Philly Marathon Race Report
My quest to participate in the Philadelphia Marathon started a week after I finished the Boston Marathon. All who shared our training on the forums will remember how crushed I was by my performance at the marathon, so I decided that I would sign up for Philly as it was recommended to me by a marathon friend and requalify for Boston and go back to prove to myself that I deserved to be there. However, as the months went by I decided that I hated (yes a strong word) training in the winter for a marathon, so I my plan changed - I was going to go to Philly to enjoy the experience and forget about the goal of requalifying for Boston.
Soon my triathlon season was upon me and Philly was not even on my radar. After a great season which ended in an Age Group Win at the Big George HIM (thanks EN for the great training plans), I switched my focus to the marathon. After some thought I decided that I was going to train differently for this marathon, than I had in the past. I had never trained for a marathon while not training for triathlon at the same time, so this was going to be different. After much thought I decided on the following:
1. run focus (no biking, 1 x swim day, 2 x strength training)
2. volume (50km to a max of 78km a week - 5 to 6 runs a week)
3. variety (trail running (Tue hilly/Wed flat) + road running)
4. long runs would be in the Gatinaue Hills 12km away from my flat valley home of Ottawa.
5. commit to run with others to keep me motivated (thankfully I have a number of great running buddies in my town to run with, so this was easy)
6. no HR monitor and I would not run by pace. I would run by feel, however I would record my paces, so I had an idea of what to run the marathon at.
Overall my training went well. I was consistent with my training. I stayed healthy and had very little issues, except for a bout with sore calves (old shoes).
Before I knew it, it was time to leave for Philly. I emailed my friend Trisha and asked for pacing advice (she has been a pace bunny for years and years) and then I met with my mental coach the day before we left and set a plan in place. Trisha suggested I seed myself with the 3hr50min coral and after discussing this with Renee (my mental coach) I left that meeting deciding that I was going to requalify for Boston. I needed a 3hr55min marathon time.
The trip down was uneventful. My friend Suzanne booked us in a beautiful Boutique Hotel in Philly in a prime location, so that we could walk to downtown within minutes. We were on the 7th floor (Steve's (hubby) lucky number). I was in the Green Coral (my fav colour). I had no problem finding Gluten free food, I slept very well, the weather was beautiful and the people of Philly were amazing.
The only thing that was worrying me was an injury I incurred on my last run in the Gats. I pulled my QL (back muscle) on my left side and it was super sore. So I started taking ibuprofen and stretching like it was my job. Nothing I could do but hope that it would not bother me during my race.
The days leading up the the race in Philly were sunny, but rather chilly, but the morning of the race was warm and sunny. I woke up at 2am and took in some liquid fuel and then went to bed until 5am. I had a gluten free bagel with pb and a banana around 5:45am and then headed down to the race site at 6am. We got to the site around 6:30 and then lined up to put our bags in the trucks so we had some dry clothes to change into after the race. This left us little time to have a washroom break, so I decided that I would peel off the course the first opportunity I got to go, instead of chancing missing the start of the race.
Philly has the half marathoners starting with the marathoners. I thought that they would run part of the race with us and then peel off, but they run their whole race with us, which made for a very busy race. At times the course was narrow which resulted in me trying to make my way around people. It got better once the half marathoners got off the course, but if I did not pay attention I would be running under my desired pace. If I were to do this race again, I would seed myself in a faster coral, just to avoid this.
During the race I felt amazing. My side was noticably sore, but not so much as to affect my running. I got three shout outs for Endurance Nation because I was wearing the tri shirt. One gal yelled how great she thought EN was. I met up with her after the race and she said that her and her husband are not members, but that they had used one of the programs to do Beach to Battleship and they were very impressed.
It has been a week since I participated in the race, so my memory of it is fading, but I have to say that I felt amazing and fresh until the last 2 miles which seemed to go on forever!!!!
When I crossed the finish line I had the biggest smile on my face. Not only did I enjoy the race, but I requalified for Boston proving to myself that I did deserve to be there last year. Will I be trying to get in next year for Boston? - NO WAY. I do not want to train for a marathon over the winter. I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. Mission accomplished.
Highlights
* tour of Philly the day before the race - beautiful city
* Frankie - our breakfast guy
* spending time with my good friend Suzanne and my EN buddy Liebs
* meeting Maureen B
* not hurting at the 21 or 25km mark on the marathon like I have in the last two marathons
* qualifying for Boston with the new standards
* not having any issues with my back/leg
I said to my friend Liebs that I was not going to do another marathon unless it was in the body of an Ironman, but then someone mentioned that Chicago is a beautiful city (I love architecture), so maybe in 2 years I will do that marathon. Liebs - you in?
Low lights
* loosing Chris Gleason. Miss you dude.
Comments
Sorry I mssed you in Philly - I was all over the the place that weekend and didn't get to see any of the marathon (and I actually felt a little guilty for not running - just for a bit)
Congrats for an awesome race and the satisfaction of re-BQing at the new standards. You must have been ecstatic at the finish! Would have loved to been there to see it. Recover well and savor the sweet success of your training. Well done.
Am so proud of the way you plan your work and work your plan just like my Grandma used to say. You deserve all of the results that you get because you EARN them! This year just proves that last year was NO fluke. Only thing better would've been the Two Steves' presence - maybe at Placid this year?
And as for as another marathon...No thank you.
Congrats B you are what this team is all about. Not just racing but true friendship.