{"id":29637,"date":"2018-11-10T19:21:40","date_gmt":"2018-11-11T00:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=29637"},"modified":"2018-11-10T19:21:40","modified_gmt":"2018-11-11T00:21:40","slug":"a-rocky-run-the-italian-stallion-challenge-and-a-micro-to-macro-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=29637","title":{"rendered":"A Rocky Run – The Italian Stallion Challenge and a Micro To Macro Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Risin’ up, back on the street.<\/div>\n
Did my time, took my chances.<\/div>\n
Went the distance now I\u2019m back on my feet…<\/div>\n
Just a man and his will to survive.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
–“Eye of the Tiger,” Survivor<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So this happened:<\/p>\n

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The Rocky Run was a 5k at 7 am and a 10 miler at 7:45 am. \u00a0If you ran them back-to-back, you took the Italian Stallion Challenge for a 13.1 mile distance.<\/p>\n

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Of course I took the challenge. \u00a0You don\u2019t eat lightning if you aren\u2019t prepared to crap thunder. \u00a0I think that\u2019s what Mickey tells Rocky in training.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019m going to mix sports metaphors and movie references here but hear me out. \u00a0Susan Sarandon or maybe Kevin Costner advise Tim Robbins on what to say in interviews after a baseball game. \u00a0I can\u2019t recall the exact wording but the gist is, \u201csome days you win, some days you lose and some days it rains.\u201d \u00a0That kind of sums up my Rocky Run experience, a race inspired partly by a training running montage in a movie about a boxer.<\/p>\n

Confused? \u00a0Since the micro is about this race experience, just know that it\u2019s also in the macro for life itself. \u00a0So when it comes to understanding me or me making sense, some days you win, some days you lose, and some days it rains.<\/p>\n

When I landed in Philly, it was drizzling. \u00a0I won though by still powering through to visit the temporary art installation down at the Philly Naval Yard. \u00a0Here there be sea monsters… and there I go for Instagram photo bonanzas!<\/p>\n

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In picking up my bib, the skies opened and the winds came and it got colder, wetter, and a whole lot less sunny in Philadelphia. \u00a0As I posted to social media, this city and I apparently don\u2019t agree on the definitions of the words \u201calways,\u201d \u201csunny\u201d and \u201cin.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But the stormy weather subsided at night when I caught up with one of my dearest friends from high school. \u00a0And yet we probably haven\u2019t seen each other in close to a decade. \u00a0It was great catching up with him and while he seemingly hasn\u2019t aged, I look more and more like an elderly shar pei.<\/p>\n

I was a bit taken aback that his eldest daughter is off to college this fall. I felt incredibly old. I suppose when you have kids it’s both harder on you and easier to see time flashing past; they grow up so fast I hear… and see. \u00a0My pal Eric and his wife have five kids and he is an ordained minister juggling two churches; I on the other hand was preparing to run a half marathon dressed like a 1976-era Sylvester Stallone. \u00a0That\u2019s about on target for those “most likely” votes in the ol\u2019 yearbook.<\/p>\n

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The morning brought the sun … and the pain. \u00a0It wasn\u2019t as cold as I thought it\u2019d be at the start but I was still glad to be rocking the grey sweats of Rocky B.<\/p>\n

But as the 5k carried on, I started to get pretty hot. \u00a0I actually thought maybe I\u2019d strip the sweatshirt and the costume be damned.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019m glad I didn\u2019t, and not just from a photographic perspective. \u00a0Waiting for the 10 miler to start, dark clouds appeared and a light drizzle fell. \u00a0It didn\u2019t last long but the temperature dropped precipitously… or if it didn\u2019t drop, the wind certainly picked up as a chill cut through me. \u00a0And sweat from earlier froze to my skin, creating a ever deeper cold. \u00a0But the sun would occasionally poke out and heat me up again, with me sweating like a stuck pig. \u00a0And then more clouds would lead to more winds and more chill.<\/p>\n

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Having finished, I took some touristy photos in celebration, arms raised in Balboa triumph.<\/p>\n

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Getting back to my car though was like walking in a refrigerated wind tunnel. \u00a0But I didn\u2019t want to leave without a few more Classic Philly moments. \u00a0Sure, sure. \u00a0I missed the Liberty Bell and Betsy Ross and countless other founding fathers and mothers historical sites. \u00a0But I got these, so…<\/p>\n

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***<\/p>\n

And speaking of classic Philly, I did stop by Pat\u2019s for a cheesesteak \u201cwit wiz.\u201d \u00a0It was an awkward process, and emblematic of the comparisons Pat\u2019s draws to Seinfeld\u2019s Soup Nazi. \u00a0Pat was yelling at his son working the register for \u201cfucking it up like always.\u201d \u00a0I gathered this was stereotypical loud Italian-ness and the kid seemed unfazed at the stream of profanity coming from his father and the questioning of his mother\u2019s faithfulness given that no son of Pat\u2019s \u201ccould be this big of a fuck up.\u201d \u00a0I was mortified enough for everyone even if this kid wasn\u2019t. \u00a0I was really tempted to walk across the street to cheesesteak rival Geno\u2019s but to be honest I\u2019ve always preferred Pat\u2019s. \u00a0That said I used to defend Felipe\u2019s over Cole\u2019s in LA but the ambiance won me over for the latter. Still, nobody beats Felipe\u2019s mustard.<\/p>\n

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***<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s where winning returns to this trip. \u00a0I got a text from my buddy Brent that he was covering the Creed II junket… and he was literally less than a mile away. \u00a0He had to finish up some interviews and had to dash to catch a train to NYC, but we did get to catch up a bit over a 44 oz WaWa soda.<\/p>\n

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***<\/p>\n

I\u2019m now enjoying a decadent but delightful pizza to unnecessarily carbo load for the Bucks County Marathon tomorrow. \u00a0I ate so many cookies last night that honestly I\u2019m not sure I really should be eating anything until after the next TWO marathons. \u00a0And looking at the photos above, I am more a heavyweight than I meant to be.<\/p>\n

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My AirBNB is way farther away from the start than I realized and I probably should have just stayed in Philly and driven out in the morning. \u00a0But dumb mistakes count as a little bit of falling rain coming into life so, so it goes…<\/p>\n

Tomorrow’s forecast for the marathon is cold with bouts of cold followed by more cold. Rumor has it the high is going to be 42 degrees. That’s Fahrenheit, y’all. Or 5.5 Celsius. That’s the high… and doesn’t take into account wind chill. I can feel it in my bones, too. The other day when I fell and landed hard on my left wrist\/palm> It was finally started to feel better… and then I came to this Northeastern tundra environ. It’s been hurting more and more ever since… not due to injury but solely due to the cold. If I had a diagnosed sciatica I’d say it was acting up too.<\/p>\n

Some days you win, some days you lose, some days it rains….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Risin’ up, back on the street. Did my time, took my chances. Went the distance now I\u2019m back on my feet… Just a man and his will to survive. –“Eye of the Tiger,” Survivor So this happened: The Rocky Run was a 5k at 7 am and a 10 miler at 7:45 am. \u00a0If you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}