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Race Reports - 2007 - Allison?s ?Well At Least the Marathon Was Good? Philly Race Report

The whole fiasco started Saturday morning. We arrived at the airport at around 5:30 am, with tons of time to spare for our 6:55 flight. We boarded the plane and after sitting for about ½ hour they made an announcement that we would leave in a few minutes; they just had to fill in some “last minute paperwork” and fill up on some fuel “in case we needed it”…uhuh…I was completely filled with confidence at this point of course…about 1 ½ hrs later (we’d been sitting on an idle plane for 2 hrs), they finally ordered us all off the plane and told us we’d need to rebook, as their computer system was down. At this point it wasn’t so bad, there was another flight leaving at 9:45 anyway…or so everyone thought…until we all watched helplessly as it flew away from the airport completely empty. Anyway, the flight folks could not guarantee that we could get to Philly before the end of the weekend, which was devastating. I expected the worst and figured I could always do my own marathon in the streets of Lachine if need be, even though that would be kind of unexciting. We waited in line for 3 hours for a new boarding pass - needless to say that isn’t exactly part of my pre-marathon leg relaxation strategy, but it’s all good. Anyway, we finally rolled into Philly around 3:30, just in time for the pasta supper.

The supper was fantastic – great job Albert! It was quite reminiscent of last year’s X-Mas party – I think we ended up giving away a whopping 10 boxes of leftovers away to the homeless. There was enough food to feed an army. I’d hate to see what would happen if we all went to that place after the marathon…hehehe, we could do some major damage.

Saturday night I slept on the floor of the hotel room as we ended up with a room with only one bed which my parents used since they were paying and all (did I mention this was a bad weekend?). Anyway, even though I would have preferred a bed, I slept like a rock after such a long and crazy day. Sunday morning I got up at 5 am and after a couple powerbars and a cup of Starbucks it was off to the start. The weather was ideal – a tad damp, breezy, and no rain yet. I never found Albert or Bill at the start like I had intended, but I started off with Mikey and Steve. Once the gun went, Steve blasted out real quick and he was out of sight in seconds. As Mikey’s official pace person for the weekend, we started out extra slow with the intention of speeding up in the second half. The race itself was very uneventful. We kept on pace and passed the ½ was mark just over 1:45, spotting Nestor, Alan, Steve, Albert, Bill, and Gary all along the way. The last half was must hillier than I had recalled. Turns out they changed the course since last year which was a surprise to me. Until half way I had been running right with Mikey, we were letting each other know the splits and making sure we didn’t go too fast. Every time Mikey tried to pull one of her crazy moves I made sure to tame her quick, something that I knew would pay off for her in the long run. In the second half, it was each girl for herself. I just stared straight ahead and kept my mind focused on just keeping on running. I felt pretty good and kept steady until around 38k. At that point I started feeling really bad but I could hear Alan’s words in my head “the pain is temporary”…and that kept me going. With 0.2 miles left to go Mikey blew by me and I didn’t have the energy at that point for any finishing sprints. We ended up finishing in 3:28 – a 5 minute PR for me and a 9 minute PR for Mikey. Plus it was a –ve split which is always nice. For the first time EVER Mikey didn’t hit the wall. Now she knows what a marathon is supposed to feel like!

After the race we hobbled to Cereality and had some delicious parfaits. We did some shopping which was good to get the legs moving and then headed to the airport for my 5:50 flight. This time my parents came in with me just in case something went wrong again. Lo and behold…what do ya know – our tickets had been refunded! Did I ask for them to be refunded? OF COURSE NOT!!! Seriously by this point my systolic was at about 300…I had to pay an extra $600 (each) to get a plane at 8:40. Oh and did I mention that it was a horrible weekend? Anyway, 8:40 came and went and our plane did not show up. Finally, 2 hours late, we were on the plane. We sat idly on the plane for another few eons, as we were now 8th in line at the runway. Needless to say I was thoroughly astonished when the plane actually left the ground.

So, all I can say is thank God the marathon went well because other than the pasta dinner, it was just about the only thing that went right the entire weekend. I’d like to give a huge congrats to all of the Phoenix runners in Philly – everyone did great! Loads of PRs and even more BQs, fantastic! Thanks to Bill for all the great training that got us all here and helped us all do so well. I apologize if this race report is horrendous as I need to go to sleep. Congrats again everyone, happy recovery!

Allison Gates