Before I forget again, a few overdue shout-outs to Jeanne, Colleen, Ben, Jen & Anonymous! With your help, I'm over $500 raised for the HCU fund!!!
I have a lot of history with Philadelphia. It's the city where I spent most of my weekends during my 20's, it's where I ran my first race (the 2006 Broad Street 10 miler), and it's the site of my first full marathon (the 2011 Philadelphia Marathon). This will be my 3rd Philly Marathon. I think I may have unintentionally started a mini-streak. I'm not sure how long this little streak will last, maybe as long as the Rocky series.
The first year I ran Philly I was a wreck - nervous to the extreme. It helped that my cousin Maggie was also running the race. I looked to her for any pre-race advice/tips for the marathon. She convinced me to purchase a few 5 hour energy shots, and inadvertently taught me my first two marathon lessons:
1. Don't try anything new on race day
2. Don't ever adopt Maggie's race strategy as your own
As a result of my rookie mistake, my stomach was in knots all day. But, I did manage to make it to the finish line in one piece!
Last year, I was registered for the full marathon, but hadn't been training much. I was considering downgrading to the half marathon. I decided to just wing it on race day. At about the 9 mile mark, I was feeling good, and decided to go for it. Friends of mine from NJ were meeting me at the finish line, and I texted them to hold off on driving into the city - I was going for the full! My beloved Redskins were playing the Philadelphia Eagles that day in DC. We won & it was the turning point of our season. It was also a turning point in my running career. I gained confidence in that race that I could depend upon my mental game to power through a marathon if my physical game was lacking.
Now - heading into the third installment of my Philly Marathon streak, I decided to google Rocky III. I apologize diehard Rocky fans, I lost track of each individual movie. And how could I forget Rocky III? Rocky fights "Thunderlips" aka Hulk Hogan in a charity match, followed by 2 fights with James "Clubber" Lang aka Mr. T. This is especially ironic for personal reasons. Anyway - the Redskins will once again be playing the Eagles this weekend - only this time, the game will be in Philly. The Eagles have not won a home game since September 30th - of last year. We have the exact same record as we did this time last year when the Eagles helped turn our season around. Will this year be a repeat of last year? I don't know, I'm dubious. I was feeling confident coming into this weekend - but now something just feels off, and I'm nervous. Also, my right knee has been bothering me a bit since last weekend's 10K. Maybe it was a mistake to watch this Mr. T. clip....
This threequell is to be continued...
If you'd like to follow my slow and probably painful progress during the Philadelphia Marathon, you can sign up for runner tracking here:
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