Well done me!!!

by Agata, posted in Races

Let me start with what I am sure what everybody wants to know first: I finished in 4:20:39.

Now, off to the story:

I got to the Expo around 1pm. I was too anxious to get my stuff to eat lunch, so I was definitely getting ‘hangry’. I got the bib, shirt and backpack and it was time to go eat. I have heard later that some people didn’t care for the shirt. Personally, I love it! I think it’s nice and simple, you can see what it was for and it’s really comfortable (I already washed it and I am wearing it right now actually). I did get a huge lunch (Panera across the street!) and then enjoyed the Expo. I insisted on scouting out where the starting line is and that made for a nice walk. I was happy to be with a friend though. He is a good size guy and that part of Philly doesn’t make a small woman feel comfortable.

At the Expo, in the shirt

Leaving hotel before 6 was quite something! For one thing, I was alone (my friend wasn’t running, so he went right back to sleep after I woke him up while getting ready). I was fortunate enough to quickly spot somebody else going to the starting line and asked to tag along. Creepy spot when it’s dark and most people are asleep… For the other, the temperatures were absolutely freezing! I am always cold (except for at night – I produce a lot of heat, but I never get to keep it, except with help of blankets), so that was a problem. Fortunately, the organizers anticipated it: they provided heating tents. Sadly, most people clearly didn’t shower that morning… I have an exceptionally good sense of smell, so YUCK!!! Fun fact: Philly Marathon had a bus taking people to the start line from about half a mile away from the start line. We agreed with the guy I was walking with that if you can’t walk half a mile, how are you going to run 26.2??? It also helped us warm up.

On the subject of the starting line: they did a lot well in there. Lines to the port-a-potties though were ungodly! I thought about going, but after one look I understood I don’t really have to go. An hour later, just before starting, I knew how wrong I was… But, alas, it was too late – I would have to look along the way for ‘an opportunity’.

Warming up before the race

Philadelphia Marathon was the first one I got to experience wave starts. It was AWESOME!!! I was close to the front of my corral and started at a good pace, so no fighting for position and dodging people. I am sure there were plenty of people aligned in the wrong spots, but the groups were much smaller and it was easier to get moving. I can’t say enough good things about this idea!

I finally managed to find a port-a-potty without lines close to mile 9 marker and was able to get rid of the ‘excess weight’. It made running a lot easier and good timing, too – it was right before the only serious uphill of that marathon. That’s another lovely part of this marathon: there are some hills, but all of them are low grade, so it’s not as obvious. I keep mentally comparing it to Baltimore, where hills are pure insanity. They are short, but steep and there are soooo many of them.

Something I did not like about this marathon: lack of clearly marked medic station (they get compared to Marine Corps Marathon, so that might be unfair – those guys set up basically field hospitals staffed by military prepped for pretty much anything). Unfortunately, I have that stupid hip problem and at some point, it started to hurt. I was hoping for a bit of motrin and I had the hardest time finding somebody. I eventually did, but by then I was seriously hurting and the pain spread from hip to my knee and my leg muscle started to cramp up like nobody’s business. Here I need to give a shout out to Bruno, a friend of mine (shameless plug: and the best realtor ever!): he texted me at a perfect moment that he is cheering me on. Somehow that text snapped me out of my head and I pushed through. I did start to sing ‘just keep mommy-ing, just keep mommy-ing!’ It’s like ‘just keep swimming!’ from Finding Nemo and it’s how my daughter cheers me on (in sports or in doing something questionable). I am glad that I was able to get snapped out of that, too. I started to hear that in my head around mile 14. If I kept singing that to myself for another 12 miles, I am pretty sure I would have to be committed at a mental institution…

People who were live tracking me noticed that I suddenly got second wind somewhere around mile 23-ish. It was my secret weapon: sea shanties. Back in Poland, I used to go sailing in high school and I got used to the idea of sea shanties giving a good rhythm. So when I need that extra push, I pull my favorite Polish shanties play list, turn it on as loud as I can and let that beat do the work for me. I wouldn’t recommend it for a longer distance, but it’s great for the strong finish, when you have nothing else left.

Speaking of nothing else left: I listened to Diana (my trainer) well and carb loaded since Halloween (ok, maybe that was a little longer than she told me to, but better to start early, right? 😉). I never hit the wall! I did do a lot of long runs, too. So maybe I was great prep. Or maybe it was my hurting leg, which was consuming all of my suffering attention. One way or another, I only walked when I was drinking water at the water/gatorade stations and stopped twice (once to pee and once to stretch out my hurting leg). It was great!!!

Standing on Rocky’s footprints, already with the medal

My parents called me to congratulate me even before I had my medal! That was really cool, even if I couldn’t hear them and I was too distracted to know what was going on around me. I was so pumped about my time though that I didn’t care! I think I told everybody that my time was 4:20:07 (it was before I got the official results and that’s what the app told me). Still, it was way better than my results in the past. I did 4:46 a year ago in Marine Corps and 4:36 three years ago in Baltimore (I don’t even count my time in Vermont, since I had a stress injury and didn’t run for close to a month before the race). I still can’t believe it! I keep thinking that without issues with my hip, I probably could have been closer to 4:10. Now I have a goal for Disney World in January! I don’t know if I can get all the way down to 4 hours in the next 8 weeks, but under 4:20 should be doable. I hope they don’t have too many steep hills… (I kind of don’t look at the profile, so it doesn’t scare me).

After the race, I did what I thought of as ‘mandatory photo op’: I went to the top of the stairs at the museum, put my feet on Rocky’s footprints and had my friend take a picture. There was a lot of other marathoners doing it. I kept cringing on the stairs, but I will admit it: I was milking it a bit… Because why not 😉

Oh, boy, did I! Improvement of 16 minutes!

This was such an amazing race! It will probably take a while for the high to wear off. I hope my legs will feel better by then, too. It’s mostly my left knee, associated with my stupid injured left hip. My trainer actually explained to me where majority of knee pain comes from in long runs: when you get tired, your steps get sloppy and that fatigues your knees. My hip and then knee issue definitely confirms that. This week, I will stick to strength, swimming and biking. I will be back to running by next week.

HONORABLE MENTION: I always love reading signs along the route. There are many that repeat, some I don’t get, but then, there are some special gems. One for this time: Pain is just French for bread. And who doesn’t love carbs??? Honestly, I had enough pain that I could open a boulangerie! 😆

48 thoughts on “Well done me!!!”

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