As I was sitting here thinking about my trip to Philadelphia, I thought I'd post about it on my blog. I had made the decision to fly rather than drive to Philadelphia, and it wasn't long before I realized that was most definitely the right decision. I flew Southwest Airlines out to Philly and took a cab from the airport to my hotel. After sitting in the traffic I was really happy that someone else was doing the driving.
I flew in on Friday afternoon and got settled in my hotel. I then made a quick trip to the starting area for Sunday's race, just to make sure that I knew where it was, how to get there, and had everything set.
The City of Philadelphia as well as the Competitor's Group were already getting things set up for the race. In addition to familiarizing myself with the start area, I took in a few sites. The start and finish for the Philadelphia Rock 'n' Roll Half marathon was at the base of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
On Saturday I attended the runner expo. For the non-runners or newbie runners that may be reading this, the runners expo is where participants go to pick up things like their race bib, timing chip, etc. But it is also like attending a sale/vendor show at a convention. Several vendors set up booths and sell their wares. They also have some speaker and educational sessions at some expos.
I had an opportunity to listen to a Q&A with former men's marathon world record holder Khalid Khannouchi. I also attended a session with author and runner John Bingham and had an opportunity to chat with him for a little bit both during and after his session. I also got some advice from him on how to run my race the next day. Valuable advice that helped me in exceeding my goals.
The start area for the race was very well organized. Pretty impressive for a race involving over 15,000 runners. It wasn't too crowded, but you wouldn't have thought so looking from the outside. I've been in races with the same number of people, or even fewer, in which the start area was not nearly as organized and was much more crowded.
I finished the race in a personal best 1:57:37. I was very happy to run a personal best time, but even happier to have finished in under two hours.
After the race I went back to the hotel and relaxed a bit. The next day I went out and did some siteseeing. Although the day started a little rainy, I was able to take in some sites.
I went to Independence Hall, originally known at the Pennsylvania State House.
In this room the Declaration of Independence, as well as the Constitution of the United States were debated and signed. President George Washington presided over the Constitutional debate from that seat. Interesting information was that the founding fathers were conservatives by today's standards. They were very strong believers in states' rights and in a limited federal government.
I then went over the check out the Liberty Bell. I found out something I didn't realize. The original crack in the Liberty Bell was a very small crack. The large gap in the bell that we know now was a result of attempts to "fix" the crack and caused more damage.
I then went over to the cemetery to check out the graves of some of our founding fathers, including that of Benjamin Franklin.
Overall, the trip went very well. I also have to say that Southwest Airlines won my loyalty during this trip. They treated me like the reason for their jobs instead of like I was there interrupting their jobs. Something that, unfortunately, can't be said of a couple of other airlines I've flown over this past year.
I came back home, got back to work and continued my training to prepare for the Columbus Marathon. This past weekend I ran a 20 mile long run and was happy with the results. Back into another taper now and looking forward to my first full marathon in four years.
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