Well this is going to be a hard report to write. I thought that a couple days removed from the race would make it a bit easier, but I was wrong. I thought Chicago 2005 might have been the most devastating race, but turns out this one was.

The quick report, 3:43:02.

The 5:00 am wake up call came way too early. For some reason I was completely frazzled. I had forgot to pack Body Glide, but luckily Ross had an extra stick. Then I was putting my clothes on backwards, almost forgot my watch and to bring Gatorade for the walk. The dumb thing, is that I had everything laid out the night before. I don’t know what my problem was.

We had to leave the hotel at 5:45 to walk the eight blocks to the start finishing area. The weather was absolutely perfect. The temps were in the low 40s and there was no wind. No excuses there.

Dropped the bags off right away and headed towards the porta potties. This is where things went wrong. I just couldn’t go. So I did a quick half mile warmup and jumped back in the start area.

Gun went off at 7:00 and we were off. We were just hanging off the back of the 3:10 pace group. The roads were pretty narrow at the beginning and both the half and full marathons were running at the same time. It didn’t help that there were cars parked on both sides of the road too. We went through the first mile right on the goal with a 7:40, then settled into a pace with the group.

It was nice running with the group, you really didn’t have to think. We ran from the start line at the art museum down, past the beautiful city hall to the river. The first water stop was around a corner and super short. That was the theme of the first half, there wasn’t really enough water and volunteers to handle the full and half marathoners and the water stops weren’t well marked at all. But I did manage to get water and/or Gatorade at all the stops.

Miles 4 and 5 were great miles as we ran through the historic parts of Philly. Nice to see all the buildings like Independence Hall. Our friend Kyle, who now lives in Michigan, was out there cheering for us. That was awesome.

I took my first Gu at mile 6. Everything seemed to be ok. The Garmins seemed to be off of the mile markers. But we went through mile 7 right on pace. Maybe five seconds slower. So I wasn’t too worried.

At mile 7, the course took a right hand turn and we ran through Drexel University. There was a bit of a climb here. Not too bad, but it got the breathing going. I was completely settled into running my pace. It felt so easy. I was making sure to keep holding back.

Once we got through Drexel, we headed down a nice hill and past the Philly zoo. After getting through the zoo, the big hill on the course came. I just kept trying to run relaxed and kept the breathing under control. It was nice to see all the hill running I did pay off. My legs recovered really quickly once we got to the top.

Around mile 10, we came to a little turnaround area around some sort of monument. That’s the one bad thing about running a race, you never know what you’re seeing. It seemed pretty cool. Then we went down along the river for a couple miles before heading back to the half marathon finish line.

The lack of using the porta potty would come back to haunt me at mile 12. I took another Gu right on schedule at 11. Was feeling great. Then all of a sudden I got a sharp pain in my stomach, enough to slow me down just enough to let Jake lead me by about 10 yards. Finally it went away once we got up to the art museum. But it came back at mile 14. This time it would not go away. At mile 17 I had to use the porta potty for the first time. I could see the clock clicking down the seconds, then the minutes as I sat there. Finally after a four to five minute stop, I got back to running again. That mile was 12:00+ minutes. I figured I had enough to meet my “C” goal of a 3:15 BQ. I just needed to relax and run smart.

Any chance at a good time ended between 17 and 18. There was a bit of an out and back across a bridge. As I was going on the out, I saw the 3:20 pace group coming back. I was completely devastated. I was ready to call it quits right there. It was so hard to keep going.

I saw Jake at mile 19 for me and he was at mile 20. He was looking strong and focused and ended up qualifying for Boston.

The turnaround to the finish was at 19.5. Somewhere after the turnaround I ended up in another porta potty for another five-plus minutes. I was done and didn’t care anymore. So I just jogged it back to finish. I was chafing everywhere and I wasn’t happy at all.

One of my friends ran into me somewhere around 23 and she was struggling too. So we ran together for a little bit, but I told her to just keep going. I was just wanting to be alone. I feel bad for that.

The last mile took forever. It was uphill and the Garmin was all screwed up, so I had no idea how far I had to go. I was in such a daze that I’m sure I missed my friends who were there to cheer for me. I swear that last .2 took twenty minutes to complete. But finally I was done and that was that.

Final thoughts

I was really well trained for Philly and was running really well in the tune up races and I just have no idea where it all went wrong. This race is going to take sometime to get over.

My dad always tells me that I have to make sure I’m having fun running, otherwise what’s the point. This race was devastating for me. Physically I’m a little beat up, but mentally it’s killing me. I really have no ambition to do a marathon again. After the race, I was trying to plan my next BQ shot. But, after thinking about it, I’m done racing marathons. I’m just not cut out for them. I’m just not having fun with them anymore.