Tuesday, November 22, 2011

El Bandito de Philadelphia

When in DC a few weekends ago I got invited down to spectate the Philadelphia Half and Full Marathons. Easy, right? Just stand there, ring some cowbells and scream as loud as you can for this guy and this girl.

Well, that plan changed, and changed again, and then changed again, and before I knew it, I was suddenly pace rabbit #2 bringing this girl across the finish line for the half marathon!

Considering my recent injury (which is still on the mend), it was decided that I run the last 6.55 miles and be the "new" energy. This was a good compromise as running 13.1 prolly would NOT be the best idea right now.

Saturday I drove down, and immediately met up with Beth, Allison, Katie, and Thom at the expo. Then bumped into Lauren a bit later. Priority #1: Find Peanut Butter Gu. Of course no one had it, and NOBODY even knew what we were talking about. Really people, REALLY?!? You should all be more like us!

The Marathoners
However, we did find mini wrappers of Planter's smooth peanut butter. I may or may not have eaten one of these with a chocolate Gu all at the same time. So good!



Speaking of food, I may or may not have brought down WAY too many cookies! I believe I may have started a cookie drug trade between NYC and DC. Hopefully no wars break out.

This is only half of what was made.
Sunday was a way too early wake up call for the race, but we found primo parking in a lot we think was legal? I did get a tongue lashing for not giving them my car key. Oops! Funny how far you can get with playing dumb sometimes ;)

Ok, now for the race itself. I saw everyone off for the start, then dropped everyone's clothes off at the car, then watched the elites FLY by. So fast!


After a quick 15 min warmup, I awaited Beth and Katie @ roughly mile 7.


Katie was just joking.....about her legs. She still hates us. ;)

From here till the finish, we just provided Katie with some serious pace booty until we got her to the finish. Katie finished with an 8 min PR! Go Katie!!!

I liked the Philly course. Other than a few hills, I think it is a fast fast course that can yield a serious PR for this distance.

But the day wasn't over yet! We now awaited the marathoners to finish. While waiting around the mile 26 marker, we met up with Lauren and Emily, who I haven't seen since the run course of Lake Placid back in July. Lauren brought bagels and I was bonking. Thank God for those bagels Lauren! Also, please stop by Lauren's blog and give her some love and encouragement as she is tackling her first Ironman this coming weekend down in Cozumel!

Thanks Emily for the picture!

Finally, with cowbells in hand, Allison and Thom came flying through. Thom finished his first Marathon while Allison shaved off 40, yes 40!, minutes off of her Marathon PR! Holy crap and way to go Allison!




MOST awesome-est race shirt EVAR!
What a weekend! Had a great time with DC friends in Philly and after getting home, I "maximized my potential" by not moving from the couch watching football and zombies for the remainder of the night.

Till next time Philly!

21 comments:

  1. Bandit, eh??

    Glad you had fun this weekend

    PS I finally got the pink legs tweet, 2 days later

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  2. I would like to reverse the cookie drug trade and disposition cookies on New Yorkers.

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  3. "I hate all of you" "But she's still smiling!!!"

    So much fun. Thanks for coming down, feeding us cookies, shooting excellent race and pre-race footage, and helping me be a pacer/creepy stalker on the race course :)

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  4. thatnks for the shout out! It was so nice to meet you in person! You should start to plan a trip to Denver! We have a guest room and a cute dog to play with :)

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  5. Looks like a great weekend Jon!

    What did you decide about the new shoes? Did you ever go to the running store?

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  6. You found your secret! Only take pictures with women! You are the tallest one there! :)

    The fact that the second video ends abruptly after Katie says "Like shit" makes for an epic video.

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  7. I hear there's more video. I want to see them!

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  8. Man that is awesome. Sounds like you had an awesome weekend. Makes me want to go to Philly!

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  9. you look like a bandit!

    sounds like a great tme

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  10. Thanks for coming down and being super spectator, pacer and cookie baker. It was great to see you again. And someday soon we will have Peanut Butter Gu!

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  11. Trained by the mafia is indeed an awesome shirt!

    I also liked the Philly race shirt you were wearing there, that is a cool one.

    And a 40 minute marathon PR?!? That is ridiculous.

    And lol on the 2nd video here, when you asked "How are your legs feeling?" The response "Like shit!" I couldn't have said it better myself at mile 20 of a marathon! lol

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  12. When you finally get that PB GU and can take it with Chocolate GU -- BRILLIANCE.

    Thanks for being cookie baker and videographer extraordinaire. Glad you all had a fun weekend!

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  13. Thanks for...just....everything. I hated you both the whole time but there's no way I could have done it without you. But I had a blast, the whole weekend. So did Thom. I think he wants to be your newest BFF.

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  14. Sounds like a completely awesome weekend.

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  15. I love that you go and spectate for lots of people, even if you get roped into being a pacer. Nice recap, and I'm glad you had fun.

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  16. Sounds like you had a great weekend and I know the runners really appreciated you there, cheering/pacing them on!

    FYI, YES - I have some extra peanut butter GU in my car if you need. I think Dash and I may be at the long run for an easy run on Saturday...

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  17. That is awesome. I need to figure out a way to hire you to shoot video at my races next year. From Mandy at Quassy to this race and it makes us feel like we are there.

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  18. Sounds like a fun day! And I LOVE that mafia shirt!!! Did he make it? I see the Nike so either A) he screen printed it, or B) Nike has a shirt I don't know about. (Option B: highly unlikely.)

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  19. Dude - next time you're in my backyard, give me a heads up! I probably walked right passed you.

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  20. Did that white dude realize that he did NOT belong with the group of four black guys winning the race?

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