Philadlephia Marathon 2008

Finishing was the goal and that's what I did!

Before I go into the details of how I arrived there, I have to send out some thank yous. First to Dave and Emma who braved the cold for almost 8 hours from start to finish. Your screams and hugs at the end made every mile worth it. Thanks also to Dad and Dinana who joined Dave and Emma to watch me pass the halfway point. It was so good to see all four of you there. Thanks to Phillyfit for all the training; from Saturday long runs to emails and mesage board items. Your voices were in my head most of the way. And thanks to all the strangers along the route cheering all the runners despite the bitter cold weather. And thanks to KT, Meg, and XTE who kept a running commentary along with my progress in emails that I got to see this morning!! What a hoot!

So the alarm went off at 4:30 A.M. If you don't already know, it's dark then. Really dark. The weather channel said it was 23 degrees. Compare that to the thermometer in the van on the way home about 2:00 p.m. - 38 degrees. Here is a picture of me at home just before we left. The hoodie was tossed before the start, my gloves at about mile 4; and I later regretted losing the gloves but I didn't have anywhere to carry them and at that time my hands were warm enough. It was so cold, that at the water stops the volunteers had to warn us about ice on the road!!

Dave dropped me off at the Art Museum and went in search of a parking spot promising to meet me at the Rocky Statue later where Phillyfit members were planning to meet. I wandered around the area, found the corrals and made my way back to Rocky. Here is a picture of me at the statue. It was too cold to do any hands in the air mimcry. Most of us danced around (think little kid who has to go) to keep warm. That helped some. However, when we go to the corrals we were jammed in and with not much room to move the cold settled back in fast. My thumbs thought I had tied rubber bands around the joints to cut off circulation.

The start seemed to take forever. They planned a wave start this year, but no one really seemed to know how that was going to work. It appears the organizers didn't either. Dave said it was pretty much chaos at the start line. There was a delay as the waited for the wheel chair participants to arrive at the start - they go first - until someone told the announcer that the wheelchair participants had opted for the 8k rather than the marathon or half marathon due to weather conditions so they weren't comin! Finally we started. Moving slowly and finally able to run as we crossed the starting line sensor.

My left foot felt weird. At first I thought my sock was bunched up despite my careful dressing that morning to make sure that didn't happen. Then I realized I couldn't feel either foot all that well. I know I was running and they were touching the ground but it didn't feel right. Around mile 1 they thawed out and all was well. Doreen and Angie and I ran together for the first 7 miles. That was a mistake on my part. They are faster than I and I should have backed off to pace myself better. Despite knowing that it was fun as we dedicated each mile to a friend or family member. We spent each mile telling each other about the person we dedicated to; who they were, what our relationship was, and little details about that person. That really helped pass the time as we wound our way through old city and across columbus boulevard. However, I finally pulled back for good at mile 7. I knew if I kept up with them I'd crash and burn early.

About this time I started looking for Emma who said she might be near Drexel and Dave who said he would be on 34th street near mile 8. Turns out they were together just before mile 8. Here is a picture of Emma trying to cross the street to meet up with Dave. Believe it or not that's her on the far side trying to find an opening. Dave suggested at one point that she drop back, join the runners and work her way across. You can see her hat better in the picture to the right as she watches me approach. It is a great frog hat she purchased at a Media street festival earlier this year. As I was coming toward them I noticed the hat. The frogs ears were out of my line of sight, all I saw was the color. I saw that hat and thought, wow Emma would love...wait that IS Emma.... and there they were laughing and waving. Emma ran out to give me fig newtons and a huge hug. I high fived Dave and continued on my way. The route continued through Fairmount Park, past the Zoo and Memorial Hall where we had our balloon training a few weeks ago.

As I made the turn on to Martin Luther King Boulevard (in the opposite direction from the Distance Run) I felt a twinge in my right hip and tensing in my hamstring. On Saturday I had soreness in my left calf and although it felt better Sunday morning I wondered if I had been favoring it unconsiously and thus the pain on the right side. So I decided to pull over at Mile 12 and stretch both legs top and bottom. Ahhhhh, easier said than done. I pulled off and although my feet slowed down the rest of me sort of kept going and I rolled into a half somersault and ended up on my back. Not a pretty picture. Fortunately I was out of the way of any runners and avoided a domino effect. Also I was on grass and when I realized I wasn't going to recover from the tumble I went limp and let myself go. A few worried runners asked me if I was ok.. and I was. I got up stretched and massaged for a bit and continued running. I felt stiff at first but loosened up fairly quickly. I made it past the half marathon/marathon split around the Art Museum circle and there I saw, Emma, Dave, Dad and Dinana waving frantically. Despite the fall and some swelling in my left hand and arm I felt good and ready to head into the second half of the run. I did take off my watch, though, and handed it off to Emma. It was pinching my wrist. In the picture here, I'm trying to get the watch off before I reach them.

IF you look at the map of the course it appears that it runs straight up Kelly Drive onto Main Street in Manyaunk and then turns around to go back. However, we also went up around and down Lemon Hill Drive. I had also heard from others who ran the race before that this section on Lemon Hill had been removed this year. However, back on Front street we had detoured off South Street becaue due to inclement weather in recent weeks/month the street had not been paved. I wonder if Lemon Hill was put back in to make up distance.

At any rate, Lemon hill is where I first walked. My hip starting hurting again so I walked with long stretching strides to try to work it out. I ran down the other side and back onto Kelly Drive. All seemed ok until about mile 17. From 17 to 23 I did a combination of walking, running and stretching. We were warned that this stretch along Kelly Drive was the toughest. Much less crowd support. A few times I wonderd why I didn't just cross over and join the folks heading back already. By the time I hit Manyunk I was ready to cry. I had to do some serious self talking to remind myself that walking was ok. My fellow Phillyfitters(?) who I saw at various points yelled out encouragement and I kept going. I have to thank Helen especially. She is our group leader who was heading out of town when she saw me, stopped and walked back a few yards with me to tell me that it was ok, music and fun were up ahead. I've never been to Main Street in Manyunk. I must go back when I can walk property! LOL. The turn around was at mile 20. A woman at the turnaround was cheering us on but telling us that we only had 10K to go. While she may be right, 6.2 miles just sounds better!

At mile 23, I decided to focus on running more than walking My hands were freezing again but as I said I had ditched the gloves earlier. By the way, for those of you appalled at the idea of throwing clothes on the route, we were told that all discarded clothing would be picked up and taken to homeless shelters. So I ran more ..ok slow jogged.. from mile 23 to 25. At 25 I tried to pick up the pace a bit but my brain was not on board with that idea. However, when I turned the corner at the Art Museum and saw the finish line I took off like a bat out of....well I took off...it was too cold for that expression.... and crossed the finish line with a fist pump! I had made it. I had really hoped to do under 5 hours and 30 minutes. I missed that but I finished. Goal reached!

Emma and Dave were in the stands and took the picture you see at the top of the page. After crossing the finish line I entered the recovery area where I got my heat blanket and medal. I almost missed the medals! But I knew I had earned one and went back looking for them. Turns out at one point, according to Emma and Dave, they had run out of blankets. Emma commandeered one for me by telling a gentleman, "My mom is running her first marathon and they ran out of blankets. You are not a runner can I have yours?" He gave it to her. When additional blankets showed up she gave that one to the volunteers so that no one would be without. I have to say, it's nice to do something you daughter thinks is cool! :) Here are pictures of Emma and I and Dave and I at the finish.

Dave had extra clothes for me in his backpack which I put on quickly. Even so, as my circulation started to return to normal, I was very cold on the way home. First we drove Emma to the train station. She had to be at work at 3 p.m. She worked until 10 the night before arriving in the city around midnight and was at the start line at 7 am! She saw me and yelled "Hey Mom!" She realized she should have said "Hey Paula" because although I didnt hear her, about a dozen other moms did! LOL.

18000 people signed up for all three runs - half marathon, full marathon and 8k. I don't know how many actually started each race, but 7231 finished the marathon. I was one of them.

Dave and I made it back home around 2:30 ish. I showered...... a loooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnggg hot shower and then got a leg and ankle massage from Dave. We went to Outback - me in my marathon shirt and medal - for dinner. I LOVE the shirt. It has a picture of the course map on the back. As the evening progressed my walking deteriorated significantly. I was unable to move without the aid of furniture or people.

Poor Dave had to go out at 6:45 to do two hockey games after all this!

This morning I have pain in my right hip and left ankle, but duller than before and I can walk unassisted! :) With a little TLC, I should be in good shape for the parade on Thursday.

Thanks again to all of you for your support.

Balloon Handler Training

Today was ballon handler training for the 6ABC/Ikea Thanksgiving Day Parade. That's Philadelphia for those that think New York has the corner on Thanksgiving Day Parades. Hmph! :)

We were due at training between 10 and noon. We arrived just after 10. It was very humid. Very humid. We were wet just standing there waiting our turn. The balloon instructors took 21 people at a time (21 strings on the balloon). We were in the second group. It started to rain just as we took up the gloves and strings for our turn. Then it started to rain harder. Odie, the balloon we were practicing on did not like the cold and the rain. Despite our best efforts, the group could not get the feet to stay off the pavement. The instructor finally asked the people holding the foot (paw?) strings to stand under the feet and hold the balloon off the ground. The first group went around the parking lot twice. We went only once. It was really raining by this time. Good practice I suppose since the parade will go off rain or shine. I really hope it shines. :)

After this feeble attempt and practice we received our parade envelopes. We protected them from the rain inside our jackets and headed to the car. I couldn't wait to find out who or what we would escort down the parade route. If you were with us last year, you know that we ended up in yellow jumpsuits and purple wigs to carry ..................... Barney.

Well this year Barney isn't even in the parade. We must have done such a good job that they had to retire him. No? Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

This year we get to walk with





I am so psyched. Elmo is cool. See you on the 27th!

End of Summer 08 - Part Two

On Thursday we hung around close to home finishing up some odds and ends around the house and recovering from a day at the shore. I managed to get in a run in the morning too.

On Friday we decided to be tourists in Philadelphia. Dave had never done the Independence Hall tour. We were able to secure tickets online at Recreation.gov and intersting site where you can secure tickets for campgrounds and sitest that require timed ticketing. We had to pay a $3 service charge for the tickets (which are normally free) but since last time we tried to do this they had assigned all the tickets before we got there we decided it was worth $3.

We took the train to Market East and walked over to the vistors center to pick up our tickets. You have to pick them up at least one hour before your tour time or they release them. We toured the visitor center gift shop. Dave bought a book titled "Fart Proudly" by Carl Japikse. The subtitle is "Writings of Benjamin Franklin you Never Read in School". Dave stuck it in his pants side pocket. Later in the day I had to get him to turn it around as only one word was showing and it was just too weird to leave it be!

We visited the Liberty Bell. The new pavillion is nice. Lots of history reading panes but they all kind of say the same thing (At least I thought so.) I have seen the liberty bell in three locations now. I wonder if it will stay put this time! Now I have to tell you what the liberty bell does for me. Most people say it symbolizes freedom, liberty, yadda yadda.... and that's cool... but for me (and seriously folks there is no pun intended here it is purely coincidental) the liberty bell symbolizes the fact that "Perfection is not all it's cracked up to be". Something I've told my children many times and try to live by myself as well. Look at this bell. It cracked almost on it's first use and yet it is famous beyond words. Think about it!

The Independence Hall tour was good. Our guide was a woman ranger from Louisiana. She seemed knoweldgeable and I think she got most of it right from what I remember anyway. From the history books!!! No, I wasn't alive then - I know there is at least one person out there thinking that. Before the tour, still passing our hour to wait, we walked around the Bourse Building and then bought soft pretzels from a street vendor outside. This bird - and several others - were just waiting for us to drop something. (We didn't).

After the Independence Hall tour we went in search of a duck boat tour. These are cool and worth the price of admission. Our guide was not quite as accurate as the Ranger at Independence Hall but his errors won't cause another revolution. The ride in the water was really neat. If you've never been on of these (this

was my first time) the duck tour rides the city streets like a bus and then goes into the Delaware River like a boat. It was neat to see Penn's Landing from the other side! The battleship, The Bradley, was cruising up the river as we were out there. It stayed the weekend in Penn's Landing for tours. The duck boat operator, Tony, took us up on Market street to get a better view. By that time to ship was almost docked and these poor sailors I'm sure were ready to jump! That's a long time to be standing still like that. Tony (the tour operator) is a DJ wannabe for sure. He played good music in between his messages about the city. Some of his jokes were lame but he did make it a fun trip. The pictures are fuzzy I know. I'm not a very good photographer (yet) and it was a bit cloudy all day.

We ate at Downey's for lunch/dinner and then walked down South Street. We hoped to pop in and say hi to Jimmy but he was not working at Steaks on South today. Around 5:30 we were on the train back to Media. It was a great day. Fantastic weather, good food and company and a lot of fun.

Marathon Training

If you've been reading here you know that I signed on to the Philadelphia Marathon.

Well today I began work with Phillyfit, a group training for the marathon. I decided that to realistically finish in 7 hours I had better run or job some of this thing. So I decided to train with other runners. That puts this in the category of learning new things.

What attracted me to this group is the theme that it doesn't matter who you are, what your running experience is, or how well-trained you are. All that matters is trying. The group consists of people who walk and people who run very fast. There are people who have completed marathons, daulathons and triatholons and a lot, like me, who have never done any of those things before.

Before today, the longest I had run at one time wihtout stopping and/or walking part of the way was maybe close to 2 miles. Today, the first day of training, we had to run/walk a time trial. This would determine our starting point so that we could be grouped with others of similar ability. The time trial distance was 3 miles. It took a lot of internal talking to myself but I was determined not to be scared off by this. My goal was to start and finish at a pace that was not walking.

We were encouraged from the start to go at an easy pace. One where we could carry on a conversation at the same time. I focused on that and on keeping my legs moving and I completed the 3 miles without walking in 33 minutes, 4 seconds. Excuse me, but I am very impressed with myself right now. Participating with a group really helped. My pace run put me in the red group - 10 minute mile or slower.

One day down and many more to go. My long term goal, obviously, is to finish the marathon running or walking. My short term goals are to complete each step of the training. We have a weekly schedule involving three days of timed running/walking. The group meets every Saturday to run/walk for distance.

I'm excited, intimidiated (but a little less so than last night) and determined. I'll keep you posted.

Three days of sports; one loss, one win and one still in progress

As I type this Villanova and St Joe's are playing the annual Holy War game at the Palestra. Definitely the biggest non-conference game on both schools' basketball schedules. (It's halftime and St. Joe's is leading 45-26). A win for Nova gives them a recored in consecutive Big Five wins and a fourth consecutive win over St. Joe's. Unfortunately, St. Joe's is hot right now and Nova...well quite frankly they are not.

It's been a tough year to be a Villanova fan. On Saturday, they lost to Syracuse at the Wachovia center. We were at the game. I went to CVS afterwards still wearing my Nova gear. A woman in the store stopped me asked me - with a rather sad look on her face - "Were you there?... At the Game?". The look, her question... about said it all. Like I said, it's been a tough year. But seriously, it's a young team. I haven't given up hope that they will gel at just the right time and ..... and if not, there really is next year! :)

Speaking of gelling at the right time. How about those Giants? I've spoken to a few who were disappointed...thought the game boring. Personally, I was glued to the TV. The Giants defense was amazing and Eli Manning pulling away from an apparent sack in the 4th quarter and that catch.....? Well anyway, I enjoyed the game immensely. Good thing, too, because the commercials really weren't all that exciting now were they?

My first call after the game was to my Dad to check on my Unlce Philip a diehard Giants fan. His heart isn't what it used to be... but Dad said he was doing just fine. He also said that my Aunt and her husband were taping the game to watch together later so we couldn't call them as they might not know how it ended yet. They actually live on Long Island though.. I find it hard to believe that they won't know within seconds of getting anywhere near home.

It's 56-34.......

If you've never been to a game at the Palestra you've missed something that can't be understood......... unless you go to one. Things have changed over the years - like you can't throw streamers out after the first basket anymore - and the roll out banners are more limited - but the atmosphere is something else. Two teams; almost 50-50 split in fans; bands; noise beyond safe levels; hard hard bleachers that no one hardly sits on anyway; .........and anything goes! Two years ago for my birthday, Dave got us tickets to St. Joe's - Nova. It was the 50th year of the Big Five rivalry. Both teams were 3-0 coming into the game. Winner took the series championship for the year! A roll out banner from passed down the St. Joe's student section read "One small step for Allen Ray, one big loss for Villanova" (referring of course to a controversial call in Nova's loss to North Carolina the year before). Anyway, this was Dave's first Palestra game. He said it was all I had built it up to be and more.

65-42 halfway through the second half.....

Thanksgiving Day Parade 2007 - Philadelphia

Let's set the record straight right from the get go. The Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade is the oldest continuously running parade in the nation. I will give in to "the parade you watch is the one you grew up with", but there are plenty of people out there who didn't grow up with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade but they watch anyway because it has better PR people. As far as I'm concerned Philadelphia's is THE Thanksgiving Day Parade.

This year, Dave and I volunteered to work in the parade. I saw an 'ad' for it on Action News one night and decided it would be fun. And Dave is the world's best sport when it comes to things like this! So I emailed the address given on their website, we completed the applications, went to balloon lessons on November 10 and on Thanksgiving Day we were two of about 45 people escorting Barney - the purple dinosaur - down Market Street and up the Parkway.

We arrived at the Crown Plaza Hotel (18 and Market) at 6 am to pick up costumes and gloves. Then it was down to Market Street to 'help' set up the balloon. You get to see plenty of strange things behind the scenes at this hour. This guy was inside making sure the balloon stablizers were in the right place. My first clue that he was in there was when he threw a sandbag out onto the street. This is Barney's foot by the way.

Slowly but surely Barney made his way off his back on Market Street into the air. On the left is my view of Barney. The rope coming off his thigh (?) was my responsibility all day. In this picture he is straight upright, but in reality he spent most of the day leaning forward a bit.

Other balloons lined Market Street slowly making their way skyward and waiting for their turn to step off behind other elements of the parade (bands, floats, dancers etc) which lined up on 20th Street. In front of us was the Christmas Bell and Oscar the Grouch and his green haired handlers. Behind us was the Penquin gang!

The Penquin and Oscar had their own troubles getting vertical. Some have said that our costumes were joke worthy. The Penquin Gang had to wear Penquins on their head. So I think all in all we made out ok! Our yellow jumpsuits were all the same size. I was one of the shortest handlers and my cuffs at all extremities were rolled up at least six times and the pant legs were pinned to make sure I didn't trip.

The early hour, the long waiting (we spent 6 hours on a less than 2 mile route), and the warm day couldn't spoil the fun of working this event. The children along the route were so much fun to see and hear. Their laughter and cheers were contagious. Being that this IS Philadelphia we did get booed on one block because we didn't spin the balloon as 'requested'. Oh well. We are in good company seeing as how legend has it that Philly fans have booed Santa Claus!

All good things must come to an end however and we finished the day helping to deflate the balloon and then a somewhat stinky ride back to the hotel (70 degrees, warm costumes and hats figure it out!LOL).

I'd do it again in a heartbeat!