Philadelphia Marathon - RunMarathon


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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
United States
Philadelphia Marathon
45F / 7C
Sunny
Total Time = 3h 09m 40s
Overall Rank = 506/8925
Age Group = M3034
Age Group Rank = 96/860
Pre-race routine:

I had two bagels with PB and honey and half of a Muscle Milk for breakfast. We stayed in Cherry Hill, NJ, which was about a twenty minute drive from the race start. I parked and did some walking around and stood in line for the porta john and had a Gu 30 minutes before race start. I didn't have any extra water since I missed on my first BQ attempt because of a mid race pee stop.
Event warmup:

Just the walking and some stretching in the corral.
Run
  • 3h 09m 40s
  • 26.2 miles
  • 07m 14s  min/mile
Comments:

My goal pace was 7:10, which would get me in with a couple minutes to spare for Boston. It was crowded the whole way, and doubly so in the first half, which sometimes made it hard to run my pace, but I stayed where I wanted to be most of the time. I drank a little too much at the first few water stops and thought I might have to stop for a pee, but I ran through it and it went away.

My Garmin got confused under the tall buildings in the first few miles, so I was .2 miles ahead of each mile marker. That screwed with my head a little since I could not trust the overall average pace value it was showing. I figured if I kept to 7:10, then it wouldn't matter since I had some slack built in.

The last few miles were tough and I was just hanging on towards the end. I was ahead of the 3:10 pace group until 25 miles when I noticed more traffic and people starting to pass me. The pacer caught me just under 26 miles and I ran in with him and the others in the group.
What would you do differently?:

Drink less in the first few miles.
Post race
Warm down:

I got my food and slowly walked back to the car.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Lack of training volume. My biggest week was only 49 miles, I believe I could handle at least another 15 or 20.

Event comments:

The race was good, but being in a city makes somethings like the driving and parking a pain, especially at the race expo. The course was nice and there were plenty of well manned water stops and good crowd support.




Last updated: 2010-11-22 12:00 AM
Running
03:09:40 | 26.2 miles | 07m 14s  min/mile
Age Group: 96/860
Overall: 506/8925
Performance: Good
1 7:13 2 6:54 3 7:07 4 7:12 5 7:07 6 7:31 7 6:39 8 7:23 9 7:02 10 7:24 11 6:54 12 7:08 13 7:14 14 6:59 15 7:10 16 7:10 17 7:06 18 7:24 19 7:10 20 7:15 21 7:10 22 7:21 23 7:15 24 7:16 25 7:39 26 7:11 .43 6:44
Course: The course had rolling hills especially in the first half and then a few long gradual hills near the end. It was crowded, but I felt like there was enough room to move and didn't get boxed in anywhere. I've never visited Philly before, so the course was a nice tour of the area and was quite pretty.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Too much
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5]
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 4