The Philadelphia Distance Run

I'm afraid I don't have a lot of pictures to go along with this, but I did want to put together my race report while it was still fairly fresh in my mind.

I registered for this race ages ago - probably in February when I was just starting out with my running. It has been so helpful and motivating to me to have the PDR to shoot for. I know what works for me, and one of the things that really works is to have a goal or an event that I'm planning for. I have progressed with my running much faster with this race on the schedule than I would have if my first half was the WDW race in January.

I began my training late in June, so preparing for this has taken my whole summer. During that time I only missed one long run - the 8-miler I was supposed to do during my trip to Disney in August. Given that I was dealing with the hot & humid weather of a Philadelphia summer, and multiple vacations during that time, I'm pretty darn proud of myself. My longest run (a 10-miler I did on August 23rd) was great, and I felt well-prepared and ready as the PDR got closer.

A bunch of us at the WiSH Boards were doing this race, so we made plans to get together on Saturday for late lunch/early dinner in Chinatown. My husband Tom also joined us. I went to the expo to pick up my packet, and also switched corrals (my pace had improved a lot since I registered, so I moved up to corral 14 from corral 16). I hardly looked at the Expo at all since I had gotten there pretty late, and then joined Terri, Cam, Howard, Cindy, Matt, Karen & John for the walk to the restaurant. Anne, Robert & Pat were already there, and my husband joined us a little late.

Here are some photos from the lunch:

John, Cindy, Matt, Howard & Cam:


Terri, Robert, Anne, Pat & Karen:


One more after Tom got there - he's the one in the green shirt:


It was really great to get to know everyone, and we had a wonderful time. What a great bunch of people! Thanks, Terri, for organizing the meet!

Tom & I left because we had another pre-race event to go to! My brother Mike was also running, along with a friend of his, so he planned a get-together in his house with pasta and a showing of Chariots of Fire. We got there around 6:30, and enjoyed some great food and beer. Tom & I enjoyed the movie, but I think it was a little boring for the kids (Ally was complaining loudly!). We made arrangements for Mike and his entourage (his friend Yelena who was racing, and his girlfriend Susie who was cheering) to pick me up in the morning. The plan was for Tom & the kids to get there in time to see me finish, but avoid getting up at the crack of dawn with me!

We got home around 9:30. I still needed to finish some laundry for the race (whoops - poor planning on my part), so I got going on that, and got everything else ready for the morning. Over the years I've done lots of things that involved getting up early for events, and I knew I would have a happier morning if I took care of everything the night before. So I pinned my bib to my shirt, took care of my chip, put together my fanny pack etc. before I went to sleep.

I actually was in bed by around 11, and slept pretty well. I have to say, I did have some pretty weird dreams though! When my alarm went off, I was not in a great mood. In fact, I did not feel particularly like getting up and running 13.1 miles, but of course I got up anyway! Had coffee, a bowl of cereal, and finished getting ready. It was a beautiful morning for a race - clear, low humidity and about 60 degrees.

Mike picked me up, and we got there around 7:15. If it had just been me I would have arrived about 1/2 hour sooner - I think next time I'll drive myself so that I can be sure to get there with plenty of time. The WiSH group was meeting at the Rocky statue for photos and good luck wishes, and I made it just in time to get in the last photos! I then dropped off my bag at the gear check, and went to stand in the LOOOONNNGG portapotty line.

I was actually still in the line when the race started, but I made it to my corral with a few minutes before our group started to move.

Honestly, the first half of the race is a bit of a blur. I really enjoyed running on the streets of the city I have lived in most of my life. Everything was familiar, but it was also transformed by the context of seeing it through the eyes of a distance runner. I think it was really great to run my first major race in my own city. I never, never, ever thought I would be running a half marathon - until last January this would just not have occurred to me as a possibility - so running the streets of my own city was proof of my transformation.

Poetry aside, I felt pretty good! I was keeping to a 10 1/2 - 11 minute pace, which had me on track to complete under 2 1/2 hours (my goal time). I did end up using my i-pod after about mile 2. I just really wanted my running music! This ended up helping a lot later in the race.

It was also a real highlight to see the Kenyan/Ethiopian runners coming back down the Parkway as we were heading up it! Amazing!

The first five miles really flew by. There was a lot of crowd support on the streets. We then headed up West River Drive. I was running most of the time, and then walking through the water stops. This kept me more or less on the pattern I had established in my most recent training runs - I have been running about a mile and then walking for 30-60 seconds. By the way, the water stops were terrific! They were frequent, and well-manned. I had a Luna Moon at about 6 miles, and that kept up my energy level.

On both West River Drive, and then Kelly Drive there was much less crowd support, and I found that made a lot of difference. Nonetheless, I was feeling really good for about the first 9 miles - about where you cross the Schuylkill River at Falls Bridge. After that I had a tough couple of miles. My longest run had been 10 miles, and I think I was having difficulty mentally with going past that limit! I knew I was going to finish the race, but I found myself needing to do some mental bargaining to keep going strong. For instance - "If you keep running to the next mile marker you can walk for the next minute after that" or "All right, you can have a walk break now, but then you have to run for 5 straight minutes." It's funny to think about now, but it was very challenging while I was living through it! I felt tired, but I was still pretty strong. I think I had another Luna Moon around mile 11, and that perked me up a bit.

My slowest miles were Mile 11 & 12, and then I picked it up again when I had just one more mile to go. I was feeling a bit of chafing from my shirtsleeves, which was bothering me, but I knew I would make it, and that I would meet my goal time! It felt great to round that final bend, and then make it past the finish line! My official finishing time was 2 hours, 26 minutes 41 seconds, average pace 11:12. I got my medal, grabbed water, a bagel and some other food, and went off to find my family.

Here's the medal. I really like it!



Unfortunately, Tom and the kids missed seeing me at the finish line. I guess I went faster than he expected! I wasn't upset about it, but I think they would have enjoyed the whole experience more if they had been there for the finish. As it was, they arrived shortly after, and then we found my brother, Susie and Yelena and compared notes. I was tired, and a bit sore, but felt pretty good. In fact, the only thing that was really bothering me was all the new ways my clothes had found to chafe me. Yikes!

We stayed for a little bit longer, and then headed home. I took a much-needed shower, and then a short nap. I was tired, sore and very satisfied! In fact, I was so happy with the experience that I've registered for the half-marathon option at the Philadelphia Marathon on November 23rd!

My pace at the splits:
Mile 1 - 10:57
Mile 2 - 11:17
Mile 3 - 10:28
Mile 4 - 10:33
Mile 5 - 10:42
Mile 6 - 10:43
Mile 7 - 10:42
Mile 8 - 10:48
Mile 9 - 11:17
Mile 10 - 11:07
Mile 11 - 11:35
Mile 12 - 11:44
Mile 13.1 (I didn't separate the last .1 mile!) - 11:11

Overall:
- This is a great race! It's well-run, flat and fun! I definitely want to do it again.
- Right now, a half-marathon is plenty of race for me! I'm not going to even think about running a full marathon until late 2009, if ever.
- I live in a beautiful city.
- Running with people you know is more fun than running a race alone.

It was a great experience, and I hope for an even better one in November.

I've been a bad, bad blogger

I can't believe that I have let it go so long between posts!

Let's see, since my last blog post
- my oldest daughter came home from Spain
- I booked 2 new (expensive) vacations for 2 new clients
- I took all 4 kids to Disneyworld by myself
- I completed my training to run my first half marathon
- school started, and my schedule heated up at work
- my youngest daughter had her 8th birthday
- I ran the Philadelphia Distance Run
- oh, and lots of other things too!

Some of these really deserve a bit of attention, even though they are now in the past. In particular, I want to post some of our pictures from our great Disney trip, and give a full report of the Philly Distance Run. Also, I think Ally would like a bit of attention paid to her birthday!

In the meantime just know that I haven't died, fallen off the face of the earth, or given up on this blog. I'll be back soon with more!

A Great Seven-Miler

So yesterday I went out for my longest long run yet - 7 miles. I have been really nervous about this part of my training for the Philadelphia Distance Run - pretty much every week for the about 4 weeks in a row I will be stretching my distance. And you know what . . .

It totally rocks!!!!

I had an awesome run yesterday, and it really lifted me out of a 10-day old funk I've been in. It's a combination of a number of different things. Mostly my job (which is stressful), but combined with post-vacation blues, and a sense of not being sure where I am headed right now. Anyway, whatever the cause, I have found myself not accomplishing much, and feeling pretty down about myself.

It's amazing how running farther than you have ever run before in your life can lift your spirits!

Some of the details:
- I ran on Forbidden Drive in Fairmount Park. For those of you not from Philadelphia, so not familiar with this gem just a half mile from my home, let me tell you a bit about it. It is a path (road?), that runs along the Wissahickon Creek from the edge of the city 5.5 miles to Lincoln Drive (read about it on the Friends of the Wissahickon website). It is called "Forbidden Drive" because it is off-limits to cars. Runners, walkers, picnic-ers, bikers and horses are OK. One of the great things about running on Forbidden Drive is that it is one of the few places I have ever run where subjectively most of the run feels like you are running downhill! The hills are so gradual that you only really notice most of them when you are at the top of them, and so you feel like you are running downhill in both directions. It is also beautiful. It can be quite busy on a summer weekend (like yesterday), but that doesn't bother me much.

- Usually I don't check my splits. It seems - I don't know - kind of serious to care so much about how fast I am running each mile. However, I have decided that it is worthwhile to do that on my long runs since I am getting close to my first big event (the Philadelphia Distance Run is on 9/21) and I need to know how to pace myself. Well, I did really well with my negative splits. Here's how they came out:
Mile 1 - 12:02
Mile 2 - 11:50
Mile 3 - 11:53
Mile 4 - 11:18
Mile 5 - 11:32
Mile 6 - 11:52
Mile 7 - 11:14

Overall pace 11:40! This was my 5K pace just a few months ago!

- Best of all, after the first 2 miles or so I felt GREAT! Honestly, it was taking everything I had, but I just felt wonderful! I sailed through the last mile, it was amazing.

So now I am looking forward to hitting those other milestones (an 8-miler next week, then a 10-miler 2 weeks later). Woo-hoo, bring it on!

Trip to Maine - Part 2

After I spent 2 nights seeing my brother, father, aunt and cousins in Rockport, Massachusetts, and getting a lot of good work and planning done, I drove back to Maine to finish my vacation there. It was a pain to interrupt my vacation, but ultimately it was worth it. Rockport is a beautiful spot too, and we need to do everything we can to keep the house in the family. Some photos from that trip - the first is a sunset over the Folly Cove Lobster Pound where we had dinner, and the second is the view from my aunt's house on the water:



The other cool thing is that my rental car was a Mustang! It was fun driving that back and forth - about a total of 12 hours of driving in 3 days.

Anyway, let me show you a bunch of other pictures from the photo journal of our Maine vacation.

These photos are from a hike up Day Mountain that I did with Will & Ally (Annika wasn't feeling well, so Tom took her home). It was a pretty easy hike, with wonderful views as a payoff. Also there were lots of ripe blueberries along the way! You are looking at the Cranberry Islands in the pictures.




On July 14th I turned the ripe old age of 44. Usually I have my birthday before I get up to Maine, so it was a treat to be celebrating while we were there. My in-laws treated us to dinner (which unfortunately was at a restaurant that had gone severely downhill since the previous year), and we had a celebration. Some photos of the festivities, including some of my mother and father-in-law:





And since I have included photos of sunsets in Arizona and Rockport, here is an example from Southwest Harbor from my birthday evening:


We went on another, longer hike with everyone in the family on Parkman Mountain and Bald Peak. We had done this hike one time before, but while we were hiking a bank of fog blew in, followed by a rainstorm (this hike is actually famous in our family lore!). We hiked down in the rain, and we could not see the view from the top since we were surrounded by fog. So we definitely wanted to try this hike again!

The view of Somes Sound from the top of Parkman Mountain:


Our little picnic in the coll between the two peaks:


Yours truly at the top of Bald Peak. It was a hot day, so the breeze was really appreciated:


Finally, the absolutely extraordinary view from the top of Bald Peak. You can see Upper Hadlock Pond in the foreground, then Lower Hadlock Pond, and then the Cranberry Islands extending out past Northeast Harbor. We kept commenting on how the top of this mountain looked like Middle Earth (or at least like Peter Jackson's version of it).



Unfortunately, as we were hiking down some pretty treacherous sections, I slipped on some loose gravel and cut myself up and gave myself a nice bruise. I ended up missing some running during the next week since I was pretty bruised up. I can't believe that a few years ago we did that hike in the rain with a toddler!

We did one more sail the following day, but we ended up cutting it a bit short because of a huge fog bank that rolled in while we were on the water. Look at it - it looked like a mountain of fog.


This next set of photos is from a boat trip we took out from Bass Harbor. We have done fishing trips and whale watches - both of which we enjoyed - but I think this little nature cruise was the best boat trip we have taken on Mt. Desert. It is called Island Cruises, and the man that runs the boat is a lifelong resident of the area, and really knows his stuff.

We went on the boat with one of Tom's oldest friends who brought her kids and her niece and nephew. Here we all are looking at something:


The lovely Bass Harbor Lighthouse:


And SEALS - I have never seen so many seals in my life! In these pictures there are both harbor seals and gray seals (which are larger):




We also saw a loon, a beached humpback whale (I'll spare you my picture of that), and spent some time looking at a salmon farm. It was a very pleasant two hours!

At this point it was almost time for us to head home to Philadelphia. While we had come up to Maine in one day, we were taking two days to drive home. We spent the night at the very nice Comfort Suites in Sturbridge, Mass., and caught the final episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender there (which was very important to everyone - we're all big fans!). We then drove down to Hartford where we visited with Tom's sister, her husband and their son for a couple of hours. Usually we see them in Maine, but they did not make it up this year.

We left Hartford at 3pm, and made it home by 8:00 (after an unfortunate wrong turn onto the NY State Thruway!).

It was another terrific vacation in Maine. Next year we really hope to stay for 3-4 weeks, and get really relaxed!

Trip to Maine - Part 1

This is not going to be a real trip report, but I am going to post a bunch of photos from our visit this year. For us, a couple of weeks in Southwest Harbor, Maine (on Mt. Desert Island where Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park are) is an annual tradition. My husband Tom spent his summers here as he was growing up, and even though his parents have retired to Southern Maine they still trek up to Southwest Harbor every June and stay through September! In fact, most of his childhood friends from summers here return as well, now with their spouses and children.

So our trip to Maine each year is our chance to see Tom's parents (and usually his sister and her family), as well as visit with old friends, and relax in a familiar setting. For many years we were able to stay for 3 weeks, but for the past 2 years I could only leave my job for 2 weeks at a time, so that is the length of our trip this time. And I know I am INCREDIBLY lucky to be able to go to Maine for 2 weeks - but I have to admit that it still seems short to me!

Despite the fact that his parents have a large house, for the past 10 years we have rented our own house for everyone's sanity! Lately we have been staying in a cute house just around the corner from his parents. It has a lot of advantages - it is big enough that everyone gets their own bedroom, it is within walking distance from town, and his cousins and their children are across the street. It is a funny house (we call it a "hobbit house") full of old-fashioned furniture and tons of knick-knacks, but we are very comfortable there.

Here are two old photos (I didn't take any of the house this year):


So here is a quick visual tour of our trip.

This is us visiting at my in-law's "summer cottage." It is an absolutely beautiful house, right on the water with its own dock. This is really the only time each year that we spend time with Nana & OG, and we try to get some good visits in.





These next pictures are some nice photos that Hannah took when she went out on a walk. She was only able to be with us in Maine for 4 days this year since she was going to Spain, so we tried to fit in a lot of stuff while she was still there.





Aren't those photos nice? Hannah wants to be a journalist, but we keep telling her she should consider pursuing photography.

The 2 things at the top of Hannah's list were going to Jordan Pond House for tea and popovers, and going for a sail on our boat.

Here is Jordan Pond House. This is an annual tradition for our family - I can't imagine going to Maine and not eating here! The popovers are wonderful, and so is the seafood chowder. The view is also amazing:



The sailboat has been in Tom's family for about 60 years. It is a wooden day-sailer that was built on Mt. Desert Island in the 1920s or 30s. Only about 15 were ever built. It is beautiful condition, and Tom sails it beautifully! We did about a 2-hour sail, and the highlight was seeing a small pod of porpoises as we were sailing. It is always so relaxing and fun to be out on the boat.






The other 2 things Hannah wanted to do before I drove her down to Boston to fly off to Spain was swimming off the ledges on Long Pond:




and eating a lobster at Beal's Lobster Pier (highly recommended!):


I am going to break this photo journey through Maine into 2 separate posts so that this one doesn't get too long. It makes sense - it was after this that I drove down to Boston and put Hannah on an airplane to fly to Spain for 4 weeks.

Arizona - Day 8 and trip home

OK - I am finally going to get this trip report done, and then I can move on to writing about other things! Thanks for your patience, readers (if I have any left).

Our plan for our final day in Flagstaff:
- go running (OK, I was the only one with this plan)
- go out for breakfast
- visit Walnut Canyon (cool Native American pueblo ruins)
- go back to Sedona and give it another try
- do several loads of laundry, pack & get ready to leave by 10am the next day.

I actually started the day with laundry and running. I got a load going and then did a nice 4 miles or so. I say "or so" because my Garmin ran out of batteries after the first 1/2 mile, and I was forced to time myself with my ipod! This was a much more successful run than my previous 4-miler. I started earlier, so there was more shade, and the day was cooler and a bit overcast. I didn't feel like I was being baked under a heat lamp, and so enjoyed it much more.

I came back from my run and Tom and I got everyone going. We went out to breakfast at this awesome place (we actually returned the next morning as well since it was so good). We ended up getting a very late breakfast there (like 11am), and then we did a little shopping in Flagstaff.

By the way, I haven't said much about the town of Flagstaff. It was very, very nice. Some excellent eateries, and decent shopping. My younger girls would have liked more kid's options (particularly for clothing - they are way more interested in that than toys these days), but the rest of us found some nice stuff. In particular, there were some really good outdoor outfitters, which makes sense because it is such an outdoorsy spot. I would have liked to see the University, the Museum of Northern Arizona, and the Observatory, but that didn't happen. A reason to go back I guess!

Anyway, we could see that a rainstorm was brewing, and we decided to head over to Walnut Canyon to see the ancient pueblos there. I had been looking forward to this for our entire trip. However, as we drove in they let us know that the walk into the canyon where you can actually walk by (and even into) some of the pueblos was closed because of a rock fall! Very disappointing. We decided to go anyway, and spent an hour or so at the museum and overlook.

While we were there the skies did open up and it poured rain for about 1/2 hour before stopping. In this picture you can see some of the pueblos (and also the rain):



Another shot of the canyon, and a cute picture of me and Annika:




We did enjoy our walk there, but it would have been a lot more fun if we had been able to go into the canyon. This rock fall happened during the winter, and hopefully they'll have it cleaned up by the end of the summer.

We left Walnut Creek Canyon, and drove down to Sedona again. Tom was sure we would enjoy it if we gave it another chance. Another breathtaking trip down Oak Creek Canyon - just amazing! We decided to check out Tlaquepaque, a shopping area which was designed in colonial Mexican style. It is really beautiful! Even though that style is not really authentic for the area, it really works - lots of courtyards and fountains.

Unfortunately (the second disappointment for the day), it was almost dinner time and we didn't realize that all the shops here close at 5pm! So while we had a really excellent (and really expensive!) meal there we did not get to do any browsing at all.

Here are the girls in front of one of the beautiful fountains:


After dinner decided to try to salvage our Sedona evening by heading to Airport Mesa to see the sunset. Finally a winner! It was absolutely breathtaking:


Honestly, the picture doesn't do it justice!

The kids had a good time jumping around while Will caught them in mid-jump:



We headed back to Flagstaff up Oak Creek Canyon in the dark, and were rewarded with two things. One was an amazing view of the stars. We stopped the car for a few minutes and went out to enjoy it. And the second was that as we were driving we saw a whole group of elk by the side of the road! One of them was an enormous male with big antlers, and the others were females with calves.

So our Western wildlife total was:
- a quail
- a jackrabbit
- a roadrunner
- a big-horned sheep
- bunches of California condors
- and some elk
(not to mention the amazing numbers of hawks, plus the fact that my daughter claims she saw a skunk)!
Not bad!

We finished the laundry, cleaned up the condo, packed the suitcases, and headed to bed.

We needed to be out of the condo by 10am. I was hoping we could do it a bit earlier, and maybe stop at Montezuma's Castle on the way down to Phoenix, but we didn't manage it. We left pretty much on the dot of 10, and headed back to our breakfast place for a farewell meal.

Unfortunately, some of the folks in our group were not feeling too great (which showed up later in various ways - I'll spare you the details!), so didn't end up eating too much. We got on the road at about 11:30, which pretty much gave us enough time to drive down to Phoenix, turn in the rental car, and get to the airport for our 4:20 flight.

Aside from the not feeling too well part, it all went smoothly. We reversed our amazing trip down 6000 feet, and through numerous eco-systems all the way to Phoenix, and had an uneventful trip home. We arrived at about 11:45 pm - we were actually a few minutes early, however that was erased by the inefficient baggage handling system in Philadelphia and we waited more than 1/2 hour for our bags. Luckily we had the next day to recover before I had to deal with work again!

Final thoughts:
- I really want to go back to the Southwest. I think if we return we would want to be a bit more mobile. With a big family it is great to spend a week in one spot, but now that the kids are older it isn't so challenging to move around with them. I think we would have seen more things and really enjoyed changing locations every 4 days or so.
- The Grand Canyon is amazing! I am beginning to plan ahead to do a rafting trip down the Colorado (just me and Tom) in a couple of years. I want to see it up close and personal!
- Most places that I visit I fantasize about living there. Not Arizona - it is beautiful in its own way, but is not green enough for me. But I could happily keep coming back regularly to visit.

We had a great time, and I'm so glad I was able to bring my children to see such a wonderful place.