Harrisburg Marathon - RunMarathon


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Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
United States
East Shore YMCA
50F / 10C
Sunny
Total Time = 4h 15m 36s
Overall Rank = 890/1515
Age Group = F40-44
Age Group Rank = 58/109
Pre-race routine:

Rode down on Saturday with John and Phil. Checked into hotel and then went to packet pickup. Had an early dinner with Greg and Michele (Phil came with me too). Went to bed ~9:15 and slept surprisingly well! Got up ~6am. Had bagel with peanut butter plus a bottle of water with caffeinated crystal lite for breakfast. Also ate a pack of Gatorade chews. Leisurely got dressed and met John at 7:30 to walk over to the start. Swapped out shirt for one that fit and then checked bag. John and I walked over to near the start and waited in that porta potty line. Timing was perfect. Got to the line with about 5 minutes to spare - enough time to meet the pacer and off we went! Oh, I ate a pack of Clif Shots while walking over/waiting in porta potty line.
Event warmup:

Nothing other than the walk over to City Island from the hotel.
Run
  • 4h 15m 36s
  • 26.2 miles
  • 09m 46s  min/mile
Comments:

This was not an easy course. I went with the 4:10 pacer and stayed with him until about 16-17 (sort of in the college area). In hindsight, the pacer really was pretty good. I just never had that "this is an easy" pace feeling that I should've had in the beginning of a marathon. I felt pretty good in the 10-12 mile range, but that was about it... I did not like the narrow paths (some of them were kind of uneven) or all of the concrete. The absolute worst part was the climb after the park and the overpass. It just seemed to go on forever!

I was pleased with my choice of attire (skirt/tank/arm warmers). I had a long sleeve t-shirt on before the start that I threw to my parents at ~mile 3.5. I dropped my throw-away gloves at the first water stop. Then I took my arm warmers off just after the half way point (carefully without launching my Garmin backward like at TCM) and threw them to my parents at ~mile 16.

I walked a little bit at the water stops because that's what the pacer was doing. In the later miles that was probably a mistake because it was hard to get going again. I did pass quite a few people over the last 6 miles. That was new for me because normally it's me getting passed. I think in general I paced better.
What would you do differently?:

Train more, but in general I ran pretty well. This was my 2nd fastest marathon! If I did ever do this one again, I would probably carry water especially if it were any warmer. The aid stations are pretty far apart. Whatever sports drink they had was pretty tasty - it might have been Cytomax - definietly wasn't Gatorade or Heed.

I only did three gels this time - still haven't figured out if that was a good thing or a bad thing! Oh and I will make sure to have a chocolate one with me (I was out of that flavor). I ended up doing one banana and 2 vanilla ones.
Post race
Warm down:

Nothing. Met John at the finish, saw Mom and Kara, and then walked over to where the food was. John and Phil left and I talked to Kara briefly before she had to leave. My parents and I walked back over to their car and we drove back to the hotel.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Lack of training between Mussleman and early September and probably should've done a few more long runs. Mileage was pretty good for Sept/Oct, but needed more than that.

Event comments:

This race was very organized. The race doubled in size in the week prior to the race due to the cancellation of the NYC marathon and you would have never known that they weren't planning for that many people. I was a little disappointed not to get one of the nice shirts but I guess they made a decision based on sizing. It appeared that they had a nice variety of food afterward. I only had a some fruit, a bag of chips, and most of a donut, but they had all sorts of stuff - subs, bagels, bananas, someone said there was chicken broth, etc.

The host hotel (Crowne Plaza) was reasonable and convenient. The late check-out (3pm) was nice!

I don't think I'll run this one again because the course wasn't my favorite, but they were definitely organized.


Profile Album


Last updated: 2012-10-01 12:00 AM
Running
04:15:36 | 26.2 miles | 09m 46s  min/mile
Age Group: 58/109
Overall: 890/1515
Performance: Average
9:07, 8:56, 9:24, 9:38, 9:46, 9:35, 9:35, 9:19, 9:15, 9:28, 9:16, 9:30, 9:20, 9:38, 9:31, 9:31, 9:30, 9:51, 10:19, 10:35, 10:40, 10:12, 10:20, 9:56, 10:16, 10:05, 9:22 (last 0.2)
Course: Not flat and fast as advertised! Starts on a bridge, loops around the Capitol building, loops around to a path, back to river, across bridge to City Island, looped the island back across river, out along river through a neighborhood to a boring industrial park area. Out and back in the community college, over a very rocky section, then to a park with crazy hills (both up and down), back out to road retracing our steps to the river (including a long climb), to the finish on City Island.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Average
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? No
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 4