It's taken me two and half weeks to process the Philly marathon, so here we go...!…read more
I've wanted to run this marathon for a good amount of years now, and had added it to my to run list. I was all set to go then 2020 happened and it was canceled.
I signed up for another year but ended up not making it to town to run it.
This was my year, I'd registered in 2022 the day of the race for 2023.
All in all, I'll say this race is a great race. I was in an out of the expo because I had dinner plans Friday night.
I didn't have my best race, and that's putting it lightly. I was on the 6a shuttle from my hotel and managed to make it onto the last bus departing.
If you're like me, and don't love showing up super early to a start (I prefer showing up 15-30 min max before, NOT hours ahead). My tip here, is don't wait if shuttles are running 5a-6a, I came out around 545a and just lucked out on snagging a seat on the final departure. You'll want to lean more towards the 515a line up/boarding option time.
I'm a born and raised California girl (I know! barf!) with that being said, anything under 70 degrees is cold to me. While many runners were grateful for the 37degree temps (even referring to the weather as "much warmer than last year") I was f**cken COLD!
We arrived to the start line and bathroom lines were INSANE! I arrived by 615ish and had to wait until 710a to use the porta potty. I stood there freezing the entire time because somehow I completely dropped the ball on remembering to pack pre race area layers.
I made a mad dash to begin with my corral and was fortunate we didn't go off until 715a.
As excited as I was to get this race started, I very quickly needed to use the restroom again by Mile 1. This continued on the ENTIRE race, through mile 23. I've never in my life experienced this, although earlier this year a very similar thing happened on the Big Sur course. I started calling this marathon "tour de porta potty" having used the porta potties SEVEN TIMES!!! I can't make this shi* up.
I clearly need to be far more cognizant of my pre marathon food and drink intake, and research reasons this occurred twice this year. I've run in very cold temps before and through extremely wet conditions so I'm not quite sure why my body did this.
My moving time via Strava wasn't terrible, but definitely not my strongest race but my overall time was quite disappointing after lengthy waits for all porta potties until mile 23.
Pro tip for the ladies, and gents too I suppose: ALWAYS pack tons of extra tp. I usually have a good amount on me, but def not enough for 7 trips to the restroom and ended up having to take off my gloves and use those. Girl problems!
As disappointed as I was in my body on this course, the course itself was great a ton of the time - it's just hard to enjoy something when you keep having to pee. The signs were some of the best marathon signs I've ever seen, and the dogs along the course were the cutest! The neighborhoods were a lot of fun. My body just somehow butchered my run and I've accepted that fact.
I've had an incredible year this year, taking 1st in almost every shorter distance run, overall in two trail races, a Masters spot, and a marathon PR.
I came home to race two additional races within days of this and will probably marathon annually until the day I die.
That being said, don't beat yourself up if you have an unusual race. It can be hard when you register, and pay to travel out of state + accommodations and F it all up, but Check! I've run Philly.
If you're a local, this is a superb first marathon race. If you live in a nearby state via train/car, this is a no brainer marathon.
I heard some folks mentioning they didn't like the marathon shirt, I thought although a bit flashier than most - it's nice to have a long sleeve quarter zip option and later felt proud to wear it on my return flight home.
The medal is one of the cutest ever too! An actual ringing mini Liberty Bell.
Fluids/Blocks etc were plentiful although I wasn't in need of taking much of this in.
My only request MORE restrooms! Although I'd never want to need to use one on course, the lines were just SO long and there didn't seem to be enough OR enough tp in them.
Start/Finish line are a breeze, for walking back to hotels in the area after I was about 1.5 miles away. If you're coming in from out of town, definitely stay in that area.
All in all, 5 STAR spectators, great course - terrible morning for my system for whatever which reason.
As always feel free to DM if I've left some key points out - happy to help! Now, go RUN.