I hate to break this up into two parts, but there’s just so much to write. And if you have a short span of attention like me, you would probably stop half way through any way, so there it is, Part 1 of 2 of the Philadelphia Marathon Recap.

Earlier this week when I told people that I just ran a marathon, they assumed I was talking about Marine Corps. When I say, “No, I just ran Philly.” I get the “Wha-whaaat??” Call us crazy, but we did. I got a text message from my friend Kendra the day after MCM which said, “I wanna run Philly.” And that was the beginning of our mad quest to secretly run a marathon without letting anyone know, well, with the exception of our families.

While Kendra got her bib right away, I was waiting for payday later that week to get it. The site said that there were 250 entries left, and I thought I was safe. WRONG! Philly sold out and I was panicked. After scouring Craigslist, Kendra sent me a few links with folks selling off their bibs. I contacted every single one of them. Some wanted to bump the price up to $150, others already sold theirs. I had one guy ask me what my story was because he wasn’t going to sell his bib, but he was going to give it to the right person. I finally came in contact with this guy named Joe. His bib was still available and his price was perfect! I can’t thank Joe enough for the opportunity to run Philly. And I was touched when he told me after the race that he donated my money to help the Philippines recover from their devastating typhoon. Imagine that, I ran Philly for the Philippines! I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way! THANKS JOE!

So, why the hush-hush about the marathon? Well, frankly, we didn’t know if we could pull it off and we didn’t want to hear all the grumble of “oh, you’re going to hurt yourself.” We asked Coach Marie and John what’s the safest way to pull this off. We had 3 weeks. We took the rest of the week off after MCM, ran 13 miles the week after (it was supposed to be 10, but Kendra ran half marathon and I broke up my running into an 8 mile road run and a 5 mile trail run), and then light workouts the third week leading up to Philly.

Kendra made arrangements with her family who lived just North of Philly for us to stay there the night before. I LOVED THEM! I instantly felt welcomed and was grateful for all they did. We drove up Saturday afternoon to the Expo, which was very well organized. No crazy lines like MCM, thank goodness!

After a fairly quick in and out, we parked our car and stopped at a.Kitchen to have a glass of wine while we waited for Kendra’s parents to pick us up from the city. We decided to leave the car in the city so that we would be able to pick it up quickly after the marathon. It would save us the 25 minute drive North to her parents’ house.

 We ate at Toscana 52 which was recommended by Kendra’s sister and had FABULOUS FOOD! I can’t remember what my dish was called, but it was some sort of pasta, chicken, chicory, in a wine butter sauce. My only complaint was that while we had reservations for 6:30, we weren’t seated until 7:30. I was starting to annoyed and because I was hungry, I could feel the Hulk getting ready to come out. You must feed me when I’m hungry!

Then it happened…in the middle of dinner I realized…I FORGOT MY SPORTS BRA! UGH!!! Ladies, you KNOW how important it is to have the right sports bra and you KNOW that running 26.2 miles in a brand new unwashed bra is nothing but trouble. But alas, it was my fate. On the way back to the parents’ house, we stopped at Target, which thankfully didn’t close until 11pm, and picked up a sports bra. By the time we got back and settled in, it was 11pm-ish.

I made my flat runner…

put on Kendra’s mom’s PJs (because I didn’t bring my own)…

and tucked myself in. Our “wake-up call” was 4am. <sigh>

(Part 2 to follow)