Well, now that a full day has passed since the race, it's time to recap the day and look at the good and bad.
All in all, it was a good day. Ran a 7 minute PR with a final time of 2:48:57, something in the 6:26/mile pace.
Let's start with Saturday. Pretty uneventful trip into Philly with my friend Mike and the expo was super fast compared to when I did this race in 2007 (and ran a 3:07!). I was very happy to get in and out so we could find a place to eat and settle in for the night. We probably should have planned that better! It took us a couple HOURS and we walked way too far to finally rind a restaurant that served spaghetti and wasn't a 3 hour wait! We found a place not too far from our hotel and we were eating by 6pm, which was the goal. After eating, we went back to the room and got everythin in order for the morning. We managed to be in bed by 9, sleeping by 10 so we defintiely got enought rest.
Woke up on race morning, showered, and had a bagel and half a banana. For the next two hours I regretted that banana, but by the time we started racing it was forgotten about. We decided to walk to the start, about 1.6 miles, and then got in a mile warm up jog before stretching and doing plyometrics. With about 10 minutes to go, we made our way into the corral to line up. The weather was great, the wind was blowing, but temperature was fine. After the National Anthem, a little Eminem, and a 10 second countdown we were off!
The race runs downhill on the Ben Franklin Parkway with a slight tailwind. Stupid me opens with a 6:01 mile. So you'd think that I would realize that that was too fast. What do I come back with for mile 2? a 6:06. The problem is that I felt fine! My leg pain was non-existent and it felt so good to finally be running. I made my way through the 5k in about 18:30 and that's where I got to talking to a couple other guys. They were planning on a 2:46:00 marathon so I figured I'd try to hang with them and share some of the work as we made our way slightly back uphill and into the wind. The plan worked, but the pace was quick. I kept telling myself to control it, but we ended up throwing in some quick miles, even a 5:59 mile 8. By the time we got to the 10 mile mark, I was actually getting a little tired. Just past mile 10 was the last of the "major" hills on the course and I could feel the work I did in my quads. The next 5k to the half way mark was controlled and we came through the half right around 1:22:28. Too fast.
When I passed the mile 14 flag, I couldn't believe it. There's no way that I ONLY ran a mile. That was probably the toughest mile of the day. From there on, the race was nothing but hard. My fastest mile in teh second half was a 6:19, and I had six miles over 6:30.
I don't clearly remember any of those miles, I just know that it never got any easier. A rabbit was pacinga group of women through mile 15 so they could try for an Olympic Qualifier. We were in a nice pack up until that point, but one he left that whole group fell apart. Mile 16 was along the river and I ran that alone. I cought a couple people through mile 17, which come up an annoying little hill to an intersection. There was a little downhill, a 180 degree turnaround, and then an uphill for mile 18 and that was just painful. From there to mile 20 was OK. We went through a couple rollers but the course finally had some spectators which helped take the edge off. That led to mile 21, which was the last tough uphill.
After I passed the mile 21 mark, I started playing with the math of the race. I still hadn't given in to the fact that I was really hurting and I had hopes of coming in under 2:48, maybe even under 2:47. My race pace plan was to be able to run 5 miles in exactly 32 minutes. That made the math easy, but hitting the pace wasn't happening. Mile 22 felt like a 6:00 mile but was actually a 6:34. That was deflating. After another 6:35 mile, I knew there was just over a 5k left. That's nothing! A 5k is nothing!!! Ha, I wish.
From mile 22 back to the finish, the course was on one road, headed on one direction...into the wind. I was running alone and there was no one to work with and block any of the breeze. It was funny to watch as I was running along without any wind and watching leaves blowing towards me. Then, you felt it. The wind would slow you up like you were running up a mountain.
With 5k to go, my quads were shot. Every step was painful and the desire to stop was huge. There was ZERO crowd support over those last couple of miles, which made it very boring. FINALLY the crowds started to form and after the 25 mile mark, the finish felt attainable. A slight uphill, then a downhill and there was the finish line.
I'm happy with the result, but I know I could have raced smarter and better. Taking off another two minutes is a very real goal, and next year 2:45:00 will be a race plan...if the baby lets me train for one!
Here's the Garmin data...
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/130096044
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