Philadelphia Marathon Race Report
First off thank you for all the support and kind words in this thread, it is appreciated. Going into this race I thought I was in slightly worse shape than I was in 2015 when I ran a 2:59 but still thought sub 3 was possible. Prior to my 10k I was feeling pretty confident of breaking 3 based on my training in October.
Oct 2015 342 miles 8:00 pace 137 HR
Oct 2017 327 miles 8:01 pace 137 HR
After running the 10K 5 sec/mile slower than 2015 I was a less optimistic of a sub 3 marathon but still thought I had a chance.
The race day plan was to follow the
Greg Maclin pace band for the Philly course, I had it setup to run the first half in 1:30 and the second in 1:29:59. Because I didn’t feel real confident about breaking 3 I didn’t want to get too far ahead of my pace band.
The weather on race day wasn’t ideal with 20 mph winds. The first issue with the weather was pre-race, the weather forecast showed that the rain was supposed to be done by 5:00 AM which wouldn’t be an issue with the race starting at 7. That morning the forecast changed with it raining past 6. I didn’t want to be standing around in the rain so hung out at the train station as long as I could, but I also remembered
@Ned having an issue getting through security here so I left the train station at 6. Timing wise it worked out well as I got to the corral 10 minutes before the start, but my shoes got wet waiting in the security line in the rain.
I felt like I had three tools available to help me stay on plan and not run too fast 1) the 3:00 pacer 2) the pace band with conjunction with the mile markers 3) the HR monitor (not sure what the ideal HR should be but knowing that anything over 170 in the first half is bad).
I lined up in the back of the corral at the start and saw that 3 hr pacer was towards the front. I decided to stay in the back and focus on keeping the first mile under control.
Miles 1-3 Plan (7:01, 6:54, 6:48, 20:43 Cumulative Time) Actual 20:46
The first couple miles were more crowded than expected and the 3 hr pacer was well out in front of me. I past the first mile marker at 7:03 happy to be close to my plan. GPS doesn’t work so well in the first 7 miles because of the buildings so I starting using the HR because I wasn’t trusting the pace the watch was telling me. This seemed to work pretty well, I missed the 2 mile marker but got to the 3 mile marker in 20:46 with an average HR of 167 over miles 2-3. At this point I can’t even see the 3 hr pacer and I passed the 3:10 pacer just before the 3 mile marker. I’m happy I’m not with the 3 hr pacer.
Miles 4-13 Plan (1:29:14 Cumulative Time) Actual 1:29:20
I was happy with how the HRM was working and I was typically only 5-6 sec off my pace band’s cumulative time at each mile marker. Every time that I would see 170 on my watch I would slow down a bit, I figured with the wind the HRM was the best tool available to run at an even effort. My average HR was 168.8 for these miles. I am feeling good about running to my plan at this point.
Miles 14-17 Plan (1:56:25 Cumulative Time) Actual 1:56:46
In mile 14 I was running pretty relaxed and could now see the 3 hr pacer, running this mile in 6:48. Miles 15 and 16 were pretty tough running into the wind and I fell behind an additional 14 seconds over these miles. For mile 17 the wind stopped and I couldn’t believe it, I made the decision that even though I was behind pace that I wouldn’t allow my HR to average over 170 until the 20 mile marker. I felt good about how I managed the race and felt like I was running the marathon like
@tri-man 47, silly me. Mile 17 was 6:48 168 HR.
Miles 18-19 Plan (2:10:04 Cumulative Time) Actual 2:10:51
The wind came back and here I started feeling pain in the ball my right foot and some tightness in my right hamstring. My pace was slowing but I didn’t want to increase the effort level yet. I was hoping that the wind alone was the reason I was slowing down, but in mile 19 I went up a little hill and my legs never snapped back.
Miles 20-21 Plan (2:23:50 Cumulative Time) Actual 2:25:23
It obvious now that sub 3 isn’t happening and I am trying to avoid a total death march. I missed the 20 mile marker and I grinded out these two miles at 7:14 pace.
Miles 22-26.2 (2:59:59 Cumulative Time) Actual 3:08:51
The reason why we train the way we do is to avoid situations like this but here I am. Just total survival mode, foot is throbbing, hamstring is tight. I decided during this part of the race that after this I am going to quit running. People who ran the race properly are passing me left and right. In the last .2 mile the 3:10 pacer passed me. Pace for these miles 7:38, 8:10, 8:38, 8:36, 8:06.
I have to admit I was pretty pissed off about this race for about 24 hrs. Now I feel good about how I executed the plan the first half of the race. For whatever I reason I didn’t have it on this day, I really don’t think the weather was the primary reason for my performance, the fitness wasn’t there. I am going have to decide if I want to put in the work to get better, but this isn’t the time to make that decision, that can wait until the end of December. One of my old training partners wants me to focus on 5K and 10Ks this spring, we’ll see.
