Philly 1/2 Marathon

Last year I ran six 1/2 marathons and until today, I had not attempted the distance so I was looking forward to Philly. The weather is usually very good, the energy at the start and finish is motivating and the post race cheese steaks afterwards are well deserved. I was running this year with Ken White, who has run it with me the last 5 years and Dale Hoth who was running his first Philly 1/2. I ran this race 27 years ago in 1983 with an old Brooklyn running friend Steve Curcio when it was called the Philadelphia Distance Classic.

It has been taken over by the folks who run the Rock n Roll series of races and they were expecting over 18,000 runners. Ken picked Dale & I up at 5:30am and off we went. Ken's daughter Lauren came to cheer us on. We arrived in Philly at 6:40 and proceeded to prep up for the race and more importantly get on line for a porter potty.

The weather was going to be a bit hotter than it has been in previous years, but much of the course is shaded along the Schuylkill River. We headed to the start and got ourselves ready to run.

The first 5 miles are through the streets of downtown Philadelphia the we headed into Fairmont Park for the rest of the race. The course was changed slightly and it worked just fine.

Dale was planning on running sub 2hrs, Ken sub 1:45 and I was hoping to run 7:30's. I wasn't sure if I could keep the pace although I have had a few good training runs leading up to the race.

Ken and I ran the first two miles together but he wanted to dial it back a bit so the next 11 were going to be by myself. I felt good so I started clicking off miles between 7:20 and 7:30. I think I finished strong, running 1:38:22, Ken finish in 1:43 and Dale 1:56. We were all happy with our runs and were ready to eat.

We hung around for a bit, drank some MGD lights, met up with some other NJ friends, then headed to Geno's or Pat's for a post race steak sandwich.

Pat's had a long line so we opted for Geno's. We chowed down those sandwiches in about 5 minutes. In my opinion, Tony Luke's still makes a better sandwich although Geno's was very good. I need to get to Pat's to taste his cheese steak.

Philly didn't disappoint with the race or the food.