Philadelphia Marathon

Philadelphia Marathon

Philadelphia Marathon

( 65 reviews )
98% of reviewers recommend this race
  • Philadelphia,
    Pennsylvania,
    United States
  • November
  • 5 miles/8K, 13.1 miles/Half Marathon, 26.2 miles/Marathon
  • Road Race
  • Event Website

Emily

Pennsylvania, United States
2 4
2014
"You have to run this race!!"
Overall
T-Shirts/SWAG
Aid Stations
Course Scenery
Expo Quality
Elevation Difficulty
Parking/Access
Race Management
Emily 's thoughts:

Having grown up in a suburb outside of Philadelphia, I'd spent a lot of time in the city of brotherly love. After running the Philly Half for the first time in 2013, I felt as though it had opened my eyes to the true beauty of my city.

Management:
The Philadelphia Marathon Race weekend is no joke. Between the full marathon and the half, there are about 30,000+ runners that participate. Not to mention the spectators that come out to support. Gore-Tex is the company that manages these races and I’ve gotta say – they kill it.

Race:
Living 30 minutes from the city I have never needed to get a hotel the night before. I usually leave at about 5:00am to beat traffic and arrive at a friends house in south Philly at 5:45. We then take the subway (about a 15 minute ride) to Independence Hall, which leaves us with a ten minute walk down the Ben Franklin parkway and into our corrals. The race starts at 7:00am, which of course is when the elite group takes off. Running in a race this large means that getting to the starting line is going to take some time. Even though the gun goes off at 7:00am, I usually cross the starting line at about 7:25am, but of course that all depends on which corral you are in.
The first few miles are always the hardest for me. The streets during the first mile and a half are lined with spectators, which is a great motivator to start off with. You head down to Columbus blvd. where there are almost no spectators until you hit mile 3-4 on South Street. From that point all the way until miles 7 and 8, the historic streets of Philly are lined with family, friends and residents that come out to cheer you on. There are always tons of posters and people giving out high fives. Another cool thing is that each runners name is printed on the front of their bib, so complete strangers will yell “great job, Emily, keep it up!”, which is nice to hear! Another thing that I personally look forward to seeing is around mile 7, you run right through Drexel University frat row and a lot of the students will be outside cheering you on as they shotgun beers (being a college student myself, I get a chuckle out of this). Mile 8 is pretty easy as you run past the zoo, another great Philadelphia attraction. Mile 9 roles around and you enter Fairmount Park where there is one hill in particular that I always battle with (this past year, I won). The road does wind in this part, which is different from the rest of the course, which is very straight and flat. At mile 11, you finally make your way to MLKJ Drive along the Schuylkill River. This is the part that always tests my mental strength as this is where my muscles tend to stiffen and the urge to stop creeps up. But, you keep on pushing and eventually the Art Museum comes in view and you can hear the cheering at the finish line. The finish line is the most exciting part of this entire race because there are thousands of people screaming and cheering you on as you sprint for the end. This type of energy always helps me to finish strong even when I feel like collapsing.
The finish line is always crazy but amongst the chaos, the volunteers are very organized and on top of things. Immediately you are awarded the finisher medal and wrapped up in a warming blanket. The goodie bags were also always readily available to grab and go. After you leave the finish area they have certain areas labeled alphabetically which is where you can arrange to meet your family/friends. This has always made it easy for me to reunite with my parents and even friends that have finished running as well.

As you can probably tell, I am a big fan of this race. I’m already registered and have been counting down the days until the 2015 race since April. I would recommend this race to anyone, experienced runner or beginner because there is no greater feeling than crossing the finish line in the city of brother love.

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