Philadelphia Marathon - RunMarathon


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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
United States
Philadelphia Marathon
42F / 6C
Sunny
Total Time = 4h 13m 36s
Overall Rank = 4125/7465
Age Group = 50-54
Age Group Rank = 207/325
Pre-race routine:

After a fitful night of sleep (noise in the hallway, sirens and horns honking outside kept me up) woke up at 3:30 to the sound of some drunk yelling-- I could hear him even though I was on the 19th floor of the hotel! Ate a bagel with peanut butter, then walked to the race starting area.
Event warmup:

My walk was the warmup. I gradually shed layers. I was shivering a little near the start.
Run
  • 4h 13m 36s
  • 26.2 miles
  • 09m 41s  min/mile
Comments:

I went out way too fast, even though I tried to slow down I kept getting pulled along by the crowd and I felt good. By the half-way point, though, my hips were hurting and I knew I was in trouble. The last ten miles were very hard; there were at least two moments when I thought that my hamstrings and calves were going to cramps up and end my day.I wanted to quit off and on the whole time from the time I got onto Kelly Drive. I even decided at one point that I was never going to run again. ;-) Even the cheering crowds were p***ing me off, especially when they'd use my name (from the bib) and tell me that I was "looking good!" when I felt anything but. I tried to "rest" while running by paying attention to form, meditating, turning on my mp3 player, etc, all of which usually helps me during a race but even when I started walking for 30 sec to a minute at the water stops in the last few miles it didn't help. I was seriously considering just walking the last two miles, but in truth I hurt just as much walking as I did running and so I just sucked it up and finished-- I even was able to pick it up a little bit over the last mile.
What would you do differently?:

Lots. If I stay in the city again (if I even do a city race again, that is) I'll wear earplugs at night to cut down on the noise. I will go out more slowly at the start, and drink more early on.
Post race
Warm down:

I staggered through the very slim post-race food offerings, got my bag, sat down and stretched my legs a little, then limped to the meeting place. I was so out of it I went to the "G to J" site instead of K, and went down to the ground, where Carrie and Chrissy found me.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

I don't know. I thought I'd trained well (I did all of the runs except one 13 miler when I had the flu, and had done all my speedwork faithfully). I guess I just went out too fast, and then hit the wall.

Event comments:

The race itself is good, although they had the worst post-race food I've ever seen. There were scattered oranges, pretzels, and thin clear soup broth in the smallest paper cups I've ever seen. However, the reason I rate this race "worst" for me is that I really didn't enjoy it-- and I run because I enjoy it, and I can't say that I didn't enjoy any other race that I've run/biked/swum before. I enjoyed training for it, and I was proud of following a training schedule so well. So, I'm glad I did it, and I learned that I can endure a lot in the interests of finishing something, and looking back, I would say it was worth it. I'm not entirely happy with my race, even though I finished, because I sort of accepted that I _would_ finish as a given, and wanted to do well. It may be that mile goal time was unrealistic. I'll have to be satisfied with the fact that I actually got a PR for the half marathon (1:55)!




Last updated: 2009-09-09 12:00 AM
Running
04:13:36 | 26.2 miles | 09m 41s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/325
Overall: 0/7465
Performance: Bad
Course: Nice course, although in mile 3 or 4 the road was too narrow due to construction and it got very crowded.
Keeping cool Average Drinking Not enough
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Bad
Mental exertion [1-5] 5
Physical exertion [1-5] 5
Good race? No
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Bad
Race evaluation [1-5] 1