Yeah...Philly didn't go quite as planned or hoped. I'll start at the very beginning, walk through the race, and then summarize where I think I could have acted differently to improve for next time.
My sister and brother-in-law (Mark) got down to Delaware on Friday afternoon. Doc and I were so happy to see them! The next day, we took it easy and got into the expo around noonish. It was bonkers - tons of people! But, we got squared away well enough and got our stuff. Mark and I even got gel belts at good deals, which we needed for the race the next day.
After the expo, we walked through Reading Market for a bit, but it was insane, so that didn't last long. We headed home, but made a quick stop at Ikea in South Philly so my sister could get her fix.
This is where I think I went wrong #1 - dinner was pizza from Margarita's in Newark. Normally, I LOVE Margarita's, but in retrospect, I don't think the pizza sat very well. Too much fat, grease. Which, I realize, I should have known. It's not like this is my first time on this roller coaster.
We left on race morning around 5 a.m. and got to the start around 6 a.m. It was PACKED! So many people. We found a parking space relatively easy and pretty close and then started seaching out portapotties. We did our business and then it was just time to get into corrals, so perfect timing. We said our goodbyes and went to the start line.
As I mentioned earlier, I didn't wear a watch in this race. This is partly because all of my watches were broken, and partly because I wanted to see what it would be like to do the race on RPE. It was kind of moot through, because there were clocks every mile, so even if I wanted to I couldn't avoid knowing what the time was. That experiment didn't work really well, and I don't think I'll re-visit it. I'm a data geek - I like my stats and numbers.The first five miles or so were seriously crowded. I couldn't really run 'my' pace until mile 6 or 7. I felt good and was keeping up a 8:30-40 pace, which was a little slower than I wanted, but within the margin of error. Miles 6-8ish are through downtown, when it's impossible to feel bad. There were SO many people!
Nutrition was doing good - I did a gel every five miles (thanks to my trusty new gel belt). I wasn't taking on too many fluids which was ok; I didn't want too much stuff sloshing around and with the gels so frequently I was ok for fuel. The weather was nice - it was in the mid-40's at the start and eventually got up to the lower 60's toward the end of the day.
I think the wheels started to come off once we got into the park, around mile 10. Then, I knew it was going to be a long day. I can't really explain it - it was just that yuck, my legs feel like lead feeling. I think my nutrition leading up to the race played a big role in it. It's hard when people are visiting, but I can plan better for next time. I didn't think I needed to pay that much attention to it, but now I know otherwise.
I got to the split, then the half marathoners went to the finish (lucky ducks!) and the marathoners continued out Kelly Drive for the out-and-back to finish the race. I was feeling ok on the way out, not great, but ok, but then once we made the left turn into Manayunck, I totally hit the wall (around mile 17!). It was miserable. The remaining miles were a total slog fest to get to the finish. My legs hurt, my hips hurt, everything hurt. I couldn't walk because once I stopped running it hurt to start up again!
I was in a world of hurt - more hurt than any race I've ever done. So...I did the only thing I could and just got to the finish as quickly as I could. My final time was 4:10:03, which was slower than I wanted, but still a PR (by about 2-3 minutes).
After the race, my sister and I hung out and waited for Mark to finish (yea Mark!!!). We went home and after a nice nap, had a celebratory dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.
The next few days were painful. PAINFUL. I've never been this sore after a race. It was Wednesday before I could walk normally again. The Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving was out because I was just back to walking, let alone running. I took all of Thanksgiving week off and got back into the swing of things the week after.
These are my 'lessons learned' from Philly:
- Race week nutrition is so, so, so important. It can't be done halfway and can't be done without planning. That said, it's also very difficult because you're out of your normal routine.
- Marathons hurt. Use them sparingly.
- There is no substitute for long runs. I thought my HIM training would get me farther than it did, but I could tell my lack of long runs was part of the reason for my totally epic bonk. The larger picture is that there's no short cut on race day, so the next time I do a marathon I need to allow time for long runs.
