Notes
2018 Philadelphia Marathon, with Shaun, Manny, Norcross. Ft. Jake & Squinn as well. My 5th attempt at the distance.
THE WEEKEND
was quite fun. Flew in late with Shanon on Friday night, got to the Airbnb a little after midnight. We stayed about a half mile from the finish with the GBTC gang; slept on an air mattress the first night and got a bed the night before the 'thon. Logistically this made things so much easier than any other marathon I've done - no travel the morning of, we were able to just get up and walk to the start. Did a light jog the morning before while watching Moyer run the half, then we walked around Philly a little bit / went to the expo / got some snacks / bought some throwaway clothes at TJ Max. Had a nice Italian dinner (salad + spaghetti and meatballs) around 8PM the night before. Before that we watched COCO! Hype.
THE MORNING
Woke up at 4:30 (2.5 hours before racetime) and took a quick hot shower. Ate one bagel w/ PB, didn't want any more since it was so close to the race. Also had a cup of Moyer's cold brew coffee. Was a little nervous about this because I've never had coffee close before any race or LR before, but I've been drinking coffee so regularly lately that I thought it was necessary. Got the start at maybe 6:15, Manny got to go to the elite tent so Shaun and I waited for the bathroom like plebs. Not much time at all at the start, just enough to go to the bathroom, drop off our bags for afterwards, and then go to the corral - saw Jake there.
THE EXPECTATIONS
were reallly low for this. Shaun insists that I didn't half-ass the training cycle, but it was definitely really far below my expectations. Without going into too much details now, probably had less 80+ mile weeks in the past few months as I ever have had over a similar time period in the past few weeks, and way more 60-. Didn't do any of the big LRWOs really, haven't had any good races since B2B at the start of August. Had about 2 or 3 workouts that made me feel like I was in good shape - one on the track with Shaun, the 4x3 mile with Shaun, and the LR with Ian & Shaun that had some fast miles at the end. Got not nearly enough sleep the whole training cycle. This week was pretty representative of the whole cycle - flew to CA and in ~48 hours, slept maybe 5-6 hours every night this week except Saturday, had one workout cut short on Tuesday morning where I felt AWFUL.
With that said, my mindset was pretty smart. I'd convinced myself that I was in terrific shape in the spring, so even at 80-90% or whatever of that I should be able to PR . Plan was to run 6:15 pace as long as I had to, until I was confident that I could pick it up. I thought on a perfect day I could break 2:40, but really wasn't thinking of that at the race start.
THE RACE
Conditions the morning of were PERFECT! High 30s, no wind. Wore shorts + singlet, sock arm sleeves from Boston, throwaway gloves I bought at the expo, GOC signed cap. Took a GU 5 minutes before the gun and carried 3, planned on taking them every 45 minutes.
Faster start than I had planned. I had overhead some discussion in the coral so I knew a lot of the people around me wanted to run 2:40-2:45 or thereabouts, but I was really thinking I would start over 6:15 and then get down to the pace (forced to do this at Boston with the crowds). My mindset was that I wanted to be PATIENT, indeed PATIENCE was the word I repeated to myself over and over throughout most of the race. I was looking around for a savvy marathoner to follow, but it seems to me that now on attempt #5, I was the savvy marathoner... tried to stay disciplined and let lots of people go by me early on without worry. Was clicking off some fast early miles, but was mentally trying to pump the brakes and saying I wasn't gonna put any effort at ALL into running fast, just let the miles come and plan on it settling down to 6:15s before I consciously tried to play with the pace.
The first few miles wound through downtown, I had a bit of a well defined group after 2 or 3. Stayed very calm and relaxed, enjoyed the experience, lots of spectators. As we left the downtown area and crossed over the river around mile 6 I was just running with one guy, who I deemed "Bizarro Moyer" in my head - he was a happy looking guy with blondish hair and everyone in Philly seemed to love him. The course had some pretty picturesque miles as it went past the zoo and up and around a nice big park. I knew there were really only two hills of any consequence on the course, and they both came around here. "Moyer" put some ground on me going up the hill to the top of the park, around mile 10. That was the first time in the race that my legs really felt tired at all, I had a moment of nervousness but told myself "cmon, that's just what running uphill feels like" and indeed it was. I remember when I was coming down out of the park I had a bit of an electric moment, got a whole body chill as I realized that the only hard part of the course was over, I was running much faster than expected, and I felt great. At that point I started to think there was a chance I could actually break 2:40, so the plan I formulated was to just try and average 6:07s from there and then have a big kick at the end of the race... it sounded good in my head! Was pretty much on my own from the park on, just passing people every so often. I think there was one BAA guy that passed me the whole race after mile 4 or so. Hit the half ~80:40, thought that was perfect for my new goal.
Ran with a newfound confidence for a few miles, as I got onto the 12 mile O&B stretch that finishes the race. Around mile 18 the race started to finally get a little tough, I actually felt like I was grinding just to hold the pace. Started seeing slower splits... saw Jake + the GBTC boiz going by though the other way which made me pretty pumped! They all looked like they were rolling. Was back in my own world after that... finally, got to the end of the Manayunk stretch and turned on the U turn and began the 6 mile trip back home. This was a long stretch... I had told myself I was gonna fly on the last few miles, but now I had to really focus and go to work just to hold the pace. I think my low expectations had helped me until now (since everything was much easier than expected) but backfired a little bit here - instead of being singularly focused on breaking 2:40, I was thinking that no matter what happened I was gonna PR big, so do don't slow down but mostly just don't die. Had a fair amount of stomach discomfort in these final miles I think too... not sure if it was the coffee or not. I had had some panicky moments earlier in the race, but had always taken a deep breath and gotten through it without needing to stop at a porta-potty (also, I was telling myself that if I *did* have to stop it was NBD, just a short break in a long race and then back to work). Anyways, didn't take my 4th GU in the last few miles because of stomach discomfort, I wonder if that made me fade more than I should have. Did a lot of out-loud self-talk, and kept having to refocus and pick it up, just tried to make it through. Was pumped to see Brendan & Dave, then Shannon & her dad, for the last time down the stretch. Finally saw the finish and had a pretty good final kick.
Very very pleased with this!! After what felt like such a rough training cycle, it was nice to run a big PR while feeling probably the best I have ever felt in some ways. I think my execution was really excellent, although not perfect... slowest mile was my last, but I am getting there. My performance was still the worst of the group, so there's plenty of work to be done yet! The whole gang was lights out today #NewGBTC
Will be doing more training analysis soonish, and want to have a bit more defined of a game plan for the Spring, but I am so, so confident that I am going to be able to get the most out of myself on the day at Boston, AND that if Boston is the right day that I'll be able to crush my PR. A lot of work in training / fixing my lifestyle needed between now and then, but it is all very doable. For this week, I am satisfied.
Location Net Time Clock Time Pace Pace Between
Start 00:00 0:04
10k 38:09 38:12 6:08 /mi .
6:07 /mi
Half 1:20:22 1:20:25 6:07 /mi
6:05 /mi
30K 1:54:06 1:54:09 6:07 /mi .
6:14 /mi
Finish 2:41:21 2:41:25 6:09 /mi