Race Season Has Started

Captains Log Stardate April 1st, 2019

Race season is officially upon us! We kicked off the 2019 season with the Philly Love Run Half Marathon on Sunday, March 3st. This was my first time running this event. Last year I ran the 7k with my daughter Katie, we thought it was a 5k, imagine our surprise. The Love Run was our official first “Adventure” for our new Running Business, and it was a hugh success. I had the pleasure of training “Fast Steph” who had a goal of running 1.39 and had only run one half marathon before and came in at 1:46. She signed up for her training package in January and we were off! The amazing part of her journey was that she self-admitted that she disliked doing speed work. Her training plan called for speed work every Tuesday. So every Tuesday night at 6:30 PM, Steph, Mike, Kristen and I would meet at the CB WEST track and do speed work. On the first night, the wind was so cold that we had to wear headgear to keep warm.

Works outs consisted of 400,800,1200, 1600 repeats, a ladder and more 800’s. It was cold, dark and windy but we got it done. There were nights that I did not feel like running and doing speed work, but I was committed to helping her and I knew that I needed to get back into speed for my own training,

As we got into February the long runs became longer, we ran the Frost Bite 5 miler together and she made sure that she beat me! On the first Saturday in March there was a snowstorm, we had to wait a couple of hours to meet up for our scheduled long run, but we got it done, I made sure that I picked up the pace at the end to reminder who was boss.

The big day arrived Sunday, March 31st. We meet up at my daughters street, parked our cars and made our way to the art museum. I knew this was going to be a good day, the rain was holding off and as soon as Steph and her cousin Danny saw the Rocky statue they had to get a picture. (Steph talked her cousin into running the 7k, once she found out that I had access to a free bib). We took our pictures dropped our bags, waited in the dreaded port a potty line and lined up ready to go,

The big day arrived Sunday, March 31st. We meet up at my daughters street, parked our cars and made our way to the art museum. I knew this was going to be a good day, the rain was holding off and as soon as Steph and her cousin Danny saw the Rocky statue they had to get a picture. (Steph talked her cousin into running the 7k, once she found out that I had access to a free bib). We took our pictures dropped our bags, waited in the dreaded port a potty line and lined up ready to go,

I knew that I was not going to be able to run her pace, since I am training for the ultra marathon in May I had already run 40 miles for the week and knew that there was no way that I was going to be able to keep her pace, she had been training for her race. As we stood in our coral I told her to run your race and go get it. She said, “We are not running together?” I said no this is your race, go get it.

Over the past 10 years, I have run hundreds of races a lot in Philly, but never his half marathon. The course takes down the Ben Franklin Parkway into the Center City, where you zig and zag around the city and other parts of that area, you head back down the parkway towards the Art Museum, this is the first 4 miles, then you head down MLK until you bare right toward the Strawberry Mansion, you go uphill, complete a circle head down the hill back on MLK, flip a cone and run back down MLK for four miles and end at the Art Museum. While I feel I had a good race, 1:47:20 I was more excited to hear how Steph did. I finished up and went to collect my bag, we were supposed to meet at bag check, well she was already at the beer garden. When I got there and asked her the big question “how did you do?” I was a little worried about her response, what if she did not meet her goals? Did I train her well enough? She looked at me and smiled and said 1:39: 5! She had completed her goal! I was so proud and happy that I was able to be a part of this journey. We drank our beers, took more pictures on the art museum steps and walked back to our cars in the rain. Steph is moving this summer to teach in South America but not before we get to partner up for the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler and the Broad Street Run. This experience is the definition of why we started CRC #relationships #running #adventure #loveyourtribe