Hi everyone! I’m glad you enjoyed getting to know a little more about my life yesterday. Now for some more details on that awesome run I had on Tuesday! As you are all well aware, I ran my first half marathon in February and then ran my second half marathon 5 weeks later. Training for such a long time really started to get to me in the end, and running was not as fun as it used to be. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I just went out for a run and didn’t stress over making a time/distance goal. So I was desperately in need of a relaxing, fun run.
So on Tuesday my plan was to meet up with other runners at Philadelphia Runner in University City for a short fun run with Shack Track and Field. All runners get a free drink after the run at Shake Shack, and you know I’ll do anything for a free milkshake! So I headed into the city to try to make the run at 7:00 pm. There were just 2 problems: traffic and parking. And I now have a massive jeep that makes parking suck even more! So when 7:00 rolled around and I was still desperately driving around looking for parking I started to get upset. Here I was wasting gas money and precious time that I could be speeding packing with nothing to show for it. I starting driving back home when I randomly thought “Well what about running on the Schyulkill River Trail?”. I was driving over the bridge and noticed tons of runners on the trail below me. I then noticed a massive parking spot on the side of the bridge. It was practically meant to be! So after calling my husband to tell him about my change in plans, I started off on what ended up being one of the most fun runs I’ve ever done!
Looking down at the Schyulkill River Trail from the bridge!
Before I leave Philly there are tons of places I want to see again before we leave, and the fastest way to do that is while running! So I had thought up a really awesome Philly Bucket List running route that would take me past all my favorite places in Philly. While it was a bit late in the day to do the entire route, I decided I could probably knock about half of those items off my list and even without someone running with me I could still take selfies at all my favorite places! So here’s the results of my Philly bucket list selfie run:
Stop #1: The Art Museum steps AKA the Rocky Steps! I have never run these before and thought it would be really hard (there are a lot of steps!) but was happy to learn that it was really fun to run up to the top and it wasn’t tough at all!
The view from the top!
Cherry blossoms on the side of the Art Museum! I love spring!
Stop #2: the Rocky statue! I got tired of waiting in line so I just took a selfie with Rocky and some random fans
Running into the city. This was the route we took during the Love Run Half, but it was too foggy to see the buildings during that race!
Stop #3: City Hall! It was impossible to take a selfie of it without cutting William Penn out of the picture!
Stop #4: Love Park! Worst selfie ever but hey, it’s harder than it looks. Also my hair was a hot mess at this point.
Running back towards my car!
Back at the start! The river looks so much prettier at night!
My Jeep deserves some selfie love too! Notice the sweet new 13.1 magnet!
The entire run including time for selfies, waiting in line for pictures with Rocky, and all the millions of traffic lights took 1 hour to complete. I only ran about 3.5 miles (I forgot to turn Run Keeper off and started driving around which added to my total distance ran!) but it was the best 3.5 miles ever! I didn’t care about my pace or my finishing time goals or even how far I was running. I just ran. I ran fast on the long stretches of sidewalk and slow around all the touristy spots. I people watched while I waited for traffic lights to change. My brain didn’t think one negative thing the entire time and it felt so good! And bonus perk: my new shoes officially rock! Nothing on my lower body hurt during this run and I give my new shoes all the credit!
After running I realized I was starving and totally forgot to eat dinner, so I headed over to Shake Shack to eat the dinner I’d planned on eating with the Shack Track and Field runners. If you’ve never had their cheeseburgers and milkshakes you are seriously missing out! No pictures of that because I ate that thing so fast! Overall it was a perfect run with a really happy ending. And for the record, after my run I was able to find a parking spot right in front of Shake Shack. I guess everything really does happen for a reason! And hopefully next week I’ll be able to finish my Philly Bucket List run with all the places I want to run in Old City!
Have you ever done a touristy run around the city? Do you take running selfies? Are you as addicted to Shake Shack as I am?
Mom in the Mtns 
I LOVE the idea of a “city tour” run. I should do one of all the DC monuments. I wish I made it up the Rocky steps when i was there for the LOVE run… but that rain… haha 🙂
Yes do it!!!! I really want to run a half marathon in DC so that I can run all over the city! All the monuments would make awesome selfie photo ops! And yeah, no step running for me after that run either!
I love this! I’m always looking for new routes to run, so I will have to remember this for next time I come down into the city for a run.
I never run in the city unless it’s for a race because parking sucks, but this was really fun! The traffic lights were annoying though so don’t plan on making any time goals in the city!
What a fun idea! And without worrying about your numbers, you must have felt so relaxed after. I look forward to your Old City tour. Have fun!
Oh it was the best feeling ever! I’m still feeling relaxed from it!
What a fun idea to have a bucket list run! I’ve never done one, but I’ll have to plan one out in a city I love one day 🙂 I’m glad you didn’t let missing meeting up the other runners ruin your night.
Good to hear your new shoes are working out well too!
You totally should! I feel like I need to do this when I go on vacation to a new city because it was such a fun way to see all the sights!
It’s so easy to forget that we all live in beautiful special places. I’m definitely taking a tourist run in Tampa this week now! 🙂
Awesome! I totally want to hear all about it. I’ve never been to Tampa!
That sounds like a great run! I need to do that this spring/summer! I really want to run up those Rocky Steps!
What a fun foot tour! I’ve run around Baltimore plenty of times, but never on my own. I bet that would be fun. And yes I would be a selfie queen!
Your city is so run friendly! I wish mine was like that. I like your idea of a city tour run. Sounds fun!
To answer your questions: yes, never!, and double yes!!