Philly half Marathon

...I know this race report is due from 2 weeks. I actually thought of posting it the same day Nov 22nd but I was not in a condition to switch on my PC. I couldn't walk properly after we got home. Anyways let me put it down now all pre and post race experience.




Pre-Race day Nov-21st-2009.
The entire week before the race I didn't get to run much as I was busy preparing for my interview. I had my interview on friday during the lunch hr and I was a little relaxed after that. As usual I started from work at 5.00pm and reached home by 6.00pm had a good dinner and thought of sleeping early so that I can start my day early on saturday. As planned the day started at 7.00am had a good breakfast and started packing the bags for the race. I was kind of nervous as this was my first race and was thinking about how would I finish those 13.1miles. As always madhu was with me and giving me the confidence saying "you did 11miles easily so two more is not really much" that helped me little to calm down. I thought If I can't run I would walk but would not quit the race. I have packed my tights, ASHA Tshirt, chapstick, shoes, GU(thinking that what if I need it before the 10th mile as ASHA volunteers said that they would provide us GU at the 10th mile) and also some food for the dinner. We started driving to philly and it took us 1hr to get to philly downtown and our GPS took us to the wrong street(though the right name) then I started googling on I-phone(was very handy as its supposed to be :)) and found the exact address of philly convention center. We started driving to the convention center as its in downtown didn't really find the parking and we kept going from street to street thats when I decided to get down and walk so that I can collect out packets before they close and madhu can join me after parking the car if he finds any parkings. So I started walking and asked couple of people about the address and it wasn't too far. After walking two block I could see the convention center and walked towards it when I saw many people arround with black bags which were nothing but our race packets. I entered the convention center and they had clear directions to about where to collect the packets at needed points in the convention center. I went in to collect the packets and on the other hand madhu couldn't find any parking so he just switched on his hazard lights and was waiting on 12th ave. There were many people collecting the packets and taking pictures. I asked madhu if he can come so that he can have a look at it but he said no as he couldn't find any parking. As I was collecting both the race packets I heard a voice yelling my name and turned back expecting it to be either satish or madhu and as expected it was satish. It was happy to see him and chatted for couple of mins and started heading back to the car. I thought it would be a good idea to have dinner with satish but it was getting late so we thought we'll can meet the next morning. I wished good luck and said bye. We went to hotel and got the keys to the room and stepped in found that is was a smoking room so we had to call the front desk to re assign a different room. As there no more rooms available we were given a room with 2 beds. We went and decided not eat the food we bought from home and ordered half veg and half chicken dominos pizza. Madhu called his friend while I was busy pinning the bibs to T shirts and having everything ready for next morning and went to bed at 8.00pm. I really couldn't sleep as it was not our usual bed time. I woke up couple of times in the night at 11am and 2.00am thinking that I slept too much.I had good night sleep.



Race Day:
We woke up at 4.00am got everything ready packed the bags ready to leave and thats when I remembered that I forgot my light sweatshirt which I usually where when I run. So I wore the full sleeve black regular T-shirt which would keep me warm but didn't suit for running. We started driving towards philly downtown and forgot the exact location of where to meet the team. Then I pulled the email(again handy I-phone) and we finally got the location address and thought of meeting coach and the rest of the team at the meeting point. We reached downtown and I started looking for parking and found that’s not really that far from the start point. It was arround 5:30am in the morning and the place starting crowding. We parked the car (the parking management thought of making the most of it I guess so they charged 15$ which otherwise on a regular day would be 9$). We started heading towards the start point and figured that it wouldn't possible for us to meet the team and it was real crowded. So we decided to be by ourselves and didn't get a chance to look for satish around. I used the restroom on the way and headed to the start point. There 20,000 people at the location. It was amazing to see such a great crowd. All the runners where classified into groups based on their expected finish time and each group was given a color. As I have put 3hrs as the expected time for both of us when registered we came under the blue group and satish was in purple. So at a time one group should start the race and it was 7:16 when it came to blue group. We started at 7:20am and I was so nervous when I crossed the start line and we started jogging slowly. The downtown view at the start line was amazing and at 1or 1.5mile we saw ASHA volunteers sriram and sohil they took some pictures. We both were running together for the first three miles and at which point we took our first break to pee. After the first water stop I told madhu to go at his pace and he took off from there. I started running slowly that’s when I came across one of the ASHA runners from central jersey chapter. He ran with for a mile thats when I have picked up my pace. After 5th mile praveen took off and I was running by myself. At 5th mile I again saw sriram and other ASHA volunteers. I had water and Gatorade almost at all the water stops which I have to stop in my next run. At mile 7 was the first hill which was very bad. I managed to jog slowly and after 8mile started my cramps. I had crapms in stomach and they were getting worse but I managed to run thinking that I will be ok until I don't get cramps in my back. I managed to reach the 10mile while was another dreadful hill. We weren't trained for running on hills. That's when I saw Madhu and it was so refreshing when I saw him. I guess he slowed that’s the reason I could see him. At mile 10 we were given GU and I gulped down 1 GU packet and started running from there. At mile 11 I could talk to madhu and we both gave each other a high five saying good job. From 11th mile onwards I didn't feel my legs anymore and my back became was so stiff with cramps that I felt like it was froze but I pushed myself as it wasn't that far and just two more miles. I reached 12.5miles and that's when satish was running back to support the ASHA runners by running with them those last miles. I tell you this helps a lot and gives so much strength to runners when their energy is almost exhausted. I was so happy to see him and he ran with me for couple of mins and thats when he told that he ran with madhu couple of mins ago. Satish was supporting me saying that the finish line wasn't that far. We were almost at 13th mile I saw madhu waiting for me :). I was surprised. Satish had let me go as I had madhu to run with me and he went back to support other ASHA runners running with them those couple of miles. I was so happy to see madhu at 13th mile and I asked why was he waiting he could have finished ran back like satish to support me but as it was our first race together he wanted to finish together which I felt was very sweet. We both started running to the finish line and OMG I can't express the feeling I had when I saw the cheering crowd. It felt so nice to see so many people and some were yelling my name as it was short to read and It really felt very nice. 30sec before the finish line we saw sriram and he clicked some pictures. We held our hands and raised them together as we crossed the finish line.

We grabbed some after race refreshments and madhu was completely down and he said he couldn't walk. We stretched, took pictures and rested at a place for sometime and started heading towards the parking lot. I didn't get a chance to get back to satish again. We sat in the car and madhu called his sister and I called my sister had a short chat and started heading towards home and called saitsh on the way to say that I couldn't meet to him. On the way we were thinking about people who ran full marathon. 26.2miles is not a joke hand down! But I am planning to run a full marathon next year. Let’s see how the plan goes :)