I took an 11:30 pm red eye flight with United flying out of LAX. There would be about a 2 hour layover at Chicago's O'Hare airport. What was nice was that I'm now at silver status, so I got to board with group 2 regardless of where I was sitting on the plane.
11/22 Saturday
While waiting for my flight into Philadelphia, I bought breakfast at the McDonald's that was near my gate. I love McDonald's hash browns! I thought that I would be able to rest a little at a quiet airport since it was pretty early in the morning, but in came a huge group of high school kids. They just flooded the gate area with their endless amount of energy. I believe they were headed to Washington DC for a field trip.
Sausage McMuffin
I landed in Philly at about 11 am and headed directly for the platform to catch a train into City Center. The train ticket purchased from the conductor was $8. I got off at the Jefferson Station formerly known as Market East. Getting to the expo at the Pennsylvania Convention Center required going up a few flights of escalators. Getting to the expo from the station was pretty easy since you never have to step a foot outside.
Train ticket
Expo
Along the way to the bib and packet pick-up area, I came across the seminar stage. Lo and behold it was the legendary Boston Billy giving out pointers on running a smart race on a challenging or hilly course. After picking up my bib and long sleeve race shirt, I started making my way through the expo to check out the different booths.
Seminar schedule
Boston Billy
Packet Pick-Up
After I was done with the expo, I made my way over to the Reading Terminal Market. It was super crowded and a pain in the butt to move around having my bags with me. It took my a bit of navigating to finally find the end of the line for Tommy DiNic's. The line was long but it moved quickly. There was one guy taking orders. I ordered their pulled pork sandwich with provolone and spinach to go. There was a team of about 3 or 4 people just making the sandwiches. Then finally there was one person as the cashier. It was a well oiled machine! I then walked across the street to check into the Marriott. There appeared to be a big convention or conventions taking place that weekend, so the lobby was super busy and crowded. The guy at the front desk was able to give me a room with 1 king size bed, but it was an accessible room. I had no problem with that since I'll be a little "disabled" after the marathon. I'll need all the help that I can get getting in and out of the shower. :)
Tommy DiNic's
Marriott
After dropping my bags and getting a little bit situated, I sat down to eat my sandwich while watching some television. I must say that this was a better sandwich than the usual cheese whiz steak sandwich that they tell you that you're supposed to get when you're in Philly. Good stuff. So skip that cheese whiz steak sandwich and eat one of these sandwiches instead! Also if you prefer, you can get broccoli rabe instead of spinach.
Pulled pork with provolone and spinach
I went through the expo haul and threw away all of the advertisements that I had picked up. Most exhibitors have stopped giving out whole samples at expos, but this was one where I got some bars. I then gathered my race gear to make sure that I had brought everything. With my calendar full of races, I'm always half packed and sometimes I'm known to forget to bring something.
Shirt and expo haul
Back of shirt
Race shirt
For a quick dinner, I walked across the street to buy a burger from BurgerFi. I was in a mood for a burger and this was one of the closer choices. So I walked on over and ordered their BurgerFi Breakfast All Day Burger. It was a natural Angus burger with American cheese, hickory bacon drizzled with maple syrup, fried egg, hash browns, grilled diced onions, and ketchup. They gave me a pager to alert me when my burger was ready. It was a short wait before I got my burger. I took it to go to eat back at my room. It was wrapped in aluminum foil so the burger stayed perfectly warm. It was a pretty decent burger but it was rather small. It was good enough that I might want to try their other burgers on the menu, but I wouldn't go out of my way to come here. I stopped by the 7 Eleven to buy some drinks and bananas before heading back to my room.
BurgerFi Breakfast All Day Burger
11/23 Sunday
The race starts at 7 am but the instructions said to be there no later than 5:30 am. All bags were to be inspected before entered the starting area. So I got ready and walked over to the starting area just a little after 5 am. There were no lines for the security check so after a quick inspection, I pretty much walked on through. I scoped out the area to find my starting section (black) and the gear check trucks. I used the portapotties at about 6 am and checked my bag at the truck. Turned out to be a bit early. Even though I had a mylar heat blanket with me, it was a bit chilly waiting in the empty corral. So I got back up and walked around. Eventually I waited next to one of the gear check trucks to shield me from the wind. While waiting, out of sheer luck I happened to spot my friend Sam, the guy who ran 61 marathons back in 2010 to raise money and awareness for his charity, Operation Jack. Sam is doing all he can to better the life of his son, Jack, who is autistic. This is one of the charities that I support through my marathon running because my younger brother is also autistic. We caught up a bit before we headed to our respective corrals.
Found Sam
Starting corral
The race started with us heading east on Benjamin Franklin Parkway continuing on Arch Street. We would head south on Columbus Blvd when we reached the Delaware River. We would then loop back onto Chestnut Street where we headed west towards University City on the other side of the Schuylkill River. This was where we had our first hill in what was a pretty rolling course. The next several miles would alternate between downhill and uphill. It started to wear me out as I kept reminding myself to ignore the half marathoners. It was about mile 11 and they were speeding up as we ran along the Schuylkill River. I was pretty familiar with this section as I had run this part in the Philadelphia Rock n' Roll Half Marathon. I did all I could to relax and run at a comfortable stride without caring about the pace. There was a little bit of climb up to mile 13. This was when we said goodbye to the half marathoners as they turned right for the finish line while we turned left for the second half.
1: 8:36
2-3: 16:25 (8:13)
4-5: 16:32 (8:16)
6-7: 16:34 (8:17)
8: 9:00
9: 8:32
10: 9:11
11: 8:47
12: 9:09
13: 9:29
Halfway: 1:53:14
High 5 from the Mayor
The second half of the race was a pretty scenic run mostly on Kelly Drive and Main St following the Schuylkill River. It was also very familiar to run on Kelly Drive as it was part of the Philadelphia Rock n' Roll Half Marathon course. Shortly after passing mile 17, we turned left crossing the Falls Bridge for a short out and back. The last turnaround was at about mile 19.5 in Manayunk. The right foot was starting to feel quite achy when I reached mile 24, but I managed to convince myself to keep moving and that I only had two more miles to go. As I crossed the finish line, I got a high 5 from the Mayor. I thought it was pretty cool for him to do that.
14: 9:54
15: 10:19
16: 10:46
17: 10:48
18: 10:39
19: 11:06
20: 11:54
21: 10:31
22: 10:53
23: 11:11
24: 10:49
25: 11:14
26: 10:48
26.2: 1:46
Finish: 4:14:53
Finish line
With that I've completed a marathon in 31 States and with all things considered, this was one of the better executed race that I've run. In the first half, I ran hard, but did not overdo it. My right foot had been bothering me lately, so I made sure that the pace always felt "easy" in the second half. After getting my medal and some of the post race goodies, I headed over to the gear truck to pick up my bag. Then I hoofed it back to my hotel room.
Exit
Bib and medal
After getting cleaned up and resting a bit, I walked over to eat my post race meal at Monk's Cafe. They have a good beer selection here and I believe most are served from a bottle. Come on, they even have a beer bible, which you can buy! I had the Centennial IPA, Stoudt's IPA, and Two Hearted Ale. All three beers were excellent. As for the food, believe the hype! Get the Monk's duck salad and their mussels. They were both really good! The salad was one of the best that I've ever had, but it does help that I love duck meat. As for the mussels, I had their Ghent mussels which was flavored with Saison Dupont, fumé, parsley, carmelized leeks, bacon, bleu cheese, and garlic. I was hungry enough that I finished everything on my own with no problem. I would definitely want to come back here if I'm ever again in the area.
Monk's Beer Bible
Centennial IPA
Monk's duck salad
Stoudt's IPA
Ghent mussels
Two Hearted Ale
I started a conversation with the group in the table next to me because they were really enjoying the Firestone Double Jack that they had ordered. They even bought another large bottle to go. It's funny how you take certain good beers for granted because they're so readily available. When I travel, I usually drink regional beers since they're not usually available in Southern California.
11/24 Monday
I woke up pretty early, just couldn't sleep. I ate a small bag of chips from yesterday's post-race goody bag. I then got ready, packed, and checked out of the hotel a little after 9 am. I took the bridge over to the Market Station, went downstairs, and bought a zone 4 train ticket for the airport. I waited for the 9:55 train and got to the airport super early for my almost 1 pm flight. My allergies had just kicked in and I was feeling really horrible, so I decided to get some breakfast and hot coffee while I waited for my flight. Just as it was about time to board, they announced that the plane had struck a bird on the inbound flight, so the maintenance crew would have to examine the plane. It was worse than they had expected, so they pulled the plane out of service. So I got in a pretty long line to get my flight changed. Just let me tell you, some people are just not cut out to work in anything dealing with customer service for the airlines. One of them was super grumpy. Luckily I got a nice lady, one of four helping us get re-booked. She put me in an aisle seat on a direct flight to LAX with US Airways departing at 4 pm. That was much better since my original itinerary had me going into Houston for a connecting flight.
Breakfast
Coffee
I hiked over to my new terminal and departing gate. Since I had a few hours before my new flight, I guess I had to find something to eat. I ended up eating at Cibo Bistro and Wine Bar. I've eaten here a few times so I knew what to expect and what to order. I had a Yards Brawler and the Cibo Burger. That was a good combo. This place is pricey, but I do like their burger.
Yard's Brawler
Cibo Burger
Then it was time to catch my flight home. I was hoping to catch some shuteye, but that was not to be.
One thing that irks me about flying is when passengers fake needing extra time to board so they can board early. This old couple just did that by walking with a cane. I happened to sit next to the small old lady. Don't let her diminutive size fool you! I thought I was going to have a nice flight for once sitting next to a smaller passenger. Boy, was I wrong! I had the aisle seat and she was sitting in the center seat. She must have elbowed me at least 100 times during the flight and I didn't even have my arm on that center arm rest. She was constantly fidgeting or adjusting something, throwing her chicken wing elbow around. She even boozed up and had to keep asking me to move aside for her to go to the restroom. And how do I know that she faked needing more time to board? Well when we finally landed in LAX, I got out into the aisle and got my stuff and waited as with everybody else to deplane. It's packed. Her husband is sitting in the row in front of her and had both of their suitcases. She asked if I could back up and get out of her way to let her through. I turned around to see if I had space... of course not, everybody is waiting to get off the plane. Just as I was telling her that I have no place to go, she just pushes her way through and climbs over me as if she was Marshawn Lynch going in for a touchdown. Somebody with a leg disability definitely wouldn't be able to do what she did! The passengers around me were just as shocked as I was. She still had to wait for the people in the rows in front of us. Where was the fire? What was your freaking emergency? I've flown a lot of miles in my marathon journey and she is by far the worst person to sit next to for a long flight!
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