Philadelphia Marathon 2025

On November 23, 2025, I ran the Philadelphia Marathon. The full race FPV/POV video can be viewed on YouTube here: Philadelphia Marathon 2025 Full Race FPV/POV

Unfortunately, the curse continues and the watch health stats seem to indicate some sort of illness before the race. No new best time but had a good tour of the city. I was surprised at how hilly the course is. I had expected it to be a lot less hilly than Marine Corps Marathon but it turns out Philadelphia has a few more feet of climb than Marine Corps.

Travel

I traveled to Philadelphia via Amtrak. I coincidentally had to travel for work to Philadelphia, so I went there on Monday, November 17. I actually had to cancel my original ticket since I had purchased a ticket for Friday, November 21. I did lose some money since I purchased the discounted non-refundable fare. My train was delayed due to trains being stopped for a fire, so I arrived 1 hour later than scheduled.

I stayed at the Sonesta booked via the hotel booking site linked from the race website page. Sonesta was the cheapest option but required a minimum stay of 2/3 nights. I forget which number, but a minimum was advertised on the booking page. One nice thing is that Sonesta is located closest to the race start/finish area so you could walk there if needed. An additional convenience is that Sonesta is located at one of the four bus routes the race offers for pickup and dropoff for races Saturday and Sunday.

The trip home was uneventful. I originally booked a 11:20am train via Amtrak but noticed it was delayed. Fortunately, I was at the train station just as an earlier train was about to arrive so I quickly changed my ticket to that train and got home about 2 hours earlier. So going forward, it pays to buy the flexible ticket at a higher price so you can change it on demand.

Expo

The expo was held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. I went Friday afternoon at about 4:15pm, and there were long lines for the half-marathon and 8k bib pickup. The marathon line had nobody in comparison and I got my bib and shirt quickly. Probably helps that the marathoners can also pickup Saturday while the other distances cannot. I wandered the expo looking for some accessories to keep warm since the forecast had start temps near freezing. I took a spin at a prize wheel and won my pick of shirt or a mug! I finally decided to leave after about an hour so I could try searching for what I wanted to buy at nearby clothing stores.

Carb Loading

Since I entered the city early due to work trip, I changed from my usual carb load standard since I thought I got enough carbs from eating with coworkers. I started the standard strategy on Friday, eating a hotdog bun and some licorice at each meal.

Race Day

Weather

The weather was cold at start and warmed up at finish time. There was, no precipitation but it did get a little windy. The half-marathon the day earlier did unfortunately start with rain. At start around 7:00am, the temp was 33F with 30F dew point. At around 2:54pm, the temp was 51F with 42F dew point.

Extra Stuff

As per usual, I was wearing my recording gear:

• GoPro Hero13 Black
• GoPro Headstrap 2.0
• GoPro Contacto
• Anker Portable Charger

Unfortunately, a lot of the GoPro footage is crooked since the camera tilted on my head. I frequently check the alignment but I guess I must have forgotten a while or mistakenly aligned it wrong when checking.

Nutrition

About one hour before the race started, I ate a serving of licorice.

Carry:

• 1x Bonk Breaker Green Apple Energy Chews
• 2x Sport Beans(R) Jelly Beans Assorted Flavors
• 4x Mott’s(R) Assorted Fruit Flavored Snacks
• LMNT (~70% of a packet mixed with water in 550mL bottle)

This is my standard marathon load out. It has served me well in prior races. I eat either 1/2 a Mott’s pack, 1/3 a Sports Beans pack, or 1/4 Bonk Breaker pack every 15 minutes. I kept to the standard snack intake interval for the first 1hr and 30min but at some point the schedule slipped since when I take the electrolyte drink on the course, I use that as energy instead of my own snacks. I may have skipped too many energy intake intervals as I hit the wall after the finish line and had a lot of leftover snacks.

On the course, I skipped about the first two or so water stops but then did start visiting them for the Nuun and water. I skipped any food stations as usual though.

Race

I hopped on the first shuttle bus in the morning at 5am at Sonesta to get to the race start. There was basically no security line and I entered without issue. I held out a sealed water bottle as I walked through because they prohibited open drinks per the security policy. There list of restrictions seem a lot stiffer than bigger race like Marine Corps Marathon which does allow people to carry in pre-filled vests. I was through the checkpoint by around 5:15am. I then proceeded to fill up my water bottles for my vest at the water station and then waited in the warming tent before going to the corral area to wander around and take some pictures.

Since it was near freezing at start, I, for the first time at a marathon, wore pants, gloves, long sleeve layer, and ear muffs at the start. I removed the gloves and ear muffs early on in the race.

My heartrate climbed up pretty fast early in the race. By mile 5 it was at about what I would expect it to be around mile 14. So fairly early on in the race, my legs started getting heavy. I think I held out pretty well only finally giving up to walk after mile 23 or so. Getting to the end was indeed a struggle. I waffled on the idea of trying to get a new best time but I didn’t really care since it would have only been a few seconds faster so I didn’t bother. Finishing a marathon is an accomplishment in itself.

Some other thoughts:

• At the finish line, among the usual standard food items races usual give out like banana, nutrition bars, candy, popcorn, muffins, they offered hot chicken broth. What a life changer!
• A hotdog was also offered in the vendor area outside the finishers area by the sponsor. I don’t think many people knew that but I knew and was hunting for the hotdog.
• I am split on if I wore too much. While during the race I ended up rolling up the sleeves and wanting to roll up the pants too, but I would have been shivering without them at the end of the race. I did not want to check a bag so carried everything I needed.