Philly Full+Half

I was hesitant to post, but are you kidding me. With a start time of 8AM, there will be people finishing from 9:05-11. At 9:05 there will be people also finishing the Rothman 8k. The original plan on the website said that the 1/2M were branching off to their right as they come up the hill towards the art museum and going around Eakins Oval. This plan would have still allowed the halfers to merge with 8kers and fast marathon finishers and lessen the confusion. Coming to a dead stop 125 feet from the finish is going to be a mess. I will be taking pics of this and can't wait to see what happens.

OK, took a careful look at both maps, and here's what I can deduce.

The half and full courses are the same until just past 10 miles, which is on Belmont Ave. just after you pass Memorial Hall.

The half marathoners will then take the FIRST right onto Landsdowne, while the marathoners will continue on to the SECOND right onto Horticultural. Then (and here's where things could get SNAFU'd) the two courses rejoin on Landsdowne, almost immediately after the halfers have taken that turn. So essentially, the marathoners just do an extra loop on Horticultural (one of the nicer stretches on the course, BTW) and then come right back to the half course.

The organizers are going to have to be very diligent about making sure marathoners don't make that first right and cut about 0.1 from the course, inadvertantly or deliberately. That, and the HM turnaround 175 ft. from the finish, lead me to have some reservations about how this is all going to work out. I'm holding my breath.

If you look at the maps, I think the split is well before the mile 10 marker.

Random Lurker wrote:

If you look at the maps, I think the split is well before the mile 10 marker.

I'm going off the course certification maps, not what's on the website. In fact, on the half map it says "This course is identical to the Philadelphia Marathon - 2005 course up to shortly after mile 10."

Thanks for posting this map.

Do you have a detailed map similar to this for the full marathon course.

The map on the Philly marathon website isn't too detailed.

Thanks

It's the same as last year. You can get it from the USATF website.

In that case I retract my original comment and replace it with:

"Yikes"

Sorry, try this link - gets right to the map.

http://www.usatf.org/events/courses/search/searchResults.asp?courseID=&distance=42.195&distanceUnits=km&distanceComparison=%3D&city=Philadelphia&state=PA&courseName=&courseStatus=A&courseType=R&drop=&dropComparison=&separation=&separationComparison=&certificationYear=&lastName=&queryType=basic&format=view&submit=Search

Random Lurker wrote:

In that case I retract my original comment and replace it with:

"Yikes"

I agree.

The whole thing is beginning to remind me of a buddy's training philosophy:

"If a little is good, more is better, and too much is just right."

Hopefully the result won't be a Yogi-ism, "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded."

Now I'm scared. JimG has always been the biggest fan of this race. if he has his doubts...

From the first Star Wars:

Luke Skywalker: "I'm not afraid."

Gravel-voiced alien: "You will be!"