The City of Brotherly Love or Why Do They Park on the Median

When I last left you, we were gorging on Sonic, preparing to head north.  Almost 250 MILES north, to be exact-ish.

See...we'd made a commitment to go cheer on a member of the pod.  We didn't have to.  She didn't ask us to.  It's just that I'm fortunate to have a super supportive family, willing to travel to cheer for us.  That doesn't make them better than any other family (although they are, cuz they're related to me, duh), but it does mean that when we race, we usually have someone there ready to help us celebrate, and to motivate us when we're tired.  But I digress.

So, we hopped on the road, and traffic was actually really good.  It still felt like a long. Ass. Ride.  At that point, we'd been in the car A LOT over the last 10 days or so and I am NOT a road trip type of chick.  To me, going to Baltimore should require an overnight stay halfway there.

Anywho, we were

After an uneventful car trip, we checked into our hotel.  Because we didn't make our arrangements early (we didn't mean Janeen until a month or so before the race, I think), we couldn't stay in Philadelphia proper.  So, we were at the Renaissance Philadelphia Airport.  What was interesting was that our most recent two hotels were a Courtyard by Marriott and a Spring Hill Suites.  Now, neither of those is the same caliber as the Renaissance, yet both provided a nicer experience.  The employees were nicer, and so were the rooms.  So poop to you, Renaissance.

Once we were checked in, we tried to get in touch with Janeen.  We were unsuccessful at first, so we decided to take a little nap.  Now, because of my issues, Kelsey usually changes the sheets.  However, this was a king-size bed, so she had to get creative.  We kinda wrapped up in our sheets from home.  That was some of the best sleep I've had in I don't know how long.  Then, it was time to brave the mean streets of Philadelphia to see our girl (aka Nikki's person).

Philadelphia welcomes runners

The scenery in Philadelphia is STUNNING.  THIS is what we drove up to:

City Hall

Then, we found the hotel where they were staying.  It was a really cute boutique hotel, and a far cry from the corporate vibe of ours.  Janeen came down to meet us (who knew Philly parking was even WORSE than DC?).  She seemed touched by the sign that we made:

Serendipitously, Dania came by as we were in the lobby, and she got all mushy and teary-eyed at seeing her name on the sign (we'd never met her before, but if she's cool with Janeen, she's cool with us).  This emotional reaction let me know that Dania is a woman after my own heart.

Keila was upstairs napping. LOL

We didn't stay long because we could only park for 15 minutes in a loading zone and we were STARVING!  So after a few more hugs, we drove another 30 miles to dinner.  On the way, we saw the strangest thing:

People park on the median?

We got to the restaurant, and I was honestly afraid I might get lynched.  Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but not much.  The only place I've been that was whiter was Oregon.  I mean, this was a suburb of Philly.  No color?  Zero?  Kelsey made an executive decision for us to leave, which pissed me off.  They had lobster and steak and other delicious-smelling goodnesses.  But she was right.

We went about half a block away to Buffalo Wild Wings.  See, Kelsey and I are huge UFC fans.  And just because we weren't in DC didn't mean we wouldn't be watching.  We settled into our booth for 4.5 hours of bloody battle (on the tv, not us).

The wings were delicious, service was courteous without being obsequious.  All in all, a nice meal.

Kelsey declaring her love to MJB #runcheater

The next morning, we got up, and were greeted by this sign in the lobby.  Those are glitter letters. :)

The architecture was mind-blowing.

Keep in mind, we only had around 3 hours of sleep, so we were dragging a bit.  But, the race must go on. We headed downtown to the spot where Janeen wanted us to be.  Well...that was the plan.  BUT...we couldn't find it.  I'm map-challenged, and the map wasn't that great to begin with.  So, we found ourselves near the 1 mile mark, which was great because that meant we'd get to see them when they were fresh.  The only drawback: Keila is so little that we lost her in the crowd. Poop.

And then Janeen saw us.  And she was happy.

 

The winner of the Philadelphia Marathon.  For the inquiring minds who want to know, yes, yes he DID have bloody nipples.  Yuck!

 

Back on the road to D.C.

Post-race observations:
It's a LOOOOONG walk back to the hotels from the finish line of the race.
There must be a lot of death in Philly.  How else to explain the FOUR funeral parlors within an 8-block stretch of downtown?
Homeless people are just not that into Janeen.  She offered a guy her Macy's swag bag and he waved her away dismissively.  That was semi-funny.  What wasn't so funny was when a decently-dressed woman was picking through the homeless guy's bags that other runners had donated to him.  How are you going to go "shopping" through a homeless person's donated goods?  #trifling