Coming this Weekend: The Philadelphia Marathon

Lace up your running shoes, Philadelphia – the Philadelphia Marathon is coming to the city this Sunday. If you are participating, the hardest part of your training should be over and you should be on taper, the part of your regime where you do just short runs to keep yourself conditioned for the big race. The first group takes off at 7AM on Sunday morning!

Brian Lang is trying to beat a world record for marathon running in a Santa Suit. He practiced for the Philadelphia Marathon last month at the Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon.

Ever since the tragedy at the Boston Marathon in 2013, all major cities holding marathons have been on high alert. Mayor Michael Nutter insists that Philadelphia is ready for the marathon from a security standpoint. Nutter said that security teams both preparing in advance and those that will be on site are “well-prepared, integrated and mobile.” Surely there will be heightened awareness, but there’s no reason to believe that everything won’t go off without a hitch.

If you are running in the marathon you can take part in a “Shake Out” run on Friday during your lunch break. The run, which will be organized by the Philadelphia Marathon LEGacy Runners (which is to say, runners who have at least 15 Philly Marathons under their belts) will begin near the Art Museum steps at 1PM. The group will run along Kelly Drive for about two miles, taking about twenty minutes to do so. Get in one last stretch of a run before the big day!

While you are running, keep your eyes open for Santa – or Brian Lang of Fairmount, to keep it real. He will be looking to break the world record for speed by someone running a marathon in a Santa costume – hat, beard, and full suit. The current record of 2 hours, 55 minutes, 50 seconds is held by Paul Simons of the United Kingdom, who set it in 2009.