In my experience there are two
kinds of PRs. The first occur in races when, for no explicable reason
everything clicks and your new PR pace feels almost effortless. The second
occur only after months (or years) of training and throughout the race the pace
feels tough. My Philadelphia experience was decidedly of the latter type. Crap,
I guess I just gave away the ending since now you know I PR'd.
As my faithful readers (and
relatives whom I bombarded with requests for donations) know, I signed up for
Philly only two weeks ago when New York was cancelled--the race, not the city most
of which is still there. At that point I had already been taper three weeks for
New York and so adding on the two weeks to Philly I ended up with a whopping 5
week taper!*
I didn’t really know what to
expect. Although my not-so-secret goal for roughly the last 2 years has been to
sub-3, I didn’t really feel up to it heading into this weekend. None of my runs
have felt great the last couple weeks—I did 2 miles at goal marathon pace last
Wednesday and thought I was going to die. With that in mind I sort of wrote off
the race, thinking to myself, a PR would
be nice but probably best to lower your expectations now.
My new attitude gave me the perfect
excuse to play around with carbo loading and so I did. I had way more carbs in
the two days before thank I usually do. Just to scare you, here’s what I ate
Saturday: 1 small bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios; 4 blueberry banana pancakes with
maple syrup and a side of tempeh bacon; 2 plain bagels; tons of Clif Bar
samples at the expo; 1 baguette (yes, you read that correctly); and a bowl of
rice noodles with red sauce. I also drank Gatorade or PowerAde throughout the
two days prior to the race.**
Since I was already testing new pre-race
strategies, I figured Philly would be the perfect race to try a new pair of
shoes (not new as in I just bought them, but new as in I had never raced a
marathon in them). The shoes, the New Balance 1400s, are lighter shoes with
less cushion than the shoes I worn in marathons before and I wasn’t sure how my
legs would hold up in them for 26.2 miles.
On Sunday morning I drove to the
start with my host for the weekend, Larissa, who was also running the full. By
the time we got to the staging area there were only 20 minutes to spare, but
after my gluttonous experiment scientific fueling I really needed a
portapotty visit. The lines were so long that I finished by business with less
than 5 minutes until the start—talk about a recipe for stress. Somehow I made
it to my corral about 45 seconds before the gun.
The First Half
Just ahead of me in the start corral
I saw the 3:00 hour pace leader. Although I thought my sub-3 prospects were
somewhat dubious, I hope to follow the pace group initially. The horn sounded
and I crossed the line at around 15 seconds. It felt like we were going
downhill as we ran along Ben Franklin Parkway towards City Hall, cutting around
the fountain at Logan Square. We passed the Christmas Village in “Love Park”
which was fun to see. As we turned onto Arch Street, the course narrowing, I
completely missed the first mile marker.
It was fun to run by the Convention
Center and Terminal Market, both of which I had visited the day before. Unfortunately,
with the crowded field, it was difficult to tell when turns were approaching.
There were also some parked cars that hadn’t been towed, making for a bit of an
obstacle course. We hit the Mile 2 marker and my watch read 14:36 which made me
think something was wrong.
As the I turned onto Columbus
Boulevard the field opened up again. I could see the 3 hour group not far ahead
and I also spotted a North Brooklyn Runner, Miriam, to whom I said hello. When
we got to Mile 3, it became clear that Mile 2 had been long and Mile 3 short—I didn’t
let it phase me.
Once we got to Chestnut Street, the
race crowds really thickened and I truly felt like I was running an urban race.
The pace, while not effortless, didn’t feel too tough as Miles 5, 6, and 7 went
by and we crossed the Schuylkill into University City. My new friend Frank was
keeping me honest, reminding me not to speed up.
Around Mile 7 the longest hill of
the course began, but I had been warned about it and it was a lot less steep
than I had anticipated. We were running through the Drexel Campus and things
leveled out just as we reached their frat houses, before taking a dip downhill.
I guess it was around here that the pace leader began to pick things up. Frank
wisely told me We’ll catch up gradually
which kept me from foolishly charging forward as we neared the Zoo.
The steepest hill on the course
came just after the Zoo, following Mile 9. I love hills but I had no intention
of charging this one and I dialed it back, watching as Frank drifted forward
and the pace team disappeared from sight. It was at this point that my legs
began to hurt and I first seriously doubted my ability to sustain a sub-3 pace.
I tried to push those thoughts to the back of my head and continued on.
When we passed an impressive Beaux-Arts
building shortly after Mile 10, I asked a runner near me if he knew what it
was. He didn’t. He was also from New York. (The building, I later found out, is
the Please Touch Museum). Running south along MLK Drive, I had pretty much lost
sight of the pace group. At this point, my main focus was on reaching the
turn-off for the half. I figured if I could make it to Mile 13 then I could
reevaluate my strategy for the second half. Crossing back over the Schuylkill River and
looping around the Art Museum I saw my friend Mariah which gave me a huge
boost.
Quietly cursing the half-marathoners who were finishing, I hit the
marathon’s halfway point in 1:29:57. I was on pace for sub-3, but that was a
problem—in my previous 8 marathons I had always run a slower second half by
anywhere from one to five minutes.
The Second Half
 |
| Best race photo. Ever. (Mile 26) |
I was still chatting with the
fellow New Yorker, as well as a somewhat recent Philly transplant by way of
Chicago. The New Yorker was hoping to BQ. Like me, he had a half PR of around
1:22 but hadn’t been able to reach his marathon potential. He said he usually
cramped around Mile 18. I told him, get past 18, and you’ll be fine. I wasn’t
feeling fine, but running with these guys helped. The pace team was long gone
and I’d given up on catching them. Somewhere in these miles I also saw my teammate
Patricia who’d come to Philly to cheer—that was awesome!
Shortly after mile 18, we made our
way towards Manayunk. Although Manayunk is part of Philly, it feels like a
small town, kind of like Natick or Wellesley on the Boston course. In addition
to the water stops there were unofficial beer stops and there was plenty of
music blasting. Although I was getting more and more worried that the wheels
were about to come off, I tried to do some fist pumps to “Play that Funky Music
White Boy.”
Finally, I saw the turnaround and shortly
thereafter I hit the 20 Mile mark. Only 10k to go! I now broke the race down
mile-by-mile. Using my standard mental trick, I told myself, if you can keep
the pace for this mile, you can go to X pace next mile and still finish with a
BQ. I tried to pick up the pace whenever there was even the slightest hint of
downhill, though I felt like crap. A cramp that had been simmering below my
rips for some time kept threatening to derail me and I found myself practically
punching my stomach to keep it at bay.
Somehow I did Miles 21 and 22 in
6:48 and 6:42. It helped that more of teammates were out cheering and I saw my
friend Mariah again. I managed a 6:48 Mile 23 and now I knew I had just over 5k
to go. I realized that even if I slowed to an 8 minute mile I would still
finish with close to a PR and another BQ.
On the way out I had noticed
medical markers along Kelley Drive, numbered 1 through 15 and spaced roughly 1/10
mile apart. Coming back in I began using these, instead of the mile markers, as
my check points. My left hip was actually starting to hurt and my feet felt
like they were on fire (though above the waist I felt great) so I needed to
concentrate on these manageable portions to keep going.
Although I ran Mile 24 in 6:48, I could
feel myself slowing as I approached Boathouse Row and Mile 25. When someone yelled my name, my brain was too fuzzy to realize it was my teammate Jeremy until he was already out of range. I clocked Mile
25 at 6:58 and knew I was in serious trouble. I was really hurting and I
remembered from the way out that Mile 26 was mostly uphill. I couldn’t afford
any more of a slowdown if I wanted to cross in under 3, something that still
seemed possible. Although my legs were doing the physical work my brain was
expending enormous amounts of energy trying to ignore the feeling in my
lower extremities.
It worked. I did Mile 26 in 6:57. I
rounded a corner and with .2 miles to go the finish line was in sight. I could
see the clock and hear the announcer saying that finishers were struggling to
come in under 3 hours. I gave everything I had and did that .2 in 1:27, a 6:38
pace!
As I crossed the lines I raised my
arms high and smiled as wide as I could. I knew I crossed with a gun time of
just under 3. Walking forward through the chute I tried to hold back tears of
joy but decided that with my sunglasses on it didn’t matter. I let myself sob—a
feeling I don’t think I’ve ever experienced before. Moving was incredibly
painful, but it was worth it.
My net time, I found out later, had
been 2:59:43, just over two minutes faster than my Chicago time of 3:01:44, also making for my first-ever negative split!
Post-Race
I did eventually meet up with Larissa (who, unfortunately, didn't have the race she'd hoped for that day) and later with several of my teammates, all of whom gave some incredible performances. We had a great brunch at Sabrina's Cafe (thanks Larissa for the tip!) before heading back to New York. I don't know that I've ever had a better 24 hours.
* If that doesn't sound long to you non-runners, keep in mind that I generally abstain from alcohol, caffeine, and, let's be honest, fun in general during the taper.
** I may have carried this mission a
little too far, forking over $3.50 for a 20oz bottle of Gatorade at Reading
Terminal Market.
