Tuesday November 6th 2007 The Philly Half Marathon

As reported previously, Lynn and myself went to run the Philadelphia Rock and Roll Half Marathon in, you will never guess, Philadelphia! I must say it is a very well organized race (much along the lines of the Cirencester 10k really!); a flat course that takes in both downtown Philly and Fairmount Park which gives the impression of being out in the countryside. The start and finish of the race is outside the Museum of Art, for movie buffs these are the steps that Rocky runs up in the films series Rocky. It would seem most Americans are more interested in running up the steps, throwing their arms in the air and having their photo taken than visiting the museum, they even have inlaid footprints for you to stand on, oh and there’s a statue of Rocky in the grounds to be photographed by - American history, you can’t beat it, no wonder I love going to the place. Enough of me taking the proverbial, there were a few Brits plus other nations step running - no it was not me, I have the photos to prove it.
Back to the race, after the national anthem (have you ever tried singing God Save the Queen to the tune of the Star Spangled Banner, it’s not easy) we were off. I have to say, I have never been in a race with such a smooth transition into the race, considering there were 14,000 in the event it was meticulously planned.
The first 4.8 miles takes you on a trip downtown to the historic district and back to the Museum of Art, you then head out on the left side of the river. At the 15k point you cross over the river and head back to the Museum of Art. This part of the run feels like running in the countryside, you are on closed, tree-lined roads with the river always on your right, very pleasant.
There was a painful (to me anyway) little rise in the last 1k - when I mentioned this to Lynn she said ‘What rise?,’ the bitch! Being a Rock and Roll½ marathon there were 10 or 11 bands around the course, which does make for a great atmosphere, but Rock and Roll!!! At the 15k point there was a guy dressed in tartan playing the bagpipes - Jock Rock (that’s probably politically incorrect), this did make me speed up for 800m. There were two or three good rock bands but the rest were just not rock bands, good but not rock, but who cares it was still a great race and atmosphere, I would recommend it to anyone.

Posted by Lynn Ferris at 16:32 GMT