of the race so I guess those wide roads early on in the race added all that extra distance vs. going at the angles. Oh well, extra calories burned.

We finished the race in 2:07. Not a disaster but I think we were both disappointed. My wife especially was a little disappointed until I pointed out all the factors that I mentioned earlier (fatigue, humidity and dehydration). It wasn’t a bad effort and we were both still smiling at the finish which is what really counts. We will chalk this up to experience and better prepare in the future.

Splits Miles 1 to 10

Splits Mile 10 to Finish

We got our medals which for the first time actually had a decent ribbon attached. I guess they read our runners survey comments from the last two years finally. We cooled down and ate a little while we waited for my father-in-law to finish. This was his longest run in many years (he’s making a comeback!!) and he guessed he would run the course in 2:30. He actually finished in 2:31. Nice.

Receiving our medals all smiles

Nice medal (and ribbon)

We did it

As we waited we listened to the awards presentation where we learned that Deena Kastor had set 5 (yes 5) Masters records during the day and that the men’s winner had run a 59:20 Half Marathon. Wow. This was followed by ‘Rusted Root’ the headline performers for the post-race concert.

On the way back to our car we bumped into Mayela and her crew and my fellow Mickey Milers who had finished around the same time. Joe broke 2 hours in the Half for a new PR. Well done Joe. After a few pictures we headed back to the parking lot to drive (a slow creep) out of the city and head home for a full afternoon of activities.

Post-race with the Mickey Milers (Janee, Brittany and Joe)

Shari with Mayela and friend

Wearing our race shirts to go apple picking with our boys

Overall it was a great weekend and the race result wasn’t too disappointing in the grand scheme of things. Having run this event 4 years in a row now I may look further afield next year for some Fall races. We had a limited schedule this year due to a family wedding and being away during November. I do like the locations for some of the other Rock ‘n’ Roll series races and so I would definitely take an interest in running another one of their events. My wife mentioned another West Coast trip so we shall see.

Thank you for reading.

Today is my 4 year ‘Runiversary’

August 2, 2014ianesenior 1 Comment

It’s been 4 years to the day that I set foot inside the gym and began a ‘Coach 2 5K’ plan. I wrote about this on last year’s runiversary. With marathon number 9 just 13 days from now I thought I would look back at my achievements and remind myself that anything is possible when you set your mind to do something. Even if you never achieve the goals you set at least you can say that you tried which is greater than saying I wish I should have.

1 – Philadelphia Marathon – November 2011