it was the Winter of 2013. i was sitting in a parked car at the bottom of my then-girlfriends’ parents’ home. on the radio was 88.5, wxpn. on the stereo came this thunderous drum, quick “tst tst tst” of a snare and the mesmerizing pangs of guitar strings. now, in 2019, i reflect on the journey the music of frightened rabbit took me on.

I didn’t know what to expect from the Philly marathon. I purposefully did not look up the course. I didn’t read tips about race day. Until the night we arrived, I did not know how getting to the starting line was going to unfold. Aside from what the couple had told me on the ferry over a year ago, I had no idea what the next 26.2 miles were going to bring. This is a recap of my run in the 2018 Philadelphia Marathon. Details on training, the pacing, and the outcome.

The DMV might be the closest thing to purgatory. Here’s how the quest to register my car in a new state led to the fixation on the Guster song “Come Downstairs and Say Hello.”