My body is broken. At least, it feels like it is. Yesterday was the Philadelphia Marathon. I joined masses of crazed runners to pace out Historical Philly beginning at the ungodly hour of 7 a.m.
It is one thing to eat breakfast and sip warm goodness at 7 a.m. It is quite another to go hither into an unknown city to enjoy sub-40, pre-sunrise temperatures, dodge sprinkling ice cubes, and attempt not to curse one’s own existence.
However, mere low temperatures and icy rain was not to deter one from experiencing a course that channeled runners through Philadelphia’s historical center, Center City, University City, Fairmount Park and Kelly Drive. And what is historical America without modern capitalism? Goodyear made running history by marking the entire course with a marathon blue line emblematic of its signature tire tread to help guide runners. I wonder how they managed to do that while maneuvering around all the cars the good people of the city of brotherly love left overnight on the race marked streets, despite signs to not park in the race path. Fortunately, I only saw one fated runner ran smack into an illegally parked car.
I also saw Kenya’s Timothy Psitet, winner of the men’s title, cruise past mile 26 to win his first marathon. I know this because I was jogging in the opposing direction just past mile 13. It made climbing the hill at 14 all the easier to know someone else was already finished. But I digress. Psitet was aided by runner up Solomon Too, whom both said the gusty winds and temperatures in the low 40s.
I ran in a marathon in low 40s. My joints are never going to forgive me for this.
Kristin Price won for the women. In an interview, she said her hard earned $3,500 prize money would be going to fix her car that she wrecked last week. In addition to being able to pay the auto body shop for a new fender, her time was good enough to qualify for the U.S. Olympic women’s marathon trials at Boston next April. The woman wrecked her car last week and then won a marathon in Olympic trial qualifying time? And today’s superhero award goes to…
The Philly Daily News summary of the race said 16,000 registered to run the sold-out Philadelphia Marathon. Only 6,677 of us masochists finished it. As one dear soul said, “It’s like Alcoholics Anonymous. In AA you take it one day at a time. In a marathon, you take it one mile at a time.” These brilliant words were from Bill Shore, 53, a doctor of internal medicine and runner of 12 marathons, who can “explain all about glycogen depletion and lactic acid buildup if you care to hear about it. But at the limits of physical exertion, sometimes knowledge isn’t power. (Listening to an iPod, he says, is.)”
Amen to the iPod bit. And thank you to everyone with their music suggestions for my run.
Now for the inevitable D.C. Soapbox moment. Despite boasting “boatloads of improvements,” the Philly Marathon had a few issues. Maybe it was the weather, or missing mile markers, or curious absence of bathrooms from mile 13 to 22, or the lack of “brotherly love” from the locals, or maybe that it started at 7 a.m., but if there is one thing I took from the Philly Marathon it is this—the Marine Corps Marathon is way better. The start time is reasonable, the citizens surprisingly supportive and obnoxiously fun, the water stations a plenty, the bathrooms present, and, and, and…It just is.
And whereas the Marine Corps Marathon made me fall in love with D.C. all over again, the Philadelphia Marathon left me wanting to go back to Philly for only reason-the Rodin Museum.
Other blogs and articles telling more positive Philly stories are below.
Marathon Running with Constantine
Support for those Running On Empty
[*For those of you not endowed with far too much pop culture knowledge, Ms. Katie Holmes, a/k/a Mrs. Tom Cruise, ran the New York City Marathon earlier this month. Story here. While I may have beaten her time, she busted out with high heeled, open toe shoes within hours of finishing the race. I, however, will not be showing my toes to anyone but my doctor for the next few weeks.]
16 responses so far ↓
1 Jarod // Nov 19, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Congratulations.
2 Sarah Moffett // Nov 19, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Thanks Jarod.
3 Kelley // Nov 19, 2007 at 2:07 pm
definitely congratulations. esp on beating Mrs. Cruise. absolutely especially.
4 Jill // Nov 19, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Kudos for sticking it out, Sarah. Although my husband ran a good time, I can feel for runners who came in later. I was one of them at one time. In 2003, I ran the Chicago marathon in 5:02:50. My running partner and I were also ecsctatic at having beat Ms. Holmes time. I do love Philly though. Sometime, when you are not running, I’ll take you around. Hope youa re feeling better soon!
P.S. I’ll do the 7 things soon!
5 Jill // Nov 19, 2007 at 2:26 pm
Oops! The 7 things didn’t come from you. Actually came from http://www.leandraganko.com/blog/
But perhaps I’ll tag you!
6 Helen // Nov 19, 2007 at 4:01 pm
Congratulations on finishing Philly!
You are an amazing writer!
7 Constantine // Nov 20, 2007 at 6:50 am
Congratulations Sarah for finishing the marathon, You have written a book? I will be visiting your blog to get inspired to finally write that book I have been postponing.
You are welcome to my blog for more Inspiring running stories http://www.roadracer.wordpress.com
8 Sarah Moffett // Nov 20, 2007 at 10:38 am
Kelley. As you well know, it’s the little things that make life bearable.
Jill. With such hospitality as yours, I might be inclined to return to Philly…but only after the memory of my sore muscles fades. How is 2010 looking for you?
Helen. You are entirely too kind. Running is this writer’s form of self-flagellation. At least, that’s what my legs keep telling me on day 2 of recovery.
Constantine. Cheers and write. Write your book and complete a mental marathon.
Cheesy, but true.
9 Linda // Nov 20, 2007 at 11:31 am
Congratulations!!!!! Running is a much tougher marathon than writing, and you do both sooooo well! Much respect from me, one with weak knees and weaker fortitude. Peace, Linda
10 B. A. DeLuca // Nov 20, 2007 at 9:55 pm
Congratz!
11 Philadelphia Marathon Recovery. // Nov 21, 2007 at 11:25 am
[…] legs work again. Sort of. For all of you wonderful souls that have been so supportive after the I-beat-Katie-Holmes-BarelyPhiladelphia Marathon, bless you. For those that participated, here are the latest and greatest in […]
12 Sarah Moffett // Nov 21, 2007 at 11:50 am
Linda. Thank you for your well wishes and praise. Now if only I could recover from writing a book as fast as I have the marathon.
DeLuca. Grazie.
13 End of the Year Madness. // Nov 29, 2007 at 3:32 pm
[…] has led me to one indisputable realization. My name is Sarah. And I have the workaholic-post-marathon-bad-music-pre-holiday-writing-block […]
14 Katie Holmes » I beat Katie Holmes. Barely. Philadelphia Marathon 2007. // Dec 3, 2007 at 10:16 pm
[…] Sarah Moffett wrote an interesting post today on I beat Katie Holmes. Barely. Philadelphia Marathon 2007.Here’s a quick excerptHow I Feel My body is broken. At least, it feels like it is. Yesterday was the Philadelphia Marathon. I joined masses of crazed runners to pace out Historical Philly by rising at 5 am, to be at the starting line at 6:30 am, … […]
15 Doodee // Feb 3, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Thanks for sharing
16 GW Ten Miler: Head takes Knees in a 10 Round Face Off // Apr 28, 2008 at 7:53 am
[…] Knees: Masochist, is that you speaking? Remember Philly? […]
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