The Evil Twins in Philly

Truly, this story is ET#2's to tell. Mine is a less interesting one, but as it is the start of my week I thought I should tell my version.

In April after I finished my Boston Marathon 1/3 life crisis run, ET#2 convinced me that she and I should go to Philadelphia and run a marathon there. Being weak and always giving into peer pressure, I said why not. (After making a solemn vow to my Maker and never to run again.) I spent the summer in Japan thinking I would have plenty of time to train when I returned to the US. In the meantime, friends who tried to get numbers for the New York Marathon did not, and joined in the Evil Twin's Philly invasion plans.

Leading up to the Philadelphia Marathon, I sent a few cheesy e-mails to psyche up our rag tag crew. But somehow in my mind it was still something that was not going to happen. Most of my training this autumn consisted of me doing 8 long runs with D. I tried to put in the junk miles in the week, but my heart was not into it. I tried to start a rivalry with the postdoc from a neighboring lab, but that fell apart too.

On Saturday morning, right before my flight left for Philadelphia, I was in the lab splitting cells. Then "Woosh" I was in the city of Brotherly Love.

Since I ended up splitting a hotel room with G, he and I spent time doing our preMarathon rituals together. We went to the Expo picked up our numbers, went to a pasta dinner with everyone at a swanky place downtown, took , watched "Invinceable" starring Mark Wahlberg (appropriate because we were in Philadelphia after all), and then took an Ambien.

The morning was overcast and chilly, I freaked out about what I was going to wear. I calmed down a little at breakfast. But freaked out again at the start line when I could not find ET#2. Once the race started, I felt a little weird. D and I were planning to run together, but he shot ahead with 4 hour pace group. I kept up for less than a mile realizing that I was not feeling well, still feeling unsettled. I ran with G and N at a more comfortable pace and along the way we ran into other members of our team like NOB. I developed a nasty blister on my pinky toe at around mile 12 and complained about it until the end. I was pleasantly surprised to see ET#2's parents, ET #2's BF, and Kentak3, Mamacita and Xtian along the route. Probably the highlight of my run was seeing ET#2 trucking down the road with her iPod shuffle. I yelled her name so loud that until the end of the marathon the runners around me kept calling me "ET#2's friend."

After the race was over, I made a lame attempt to go find ET#2. But as I was limping and shivering in my silver blanket, I was reminded that promises made prior to running all 26.2 miles should be null and void.

Instead I went to the hotel for a hot shower, went to Lincoln Financial Field, ate a philly cheesteak and fries, and went out to dinner with high school friends. I got home on Monday afternoon and stayed in my nice warm bed until Tuesday morning.

Today as I write this entry, the whole thing still feel a little unreal.