"This was my first-ever 1/2 marathon, so nerves were at an all-time high! The pre-race was easy enough, bib and T-shirt pick-up was simple. But when it was almost starting time, the line-up was a disaster, with all the runners fighting for space. And this was just the start of 13

"Having failed to secure a spot in the NYC Marathon (the only marathon I've run -- and only once), I looked for a race that would be close to home, and have good crowd support. I read up on Philly, saw that it was fairly flat, and that there was

There were so many spectators that I lost track of time and distance and ended up with a PR.