PHILLY MARATHON RACE REPORT
Soooooooooo.....sitting with my legs up, laptop warming them, watching Giants-Eagles game. For those who want the short version: I crushed the Philadelphia Marathon today. Feet sore from all the ass I kicked, Endurance Nation-style, and got a new PR 3:57:21 just 3 weeks after a similar hard marathon in DC.
So if that’s all you want to hear, you can stop reading now.
But those who know me know there’s no chance in hell I’m *not* going to have a lot to say after this last race of the season. So, if you’d like to walk around my head for a few minutes, read on...
3 weeks ago I had a good race in DC but the details got the best of me. Depended too much on my GPS (not accounting for its slight inaccuracy), got caught up in some crowds, didn’t allow for any stops in my pacing to refill Infinit bottle/pee, etc. So I missed my goal of sub4 hours by 3 minutes 6 seconds. No big deal, but I really, REALLY wanted sub4. Which is exactly why I had registered for the Philly marathon a few months ago - just in case. Had I gotten sub4, I may have well not run today. But I didn’t, so I did. Lots of people didn’t want me to run this race today. People from family members to friends to attendings at work all commented directly, or indirectly, that they thought it was too much. I didn’t. I just treated the DC marathon as a long training run in my mind, and rested up past 3 weeks. Did some minor running, but mostly was fighting off bronchitis. Watched my body weight/nutrition, slept at least 7 hours a night, stretched...did my new favorite sprint-then-carbload protocol 24 hours before race, and here I was...
Despite me being up at 0330 this am, I was late getting downtown. Can’t explain why. Spent a lot of time eating and drinking and pooping I guess. I’ll be talking a lot about pooping more later. But I didn’t get downtown until like almost 0600 for a 0700 start. I usually try to park near the finish, but after jockeying my truck into the last spot on the street I finally found, I got out and saw handicap placards on both surrounding cars and a hidden handicapped sign. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to park in time as there were lots of other cars circling, so I flew back down to Jefferson and parked in my garage and got all my gear on. Now it was 0635, and I was 15 blocks away.
So I *ran* to the start, about a mile!
I got there just in time for the national anthem and 5 minutes to get situated before the horn. I wore my usual garbage bag and carried my empty-gatorade bottle to pee in (under the bag), and within a few minutes the horn went off. I started right up front with the elites so my chip-gun differential was only about 10 seconds or so. And off I went.
I did exactly what the Endurance Nation coaches teach us to do, which is plan our work and work our plan; specifically, to go out about 30 seconds slower pace than normal for first 5 miles or so. Felt like I was going backwards in the pack, with tons of people flying by me, which meant I was doing exactly the correct thing. Some of them were only doing the half-marathon, so they had different pacing strategies. And some were doing the marathon, making the classic mistake of going out too fast. I kept my heart rate down, took periodic swigs off the Infinit bottle, and all was good. Stopped to pee once around 8 miles. GPS died early on but had my paceband and fortunately they had digital splits at every mile. Ipod kept rocking so so did I. I stayed within my pace band goals and was actually 2 minutes ahead of pace at the halfway mark (I saved time mixing the Infinit while running, so all I had to do was pour water in bottle at aid station), so when I saw my friend Melissa I stopped for a motivational hug.
Then, around mile 16 right before heading into Manayunk, for reasons still unknown to me, the wheels came off for a few miles. Out of nowhere. Legs started to feel like lead and I was noticeably slowing down, but when I tried to run faster my legs just weren’t listening. My heart rate never went above zone 3 so it wasn’t that. I had carbloaded and was using Infinit throughout race so it wasn’t metabolic. Was making urine so knew I was well-hydrated. Just legs felt dead and I got worried over the next 2 miles; I didn’t think I was going to be able to continue, let alone stay on pace for sub4.
I suddenly starting having doubts about everything - was I stupid to do 2 marathons in 3 weeks (yes)? Did I go out too fast (no)? Was I off on my nutrition (no)? Was my bronchitis still acting up even though I pretended I was fine (yes)? Could I do this for 10 more miles? And how the hell am I going to do this after swimming 2.4 miles and biking 112 miles at Placid next July? I became tired of the negative self-talk, grabbed a few powergels from the aidstation and sucked them down, hoping that would do the trick. Fortunately, it did. And I headed out through Manayunk, telling myself “If I can just get to the turnaround, just get up the hill to the 20 mile mark, I know I can can hold serve”.
And I did. 
My friend Ann said later she saw me at mile 25 and that I looked strong, which was complete bullshit. I was just pissed at myself for almost giving up earlier. So I just kept banging out sub-9 miles the last few until making it to the art museum. Once I rounded the curve on the Parkway and saw the finish clock which said 3:57 I started yelling and screaming like a maniac, startling many runners in front of me who turned around and looked at me as if I had some acute neurological disorder. But I was ecstatic, I had achieved my goal and fought back from the dark, dark place of self-doubt during a race.
Then the fun started.
I had no clothes at the finish line, so I was freezing in my soaked shorts and singlet. So I wrapped the mylar blanket around me and started hobbling to my car (like I did in DC). I figured it would help me clear the lactate and recover faster (it does). Now, for those non-runners out there, your GI system takes a nap for 4 hours while you are exercising (unless your name is McGurk), and at least for me tends to come back with a vengeance right after a hard run (right Cohen?). Yep, I had to make a pitstop - fast. Look around - hey look! The Four Seasons! Fortunately there were other runners there in mylar blankets so they had no idea I didn’t have a room there. I walked through the lobby right past a string quartet and a wedding party, went right into the bathroom, and desecrated it like it was my job. I have never felt such relief. It could have been called “The Entericus Strikes Back”, which seemed really funny at the time. In fact, much of this report was drafted in my head while sitting there in the john of the Four Seasons, savoring the heat and relief and sense of accomplishment. I started thinking of something an old college friend said to me the other night, when she asked me why I do this stuff. She asked me “Who’s keeping score?”. I thought about that that whole night. And I started thinking about it now, on the crapper. Just what is it that I’m running towards? Or from? Very poignant stuff; that is, until someone walked in, opened my stall without knocking, and whacked me in the head with the huge oak door. Hard. Certainly knocked some sense into me, and I realized my welcome at the 4 Seasons had worn off. Back to Jefferson, back to my car, crank the heat, change into dry clothes; drive right to Burger King cause I had promised myself at mile 16 that if I held on for sub4 I’d give in to my cheeseburger and big fish craving. Then home and got horizontal.
Well, that’s about it. I want to thank all my friends (you know who you are) for both motivating me and allowing me to talk shit and share in my accomplishments. Hopefully I did the same for you. This race meant so much to me, given all the adversity I've faced this year. It is truly great to get to share it with you.
Next race is half-Ironman Eagleman in Maryland next June, and then the full IronmanUSA in Lake Placid in late July. This winter, tons of time will be spent on the bike building fitness and speed...
But for the next week or so, the only running I may do is out to get some Mallomars.
Be well.
Liebs
Comments
well done! I think you have earned a few weeks off from running marathons