So on Sunday Nov 23rd I completed my 2nd marathon in Philadelphia.  This was sort of a redemption race after last years major injury.  It was a complete and resounding success.

Executive Summary

Time: 3:45:40

A Goal: 3:50:00

B Goal: 4:00:00

C Goal: Finish

PR by 27 minutes

Back Story

I ran my first marathon ever in Nov 1981 here, the original Philadelphia Distance Run I ran with my then 54 year old Dad who suffered a minor heart attack 5 years earlier. For that race I trained less than 100 miles and ran a 4:21.xx. Oh to be a 21 year old again. Fast forward to 2012 and I decide to mimic my father and run a 2^nd marathon as an old man. I completed Disney 2012 in 4:12x starting in July and training for just 5 months. Complete death march from mile 17 on based on an ambitious sub-4 goal.

I signed up for my local Philly marathon and trained from Feb 2013 with consistent 35mpw till July. Then started Pfitz 18/55 and pretty much followed most of the plan. Race was scheduled for Nov 18.  On Oct 28^th I tripped at the end of my first taper run and tore my hamstring off the bone. Surgery on Nov 14 to re-attach. No running for 6 months. Started my running in April 2014 and within 1 week developed a solid case of PF. No running or stretching for 6 months left my calves too tight and that caused my condition. Pushed actual training back to July. Ran thru the PF and it finally disappeared in Oct. Not optimal training for a marathon, here are my months and miles leading up to the race:

April 59 Miles        June 18 Miles        August 174 Miles        October 206 Miles

May 12 Miles        July 100 Miles        September 178 Miles

Training

In assessing my fitness I had to basically guess. I don’t race a lot. My only race was a local 5k at the finest 9/11 memorial in the Country outside of NYC. I ran a 21:25 which was a PR by 1 min on the same course from the prior year. McMillan projects a 3:23 off that time which is of course of no value in my situation. I completed four 20 mile runs, all in about 3:05. My 18 with 14 at MP was run with an 8:45 pace which I was able to complete. So I sort of settled in on a 3:50.xx goal based on what I thought I could run, but it was an educated guess at best. This cycle I tried to do more tempo work, and had 4 or 5 good such runs. No speed work, even strides tend to hurt my newly attached hamstring so I backed off of them. Just lots of MP miles, many of my training runs ended up at 8:45 or less because they felt like easy to moderate effort, but not hard. I guess that maybe 30% of my miles were ultimately at MP or less when you include the tempo segments. After taper I reached the line at 99% health, no AT issued (calf stretching resolved them) no PF, no Piriformis pains.

Race:

Woke at 4:10am at home, ate ½ bagel and a banana. Sips of Gatorade. Tried to do business but not successful. Drove the 30 min to the race to look for a free on-street parking space. Ugh, ended up about 1.5 miles from start on a back alley but heck, it was free. Got to corrals at 6:30, was able to check bag (in the wrong truck lol), got in potty line right next to Green corral. Took 15 min to get nervous release, was in corral at 6:50 ready to go – perfect. Gun is off and we hit the line at 7:10. Weather was perfect, 38 deg at start, partly cloudy, winds under 5mph, finish temp at 42 deg.

Miles 1-5 8:58, 8:58, 8:45, 8:49, 8:55

These are the first City miles. After ½ mile I took the time to turn around and look back at the Art Museum down the Ben Franklin Parkway and see more than 25,000 other runners while the sun was rising and illuminating this magnificent building. This is partly why we run, to see things differently and in new surroundings. Miles felt easy, not too much weaving. By mile 3 I chuckled at how many gloves and hats were dropped on the ground. Come on runners, can't you be cold for a few min, jeeze. Was also amazed at the amount of camelbacks, amphipods and supplies schlepped around. So many runners were bundled up in hats, gloves, double and triple shirts. I think they must all be half marathoners, after all, those running the full marathon are smarter and more knowledgeable .  In mile 3 I encounter my first beer stop. Homeowner offering cups or a full can of Coors light. I would have taken a craft beer if offered, I passed on the pedestrian brews.

Miles 6-10 9:26, 8:20, 8:44, 8:03, 8:35

Garmin is wonky in miles 6-7 thru the tall buildings, my pace is probably in the middle or about 8:55. Breathing is easy, lots of crowd support on both sides, enjoying reading signs, hearing folks cheer for their loved ones, was 2-3 deep in places. Hit the first hill in mile 7, well if you call it a hill. Barely noticed it as the street rises over the Schuylkill River. Turn onto 34^th street past the Drexel buildings which disappoint. Not as many folks out as I expected. Climb what I find is a noticeable hill in mile 9 and pass by my corral mates for the last time. I nervously talked to 2 girls in the corral, one of who was on her first full. We leapfrogged till now. BTW, Philly has the best looking female runners in the Country. On the downside of the hill tell myself to open up, take longer strides with a little more bounce and let gravity help. I find that after I pick up the pace its harder to slow down, mile 10 is the dreaded "big" hill. Ran it without difficulty, by effort and passing quite a few folks, some walking (could be HM’rs).

Miles 11-15 8:20, 8:09, 8:30, 8:23, 8:28

Big downhill for mile 11 as per the course map, I opened up but time doesn’t really reflect that. Mile 12 is flat and fast, affected by the HM runners picking it up for their finish. I am staying with them till I look at my watch and say "whoa"... slow down as I still have lots to go. Common problem running along with the group and by feel, not by pace. Complete the half in 1:52:58 which is 2 min faster than my goal pace, but it felt really good. Breathing was very easy, legs felt great, weather perfect. I decide to run by feel but hold the 8:30 pace if I could.

Miles 16-20 8:44, 8:55, 8:35, 8:35, 8:44

Long out and back along Kelly Drive. I see the leaders pass on the opposite side in what is their mile 25, the Ethiopian in front and US guy in 2^nd by about 50 yards. I shout out to him to "keep your form" as he was pushing hard. Find out later he passed the Ethiopian at mile 25.5 and cruised in for the win. Zoned out along this stretch but starting to feel the work. Mile 20 is in Manyunk, I hear a girl ask how far we are along in the race. WTH, doesn’t every runner know their distance with the mile markers, timers and watches. Sheeze, I tell her 20 miles with 8 miles left to finish (let her figure that out).

Miles 21-26.2 8:36, 8:36, 8:33, 8:41, 8:32, 8:15, 7:31 (last 0.2)

Just before mile 21 marker the 3:45 pacer passes me. Again, WTH, I was not running that fast and their group of about 15 runners zipped by. (Pacer ran a 1:53/1:50 split ending at 3:43.35). For a moment I thought I might stay with them but decided not to as I was starting to work and didn’t want to crash. Mile 21 was starting to hurt, I remember thinking only 5 miles to go or about 40 min. Didn’t look at my watch from this time on. Mile 23 was a similar thought, only 24 min left, look down at road and concentrate on holding pace. I was not passed from mile 22 on, and probably passed 100 runners, but that didn’t matter. Mile 26 is a slight hill to the Art Museum, feels like nothing to me. I hear the 3 deep crowd cheering and wish they would be quiet as they were ruining my concentration. Last 0.2 is a slight downhill, I never looked up at the time clock, just focused on finishing. I see Mayor Nutter just before the finish line and give him the raise the roof arm pump. He urges the crowd to push me across the line. Cross the line, stop watch and see I hit 3:45.xx. An 18 sec negative split, just about perfect. OMG, nearly 5 min below my goal. I am ecstatic as my pictures show. Basically a perfect race for my fitness and execution.

Final Thoughts

Distance per Garmin is 26.18 so not bad on tangents, although that was due to the signal issues from the taller buildings but I did try to hit the corners well. Nutrition on course was gel every 5 miles, gatorade every other stop. I never felt hungry, in fact did not want food for several hours afterward. Soft pretzel from race was one of the worst I ever had. Chicken broth was nice. Garmin HRM stopped working mysteriously at mile 15.2, it appears as if my dried sweat had too much salt and that interrupted the strap signal. Found out my surgeon was working medical, so I hobbled back to the tent, found her and gave a big thank you hug. When I parked my car I wrote on the back of my bib the nearest intersection, that was key as I had a harder time remembering where my car was. Walked the 1.5 miles back to car and drove home.

A big congratulations.  Your finishing photo captures the elation perfectly.

Awesome finish picture! Great race and RR. Congratulations!

Wow! First of all, I almost cheered for you when I saw that finish picture. Secondly, you ran one hell of a race! I cannot imagine what you could do on an injury free cycle. With the miles you had I think a 3:45 is tremendous. Finally, I will do my best to never whine about an injury again. That hamstring must have been excruciating. Great work, fourouta5. Great work.

What a comeback from the hamstring injury!  You paced yourself perfectly and that finish line photo speaks for itself.  Congrats!

Thanks ya'all. appreciate the kind words and encouragement.  Managing the PF was a bit of a pain, sleeping with the sock was uncomfortable.  Never took to any orthotics, just didn't feel right in my shoes.  What eventually worked was a standing static stretch.  I would stand on the step while brushing my teeth, basically a 2 min stretch of my calf.  Turned out my AT and PF were both related to tight calves and that seemed to heal all the issues over a period of about 2 months.

Was there not a period where you could not even drive for something stupid like 6 weeks?  Yes, 6 weeks of no driving post surgery

 

Have you decided how you will go about lowering that time or are you done? Will training for speed at middle distance be your choice to get faster or training for the marathon itself?

 

I want to BQ.  For me I need a 3:40 so am looking at a 7 min minimum improvement.  Looking at NJ Marathon in April, or Pocono in May 2015.  I would like to run the local Winter Series here but they race on Sundays and that conflicts with church.  The series is $20 for 12 timed races in the local park so its cheap, I just wish they had some Sat offerings.

I will gear up soon for base building. I have never run a HM, that distance scares me.  I think it would be like four 5k's and the pain for a long time so I shy away.  I need to break that fear.  Yes to above, will try to work on speed as that is an important ingredient in pushing a faster marathon time.  My MP was 1:40 slower than 5k pace and I need to bring that down.  The only Ultra I will see is by Michelob.

Kristin, were you there?  Have not seen many posts from you and didn't even think of that.  FE might have been hard though, I was pretty busy the days leading up, Baboon was there and it would have been cool to meet him.

Congratulations. You ran an awesome race.  How is the hamstring afterwards?

Congrats on the PR.  Hope you stay healthy for more PR's.  How did you do in your AG?