Race Report: #5, Rock 'n' Roll Philadelphia Half

Sunday morning I rolled out of bed at about 6:15.  I tried to wake myself up and get my act together quickly.  Of all things, I nearly forgot my Garmin which I left plugged in over night to be SURE it was 100% charged in the morning.

I was in my car by 6:45 for the 45 minute drive to Philly.  I brought a banana and PBJ on wheat to eat in the car and an extra water bottle in addition to the one I'd be running with.

I allowed 30 minutes for traffic and to find parking/walk to the starting line, assuming I'd find a spot within a mile.  I'm glad I gave myself some extra time because there was some serious back up on the off ramp from the highway.  I took this picture while sitting on the off ramp, waiting to turn:

As I sat in traffic, I put the D-tag timing chip on my shoe, then gradually put on my socks and shoes (I left my apartment in sandals) and stuffed my energy gels into my ifitness pouch and water bottle pocket.  (I used to be more organized the night before...I guess I have stopped freaking out so much now that I know what to expect for these things).  I pulled into a garage at about 7:41am, drove up 5 million floors, pinned on my number and got on my way.

I had a nice 1 mile walk to the starting line which was a good warm up. The temperature was in the mid 50s and it was perfect.

I knew that last year, my corral (17) didn't go until about 20 minutes after the first runners so I wasn't too worried about being in place right at 8:00.  As I got closer to the line up, I heard the announcers release the elites.  It was cool to watch them run by!

I made my way back toward my corral.  I was shocked that with 16,000-ish runners, I managed to run into my TWO coworker friends who were also running.  It was great to see them at the start!


One friend was running with her sister, and the other started off the race with me.  We stuck together for the first several miles before getting separated at a water stop a few miles in.

I found this amongst 4,000-some "lost and found" pictures.  Seriously.

I had a moment of Garmin anger around mile 2 when I realized my Garmin failed me.  And it shouldn't have been a surprise because I had a similar problem on this course last year!

My first mile was a 10:06 pace according to my Garmin which I was fine with.  I then noticed that I had been running around a 9:00 pace for my second mile.  I thought that it felt really easy despite the faster pace, and told myself I should slow down a bit so I didn't die later on.  But then my watch beeped for the 2nd mile and clearly I was no where near the 2 mile marker on the course.

Instead, when I approached the 2 mile marker, my watch read 2.24 miles.  Ack!  I hit the lap button so I could know that at least for the subsequent laps, my pace shouldn't be too far off.  I am aware of things like running the tangent because the course is measured along the shortest possible route, but this was due to satellite interference from tall buildings.

Clearly I did not run in a diagonal across part of City Hall.  

The green is where the actual route was.

Let this be a reminder to not totally rely on your Garmin during races!  From that point on, I also checked the race clock at the mile markers and knew to subtract about 19 minutes since I crossed the start line at about 8:19.  Luckily, my goal pace was around 10 minutes per mile so that makes the math pretty easy to tell if I'm close to goal or not.

Anyway, I realized I was now running slower than I wanted to, but didn't get too worried.  I was happy that my heart rate was staying lower than it had been in any race and I was pretty confident that holding back in the beginning would mean I would be able to finish strong.

After separating from my work friend, the course had moved out of the tall building area and on to Boathouse Row along the river.  I had a couple faster miles. 

I don't remember a lot from this part of the course.  I focused on the backs of people around me and occasionally looked at the river.  I remember being behind a woman in a pink tank from Target for quite some time.  I remember being behind a girl who was sweating through her cotton capris in awkward places and I felt embarrassed for her.  A completely barefoot male runner passed me.  I also remember a woman in a running skirt, just a sports, bra, and purple arm warmers.  Here's another noteworthy runner:

I saw this guy several times throughout the race.  I can't imagine running in a face mask!

I had my first gu, a Clif Shot gel in Mocha beginning at about 53 minutes (maybe 5.2ish miles) and ate it slowly over the next several minutes.   I then remember holding on to the empty packet until I approached a garbage can, which may have been approximately a half mile.  I know it's "ok" to litter during a race but it pains me to throw things on the ground.  Even though I know someone will rake it up later.  My heart rate increased a small but noticeable amount after the first gel; I'm thinking maybe I should be using ones without added caffeine?  Or I wasn't hydrating as much as I should have been.  I don't know.

Mile 7 was slower for some reason and I don't remember why.  It also was about .09 off from the mile marker, so I hit 'lap' a second time to even it up.  From that point on though, I didn't need to hit lap again.  My Garmin showed maybe a couple hundredths of a mile extra for every mile ran.  Not enough to hit the lap button. Mile 8 was sub-10:00.  Mile 9 was slower but still close to goal.  Then my paces for Miles 10 until the end were all below a 10:00 minute/mile pace.

I really don't remember much from this side of the river either.  I remember crossing the bridge.  I remember a rock band playing "Wild Thing" and the chorus included bagpipes playing with the guitar & drums.  Pretty unexpected and entertaining.

[picture from their facebook page here]  

From about 1:47 - 1:53 I took my time with my Mint Chocolate gu.  I think it was about 10.6 miles as I opened it.  I cared less about finding a garbage can with this one, and threw it on the ground near a bunch of cups on the ground from a water stop. 

I passed on all the water stations except for at mile 11.6.  I brought my own bottle and was drinking from it.  I started to get low on water toward the end though so I unscrewed my top in preparation, grabbed a cup from a volunteer and dumped it in my bottle - all while still running.  I was quite proud.

At this point I started to calculate a reasonable time goal, knowing 2:10 was not going to happen.  As I hit the 13 mile mark, I thought I might be able to finish in the 2:11s.  I ran really hard from the 13 mile marker, up the slight uphill, straight through to finish.  I remember the gun time was 2:30:41 as I went under so I thought I was in the 2:11s.

I felt pretty good about my run and did not feel like I was going to fall over at the finish line, so that's a plus! But it was so crowded at the finish line...I remember walking into a couple people.  I wish there had been more space to walk/cool down at the end before you were sent through a chute to collect your post-race food.

Here are my official splits from the race website:

I hit the 5k mark at 31:49 (10:14 avg pace)
10k mark at 1:03:59 (10:18 avg pace)
10 mile mark at 1:41:51  (10:11 avg pace)

There were more splits on the site on race day, but they seem to have disappeared.

Here are my Garmin splits:

It was not quite 65 by the time I finished at 10:30.  Perrrrfect!

While I thought I was good for something in the 2:11s, I was off on when I crossed the start line by about 15 seconds.  I thought it was pretty close to 19 minutes, turns out it was ~18 minutes and 45 seconds...so my official time was actually 2:12:01.

Still a new PR!

Here's my race photo:

That's right.  The entire 13.1 miles, this is my only one! (Besides the one earlier that I found after scouring the lost and found pictures for a couple hours). There are actually 2 still shots from the 2 seconds after this, where I am even more obscured by the man in front of me.  Clearly I should have thought this out as I hurried to the finish line and found a more open spot so my race number would have been visible to the camera.

It was a tough job searching the 4325 "lost and found" pictures to look for a teal tank top.  I managed to nod off somewhere around picture #400 the other night and finally finished my quick scanning last night.

Here are some of the post-race snacks.  The Dole frozen strawberries did not survive long enough for this picture. I also had some Dole Real Fruit bites hidden in my ifitness belt.

 Spoiler alert: the Marathon Snickers bar does not taste like a Snickers bar.

I stuck around for the post-race concert, which featured Bret Michaels.  Better than last year's attraction: a Bon Jovi tribute band (didn't stick around last year).

It was pretty short, lasting maybe 45 minutes, until a little after noon.  Then I began my mile walk back to my car.

 I passed this on my way, and thought of Alyssa.

I stopped by Starbucks for a beloved Doubleshot on Ice.  Yes, I put my Starbucks gift card in my ifitness pouch at the start of the race.  I come prepared.  The Starbucks was conveniently located across the street from my parking garage.

That is how much of my sandwich I ate in the car in the morning (I also had a whole banana). 

I can't make myself eat at 6-something AM.  Good thing PBJ is good post-run fuel too... I finished it on the drive home.

Here I am at home.  I look like a turd with my forced smile. 

But I am wearing my medal.  The yellow 64 calorie beer bracelet was a waste.  I'm not a fan of the beer and I didn't even bother seeking out the beer tent after the race.  If I'm going to have a beer at 10:30am, it better be a good one.

Once I got home I cleaned up, put on my Zensah calf compression sleeves, and hung out.  Actually, first I went grocery shopping in my new I run Philadelphia shirt (and my calf sleeves, they were hidden under jeans though).

Then I kicked up my feet.  And let the calf sleeves work their magic for something like 9 hours.

I'm happy to report that my calves were feeling 100% normal the next morning.  Not one little bit sore!  My quads, on the other hand, were really feeling it.  I don't know if I can completely attribute my pain-free calves to the sleeves, but it certainly didn't hurt.

Mischievous Dog, Zensah Leg Sleeves, Wegmans Bake & Rise Pizza

When I got home from work, I looked for my slippers.  But I could only find one.

 

I made sure the second one wasn't mixed in with the clothing next to it; it wasn't. I checked under the bed.  Then I checked up front in the living room, and sure enough it was there on the dog bed.

Clearly my slipper is a dog toy. Oh, Molly Waffles...

Before this happened, though, I came home from work to find my Zensah Compression Leg Sleeves waiting for me.  I ordered them on Friday.  Nice free two-day shipping from Running Warehouse!

Now, a demonstration of my jumbo calves. A little over 14.5" around.

Ignore the pasty, dry legs.  Winter is here and they have not seen sunlight in a long time.

The Zensah leg sleeve sizing:

XS/S: Calf Size 9.5" - 12"
S/M: Height 5 9" and below. Calf Size 11.5" - 14.5"
L/XL: Height 5 10" and up. Calf Size 14.5" and up

While my calves are about 14.75", I am only 5'2."  I went with the size S/M in black.

 They looked so small! Unstretched, the Small/Medium was 9.5" long.

 And about 3" wide. 

It looked like there would be no way these could fit on my legs! But they did.

And here they are on:

The leg sleeves fit well! Even being at the higher end of the size range.  I actually expected them to fit tighter than they do, and for them to be hard to put on.  It was as easy as putting on socks.  And they are snug, but not super snug. Tighter than my running tights or crops.  Not as tight as having my fat lady calves squished into my ski boots.  Feet look weird.  Knees do, too.

The reason I bought these - and I've been thinking about them for well over a month and a half now - is for wearing post-long runs or for when I'm experiencing some calf soreness after a tough class at the gym.  Who knows if they work or not, but I wanted to give them a shot.

I bought them from RunningWarehouse.com where they retailed for $35.95 ($40 MSRP) + a 15% off promotional code (search for them, they're out there!) and as I said, they have free 2-day shipping.  No Ebates or Add It Up (Bank Of America) Cash Back for Running Warehouse but they had the lowest price + best discount code.

And lastly, tonight was a lazy kind of dinner as my husband was working late.  We went with the frozen pizza option.  Wegmans Bake & Rise Roasted Vegetable Pizza.  It cost us a whopping $3.99 + tax.  I understand this is not the healthiest of dinners, but we ate healthily earlier in the day.

Here it is fresh out of the box:

 

425 degrees and 22 minutes later, here's a big slice right out of the oven: 

 

We actually sampled this at the store before buying, so we knew it tasted good.

It could have had more veggies on it, and if I wasn't in such a hurry to eat dinner at 8pm I might have found some extra veggies to throw on top. It was tasty, convenient, super easy, and cheap!

Easy Peasy

I ran my 2 mile easy run tonight.

I wore my New Balance NBx Adapter L/S  (from Joe's New Balance outlet this spring) and my Lucy Impact Knee Pant (bought last year around this time for Spinning).  These pictures are dark, but I wanted to be sure the flash would go off to show off the reflectivity!

Check out that giant glaring reflective strip down the center of the back!  There are also small reflective strips at the wrists.  There's a tiny little key pocket at the back right of the top.  You can also catch a glimpse of the reflective design on the back right leg of the capris (for most these are probably knee pants; for 5'2" me, the 16" inseam hits below my knee).

This is me simulating running to demonstrate the side-reflectivity.  There's the wrist reflective strip, a small logo at the left hip of the shirt, and a second reflective logo on the front left leg of the knee pant.

The oh-so-attractive bra you can see underneath (just kidding, it's not so hot- but it is supportive!) is the Fiona bra by Moving Comfort.  It is actually very supportive, but it is not racer back, so I only wear it in non-tank weather.  It has 3 rows of hooks on the back and straps adjustable by velcro from the front.  Bad news, if you're cold - everyone's going to know it, if you know what I mean.

Luckily, it wasn't too cold tonight!

In fact, it only got warmer from the time I got home from work until I went out for my run at almost 8pm.  It was warm (58), but a little windy when I set out.  It started to sprinkle a little bit.  Then it started to rain progressively harder throughout the rest of my run. Somewhere around mile 1.5 it was raining at me diagonally, pretty hard.  I was already wet at this point, so there was no reason to head home early - I just finished my short run.

This easy run was supposed to be 2 miles at 12:47.

I ran the first mile at 11:19, the second at 11:01...and the last .43 miles?  9:15.  What!?  That's crazy.  The rain was motivating, I guess.  While it was only just under half a mile, I don't know the last time I moved that fast.  I was pretty excited.

On an unrelated note, does anyone have experience with Zensah Compression Leg Sleeves? (Or similar) I've been reading a lot about compression stuff lately and I'm considering these maybe for my Christmas list - for recovery after longer runs.

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I'd love to hear your thoughts!