I ran the Philadelphia Marathon last Sunday. This is my second Philly Marathon and my third time participating in the race, since I ran the half marathon in 2008 (my current PR, I definitely need to race another half marathon). I love this race - I grew up a stone's throw from Philly (on the New Jersey side) so I feel a kinship for this course. Plus, since it's a local race, I know a lot of the local marathoners who run it.
I drove down to the expo on Friday with
Flyers26 and ended up meeting up with him the morning of the race. Neither one of us were publicly committed to a time goal. He lined up closer to the 3:50 pacer and I backed off a bit not wanting to go out at his pace. I was, however, hoping to save up enough steam to catch up with him on the second half of the course.
The weather for this race was great. It was somewhere around mid to high 30's for the start and probably around 10-15 degrees warmer at the finish. The crowds in center city and Manayunk came out in full force, much more so than I remember in the past. A lot of people complain about the 2nd half of this course, since it is a quiet jaunt up Kelly Drive to Manayunk and back. I love this stretch - you get to see the leaders coming in going up Kelly Drive and then you get to settle in to your "zone" on the way back.
I saw Flyers26 in Manayunk and shouted out to him to "watch behind him". I think at that point he was probably about a mile ahead of me so I spent the last 6 miles trying to catch up to him. I came pretty damn close too, we met at the finish line and our chip times ended up being withing 2 seconds of each other - pretty crazy after running for 26 miles. Congratulations to Flyers for scoring
Marathon Maniac status with two marathons in two weeks (NYC and Philly).
My splits below:
Mile 1 - 9:13
Mile 2 - 8:54
Mile 3 - 8:41
Mile 4 - 9:02
Mile 5 - 8:56
Mile 6 - 8:47
Mile 7 - 8:42
Mile 8 - 9:13
Mile 9 - 9:06
Mile 10 - 9:02
Mile 11 - 8:49
Mile 12 - 8:42
Mile 13 - 8:31
13.1 split = 1:58 hrs
Mile 14 - 8:45
Mile 15 - 8:53
Mile 16 - 8:51
Mile 17 - 9:07
Mile 18 - 9:31 (stupid turnaround over the Falls Bridge)
Mile 19 - 8:43
Mile 20 - 8:59
Mile 21 - 9:01
Mile 22 - 8:55
Mile 23 - 8:46
Mile 24 - 8:43
Mile 25 - 8:43
Mile 26 - 8:22
Mile .2 - 8:04
| Distance | MAR |
| Clock Time | 03:58:27 |
| Chip Time | 03:55:46 |
| Overall Place | 3430 / 8944 |
| Gender Place | 2461 / 5185 |
| Division Place | 379 / 771 |
| Age Grade | 55.2% |
| 10K | 0:56:13 |
| Half | 1:58:56 |
| 30K | 2:48:53 |
With Flyers26 at the Finish
Rocking the Maniac Singlet
