Mini-Race Report - Rock-N-Roll Half, Philadelphia

[Kristia]

Well, it took me a week, but here's my race report from the RNR Half Philadelphia! I am going to try to make it pretty short since I did one last year for the same race and took mostly the same pictures.

First of all, I love the expo for this race. They have a good mix of vendors and a lot of samples. I had been toying with the idea of going a different direction for shoes and was able to try the Newtons. Not sure I liked them. They were springy but they felt a bit weird. They would take some getting used too so I passed at that time. My sister wanted to try and move up to our corral and at the expo it was very easy to switch. We were in 18 and she was in 22. They just asked her which one she wanted to be in and they switched it.

The race started at 8 am and we were in the city by 7 am. Last year they had more portapots on the way to the race but this year there were only a couple that I saw.



Swann Fountain - Philadelphia by SupersonicNJ, on Flickr

We made our way to our corrals. They had potties set up all they way along the corrals. The first ones had horrendous lines but by the time we walked back to our corrals, the back ones didn't have long lines at all. We missed the Slurpee the truck that was giving free samples last year. There wasn't any this year.

I did see tables with water and bananas but we were good and didn't need any snacks.


Washington Monument and Art Museum - Philadelphia by SupersonicNJ, on Flickr


Washington Monument - Philadephia by SupersonicNJ, on Flickr

Before

RocknRoll Half 2013 027 by SupersonicNJ, on Flickr


RocknRoll Half 2013 030 by SupersonicNJ, on Flickr


RocknRoll Half 2013 031 by SupersonicNJ, on Flickr

One thing that was kind of annoying was they had one speaker playing the National Anthem at the start but all the other speakers were playing ACDC which drowned it out.

Almost to the start!

RocknRoll Half 2013 036 by SupersonicNJ, on Flickr

My niece and brother-in-law came out to cheer us on.

RocknRoll Half 2013 051 by SupersonicNJ, on Flickr

 

[Kristia]

Some pics along the way...
Sculpture with the Philadelphia Zoo balloon in the distance

RocknRoll Half 2013 065 by SupersonicNJ, on Flickr

Always love the cool old bridges along Kelly Drive

RocknRoll Half 2013 068 by SupersonicNJ, on Flickr


RocknRoll Half 2013 069 by SupersonicNJ, on Flickr

Falls River Bridge - You know you are getting closer after you cross this bridge which is around mile 9.


Falls River Bridge by SupersonicNJ, on Flickr

My favorite band of the day! First Highland Watch...bagpipes and electric guitars = awesome! I really wish I could have stayed to watch! Check them out on youtube.

RocknRoll Half 2013 077 by SupersonicNJ, on Flickr

Boathouse Row! Only a mile left!

Boathouse Row, Philadelphia by SupersonicNJ, on Flickr

The after!

RocknRoll Half 2013 082 by SupersonicNJ, on Flickr

The shirt and the bling!

RocknRoll Half 2013 084 by SupersonicNJ, on Flickr


RocknRoll Half 2013 082 by SupersonicNJ, on Flickr


RocknRoll Half 2013 085 by SupersonicNJ, on Flickr

 

[ChristaH]

Love that bling! Congrats on a good run!

 

[Kristia]

So just a few thoughts on the race. It was a beautiful day with low humidity but it was quite warm at the finish and was pushing 80 degrees. I ran it 5 minutes slower than I did last year as did Dan. I finished in 2:30 and Dan was 2:28. I think for me it was a combination of the heat and taking the past few weeks off due to my shin issues. My shin was achy during the race but nothing too bad.

I did notice that there was a shortage of volunteers at the water stops this year. Most of the tables were turned over at the stops and they only had two with water. I never ran into a problem but I heard other runners complaining about getting to stops and having to pour their own water or having no water at all.

Again, I didn't have an issue but at the finish, they ran out of nearly everything but water for the later finishers. My sister came in just under 3 hours (max time allowed was 4 hours) and they had no Gatorade or chocolate milk and very little food. Later people posted on facebook that they had witnessed runners leaving the area with boxes of chips and drinks. Ugh.....what is the matter with people?! They really need to start making goody bags because people can't be trusted to act in an appropriate way. It would also make it easier to carry the food out. I knew from experience that they didn't have bags at the end so I packed the clear gear bag they gave us into my spibelt and had it at the end. They also ran out of medals because they said 1000 medals were "stolen" at the finish line. People were given a generic RNR series medal and later told that they would be mailed the real one. I think people were taking multiple medals at the end too because I personally saw the volunteers just handing them to anyone. Luckily the woman I saw that was handed another gave it back but I am sure not everyone did.

Overall, I had a great time and I really love doing this race. They seemed to cut a few corners this year and hopefully they will learn from it next year. They need more volunteers (which I know are hard to get) and they really need to address the food issues so that everyone can have something when they are done running.

 

[Kristia]

Love that bling! Congrats on a good run!

Thanks!

 

[JillC LI]

Great race report Kristy. Love that photo of the natural arch/bridge - it reminded me of what we just saw in Utah. Congrats.

 

[Kristia]

Great race report Kristy. Love that photo of the natural arch/bridge - it reminded me of what we just saw in Utah. Congrats.

Thanks! It is really cool to see something like that in the city.

 

[LindsayLoves]

Thanks for posting this report! Its always fun to see other races and that is quite the pretty course. Does it overlap with any of the Philadelphia marathon you are doing in November?

Random question.. Did you have any Garmin issues? I read a race report on another site and the poster said that their Garmin was really spotty (losing signal, etc) in the beginning of the race. That would drive me nuts if I was shooting for a goal time.

 

[Texas84]

Will you do the Rocky 50K?

http://blogs.phillymag.com/the_philly_post/2013/09/18/rocky-training-run-rocky-ii/

 

[Mad Stitch]

Thanks for the report. It makes me nervous to hear about them running out of things since I'm doing the R'nR Cleveland 1/2 Marathon in less then two weeks. If I got to the finish line and they were out of medals, I would be really upset. Why would someone steal 1,000 medals? What would you do with them? 22 (plus?) corrals, wow.

 

[Kristia]

Thanks for posting this report! Its always fun to see other races and that is quite the pretty course. Does it overlap with any of the Philadelphia marathon you are doing in November?

Random question.. Did you have any Garmin issues? I read a race report on another site and the poster said that their Garmin was really spotty (losing signal, etc) in the beginning of the race. That would drive me nuts if I was shooting for a goal time.

There are some spots that it overlaps but the marathon goes through quite a bit more of Center City and South Street. The scary part for me is part of it is an out and back where you run by Falls River Bridge and quite a distance into Manyunk (where there are some killer hills) and then back down Kelly Drive to finish. I was thinking about that when I was running the half. I was thinking about how tired I was and how I would cross by this and still only be a little more than halfway done for the marathon.

My Garmin has never lost signal running through Philly. My distance was 13.3 at the end which I think is from not taking the shortest route and weaving in and out of people. I did hear people complaining that theirs read almost 14 miles. Not sure why that was. I checked my Garmin data from last year and it was also 13.3.

Will you do the Rocky 50K?

http://blogs.phillymag.com/the_philly_post/2013/09/18/rocky-training-run-rocky-ii/

That is funny!

Thanks for the report. It makes me nervous to hear about them running out of things since I'm doing the R'nR Cleveland 1/2 Marathon in less then two weeks. If I got to the finish line and they were out of medals, I would be really upset. Why would someone steal 1,000 medals? What would you do with them? 22 (plus?) corrals, wow.

I know its crazy! My sister got the Philly medal and she was quite a way behind us. I have heard (don't know if it is true or not) that volunteers were handing them out to runner's kids too. Someone made a point that they probably didn't have enough to start since they said there were 18,000+ finishers and 22,000 registered. If they had enough for everyone that signed up, wouldn't that still leave a surplus if 1000 were missing? There were 24 corrals all together but they were smaller than they were last year. They sent them off every 2 minutes or so.

 

[JillC LI]

Will you do the Rocky 50K?

http://blogs.phillymag.com/the_philly_post/2013/09/18/rocky-training-run-rocky-ii/

I saw that too! But I won't be running it

 

[Maryssa*]

Wowww what a gorgeous run!

 

[Kristia]

Wowww what a gorgeous run!

It is a really pretty course. There are some parts that are through the city but even those are nice. You run by Independence Hall and the building were the Liberty Bell is kept. City Hall is a really neat building that you run by also. It is also relatively flat which is nice but they do throw in a pretty good incline at the very end. Pretty evil of them!