The Eye of the Tiger

Clock Time: 2:17:24; Chip Time: 2:08:54; Pace: 9:50; 10 Km: 1:02:31; 10 Mi: 1:40:07

What a great day! I rocked the Philadelphia Distance Run. The morning started a little shaky after a restless night's sleep. We adopted a new kitty, an adorable orange tabby, on Saturday afternoon. But having a new animal in our room all night made it a little hard to sleep. Plus, I was a tiny bit anxious about the race. But I got up at 5:30, was out my 6, and had an awesome parking spot by my old apartment in Fairmount by 6:15. I saw lots of friends at the TNT tent, which was so nice. Renee from TNT was sweet and said, "I remember when this was your first event a year ago!" She started to cry! How sweet.

We began at around 8. It took a while to get to the start. I was cheered on at the start by the Mayor...again :) After the first 2 miles throughout the city, I did the 9:00 run, 1:00 walk for most of the rest of the run. The city part (first 4 miles) was a bit cramped with the 15,000 runners. I wish they would send us down bigger streets than Walnut. The Eagles Pep Band was playing along the route, which got me excited about our afternoon plans!

Around Mile 6, I ran into Brandi and Jeff. Jeff is doing Disney with me, and Brandi was one of my mentees from the spring. She did the full marathon in Long Branch. Brandi and I stuck together for most of the rest of the race, which was nice. We had our identical Garmins, and our pace was awesome, about 9:00/mile consistently. Towards the end, my knee and one calf were sore, but that was mostly because of pounding on asphalt and not being on perfectly flat ground. Overall though, I felt great, and I finished TEN minutes faster than last year!! The consistent training clearly paid off.

I didn't see Michael at the finish, but he saw me and said I looked like I was doing fine. We met at the car and were home with D&D flatbread sandwiches by 11. It was so easy! Then we showered and headed to Linda and Mike's for some football viewing and beers before the big game. They live about 1.5 miles from the stadiums, so we parked there and walked. It was so fun seeing them. And what a beautiful day! The walk was a little hard after all the running, but a few Bud Light Limes numbed my pain--haha!

We visited some tailgating friends in the parking lot. My one friend was with a group that had an RV with a keg tap on the outside of the van! It was so souped up. And everyone there had something like this. It was about 3pm, and most people had been there since 10am, so just imagine the scene.

Our seats were AWESOME!!! The Linc is amazing, and we spent a lot of time walking around, eating lots of good food, and enjoying being there. Sadly, my boy, Westbrook, who's jersey I wore proudly along with my official race medal, was hurt. I hope he's not done for the season. The Eagles won, and we had such a fun time. Thanks again for the tickets, Tara and Jeff!

When we got home, we crashed. Running 13.1 miles and walking 3 miles wore me out! We were asleep by 9, no lie. Jack (name might change), our new furry friend, snuggled with us all night. It was one of the best days ever.

Thanks to everyone who texted me and congratulated me on the race!! I cannot imagine doing twice that distance, but I think I can do it!