Philly at 5:30 amThis weekend was the 2009 Philadelphia marathon was going on. I didn't run it, but my sister ran it. And she owned it.
I had always planned on going down to watch Jenna run, but I had decided that I wanted it to be a surprise. I called her the night before and played it off that i was going out for brunch the next day with a friend and that I couldn't wait to hear about it.
She told me later that she was really sad that I wasn't coming...little did she know!
Sunday morning I woke at 3:30am and went down to my car - people were still coming home from the bars at this time. I was on the road by 4; Gitty and excited about surprising her. I was only on 3 hours of sleep but I had a large tea so I knew I would stay awake. I had been texting Alex (Tall boy AKA her man) so I could easily find her. I got to the start by 5:45 and waited by the sea of port-a-poties. It is HARD to keep a surprise. I wanted to tweet something so many times but I knew she would see it. Finally I got a call from Alex on there exact whereabouts and I found them. I ran up and gave her a big hug! She did a triple take and said "OMG! I know you!" I gave her a big hug and met Jenn (AKA
Purpleshoe) a twitter/Daily mile buddy.
It was soooo cold!
Alex and I headed to the start to watch them cross the line. It was cool we got to see the wheel chair participant (there was only one) and all the elites start.


Finally Jenna and Jenn crossed and we cheer loudly as she passed.


Next stop was Mile 6. She was planning on running with Jenn who is a speed demon so we hauled ass over there to make sure we wouldn't miss her. We were counting on seeing her around the 57 minute mark. We made it over there with time to spare. I had a sign that I wish I had taken a picture of...but it said "Think of the Beer" "Beer @mile 26.2" "My Sister ROCKS." Alex had a sign that said "Run Tiny Jenna Run" and "I Love U." As they passed we cheered and screamed for them!


Next stop was mile 13.1 - which was located right next to the start. We walked back over. We were expecting to see them close to 1:50 - 2:00. We saw Jenn first and we cheer for her loudly. She gave us a look like she was not doing so hot :(

We saw Jenna approach shortly there after with a huge smile on her face!

She smiles for most of the race actually. Plus she looked like she was having a blast! Next we wanted to get to mile 19 so we hopped in a cab. I was pretty exhausted so I was going to take a nap...but the cabbie must have learned to drive in NYC because he was like our cab drivers. I got so freaking nauseous. BLAH. We got close to mile 19 and we hopped out of the cab and walked over a bridge where we saw a cab parked. We asked him if he was driving today and he said he would take us to where the start is in when we came back. Sweet.
We got to mile 19 and called Jenn's family and they said they were at mile 18 so we started to walk back. I held my sign and cheered loudly. What kind of sucked about this marathon is miles 15-25 were basically a there and back...since there was not a lot of transportation, there were few spectators. People were glad to see our signs and it put a smile on a lot of peoples pain stricken faces. We got a text that Jenna had passed mile 18 so we knew we'd see her soon. Sure enough up the hill she came!









I absolutely love those pictures. She had the biggest smile and she was so happy! She looked like she was having fun. We screamed for her and Alex gave her a high five. So proud of what she had done thus far. She was making amazing time.
We walked up to mile 18 and waited for Jenn with her family. Soon Jenn came and started crying telling us that she throw up at mile 10 :(. Luckily her friend jumped in to run to the turn around and back with her. Now we debated waiting for Jenn and taking a ride back with them or going to catch the cabbie. We decided we didn't want to risk missing Jenna cross so we started to walk back to mile 21/19. We soon saw Jenna coming and we cheer for her again.



She was doing so well! STILL SMILING! :D I'm glad we got to see her twice out there...from what I heard, the turn around SUCKED.
We walked back to the cab...wow, that was an interesting experience. First he wanted to show us his property and the view he had. True it was nice, but we wanted to see Jenna finished. Finally we got in the car that reeeeeaked of weed. I can't say I was too surprised...he had a beard that only ZZ Top could appreciate. He started to tell us joke...turtle and snail jokes. They were lame so we just chuckled to make him feel like he was funny. THEN he started to go into racist and religious jokes. Such an uncomfortable car ride. BUT he did get us there in time!
We hopped out and started to look for a nice cold beer. 2 problems....one, it was Sunday before noon, two there was no beer! Since when is Philly a dry city? Ha. We walked over to the finished about 4:15 into her race. I was expecting to see her at 4:30 or later. She was hauling ass so I knew she would have amazing PR. Alex spotted her first and started cheering. I whipped out my camera and got these two shots.


Then that yellow shirt guy block my view of her. We screamed our heads off and ran to find her. I ignored the do not cross cones and ran up to hug her. She looked so happy and teary eyed. My watch clocked her at 4:25:47. DAMN! And I knew I had started it early. Her official time was 4:25:32!
Overall Place 4795/7474
Gender Place 1619/3110
Division Place 429/787
Age Grade 51%
Pace 10:07.8
10K 1:00:20
Half 2:09:42
30K 3:06:52
Full 4:25:32
I had her on athlete tracker...and it actually gave me updates on time! Unlike the NYCM tracker that updated me in weird orders and a few hours late.



I am so proud of you Jenna. You always say that you quit when things get hard, this is proof that that is not true! You totally kicked butt in that marathon. I love you and am SOOOO proud of you! You have inspired me in so many ways. I cant wait to run with you and run a 1/2 marathon in the spring with you. I still look up to you and will always want to be like you. Keep your spirits up. You can do anything you set your mind to do! :)