ODDyssey Half Marathon

I was hesitant to sign up for the ODDyssey half marathon as I figured I would be in full triathlon training mode at this point and didn't want to risk an injury. After getting some great training in while I was in Myrtle Beach and attending the open water swim clinics at Camp Ockanickon, I was feeling really good about my triathlon training progress. Plus coming off my impressive Broad Street time, I wanted to keep my running speed up. I figured that doing another half marathon, my third one this year, should only help with my triathlon training. I knew a lot of my friends from the WPR were doing it too which influenced my decision.

As the race date got closer the temperatures and humidity began increasing. I think we were spared the worst of it by having an overcast sky at the start of the race, but the humidity had people sweating pretty good in the first mile. I went to put my sunglasses on but they fogged up immediately so I just left them on my head. I started off well with a pace around 8 minute miles and was running near Heeju for the first few miles. That wouldn't last for long as I ate her dust when she blew past me around Mile 4. When I came up from Mile 3, Arwin was at the circle taking pictures of the WPR runners. As I went to wave for the picture, I noticed that I was running right next to Flint from the WPR. We ran together for a little bit and talked about how the humidity was going to be a killer. I wasn't sure if I could keep the pace up or not with the humidity.

We passed the Please Touch Museum where the the start and finish line was located. As we wound down onto West River Drive, there was Alon cheering everyone on and taking pictures of the WPR runners. The first water stop on West River Drive was being manned by Students Run Philly Style volunteers including Matt and Rich. It was great to see some familiar faces for some extra motivation.

As I was running along West River Dr, my pace started quickening. I decided to go with it and see if I could keep it up as the course was pretty flat there. When I came to the first turnaround I saw that Dan was just ahead of me. I caught up with him around the half race mark. We jockeyed back and forth for next three miles. That's when the humidity, and probably the Plyo workout that I had done two days prior, made my legs very heavy. By the last turnaround on West River Dr, I had to do some run/walks to give my legs a break. I was able to get it going again until I hit the big hill at the 12.5 mile mark. I only walked once on the hill and for a few seconds at the top to catch my breath. Once my lungs were ready, I got the pace back up as I passed Arwin in the circle again. I knew that a final sprint would get me a time under my goal time of 1:45:00. I had good long strides going and could see the clock ahead. I  hit my goal with an official finishing time of 1:44:43. I knew I had it but it's another race where I left time on the table with having to walk which was disappointing. I need to get that cleaned up and run a complete race.

ODDyssey has a great post race bash. Sly Fox was pouring free beer into beer glasses provided by the race sponsors. I took advantage of this nice race benefit and got my money's worth of Sly Fox. I almost stayed too long as I wanted to get a free post-race massage. They were closing up the massage area when I stumbled over, but one of the therapists took me in and I got a awesome 10 minute massage on my legs. It felt incredible and I wish I would have gotten one before the race. The race medals are pretty cool replicas of the Liberty Bell and have a bottle opener built into the medal. Very cool!