Cowboy Hazel

After as badly as things went out in South Dakota this August, I had pretty much thrown in the towel on my goal to pick up two sub-3 marathons in two weeks this fall. Somehow, though, I managed to pull it off. This morning, I ran a 2:59:43 in my third consecutive run of the Philadelphia Marathon two weeks after running 2:58:09 in New York. I have a ton of personal history on the Philadelphia course – both good and bad – so being able to get a solid run in there today was especially satisfying.

I got into trouble really early on and was almost sure that the race would end up being a disaster. My fears were warranted – today's marathon was one of the toughest I've ever run. I was having lots of issues with my leg muscles and an extremely upset stomach forced me to make a bathroom stop at mile 16 (my first ever time doing so in a marathon). But, I put everything I had out there in the race and just barely managed to squeak by under three hours.

The weekend as a whole was a blast. Helen and I headed down on the bus yesterday afternoon, hit the expo, then checked in at the same hotel I've stayed at all three years. We went out for some dinner and I varied from the typical pasta, getting veal and lobster tail instead. I don't think that was the problem (I think it was coffee this morning and too late of a wakeup, but I wonder if anyone else has had problems with those foods?) Back at the hotel, we were asleep pretty early and slept well until our 4:15 alarm.

We both got up and ate breakfast but then went back to bed. And we couldn't drink our coffee yet because room service didn't start until 5:30. It finally arrived at 5:50, but that left us with less than a half hour to digest it before we left. I should have realized that would have been a problem, but I overlooked it.

We got to the corral so much easier than at NYCM and enjoyed the unusually warm November Philadelphia weather while standing around waiting for the start. We were close to the front and I took off too quick, running a 6:25 first mile. I would have reeled it in more right then, but the mile marker was misplaced and I thought my Garmin was acting up. The same thing happened the next couple miles and eventually I figured out from listening to the runners around me that the markers were wrong, not my Garmin. So, instead of heading out at the consistent 6:50's I planned, my first 5 miles were all under 6:40.

By the time we came back into downtown around mile 5, I was already feeling horrible. My quads were aching, I felt a cramp starting in my left calf, and I just generally ached all over. I still definitely hadn't fully recovered from New York and my body was rebelling against having to run that pace again. I kept a solid 6:50 pace through the half but felt progressively worse with each passing mile. I was becoming aware that there was no way I was going to make it without a bathroom stop. I was slowing, people were starting to pass me and I pretty much gave up all hope of the race ending well.

I eventually saw porta-potties, stopped, went as quick as I could, but I was still in there for 2 minutes and 22 seconds (What would we do without Garmins?) and came out feeling completely out of rhythm. I was so discouraged for almost the next mile that part of me wanted to just quit, but then we hit the mile 17 marker and I looked at my pace chart and realized I was only 95 seconds behind schedule. It's interesting, I've never worn a pace chart before and just picked it up on a whim at the expo, but it completely saved my ass today.

I did the math and realized that if I picked up just 10 seconds per mile, I could do it. I also knew that if I tried to run any faster than that, I would fall apart – I still was feeling far from 100%. So, for the next 7 miles, I hit 6:40 splits as consistently as I could. Realizing at mile 24 that I was still too far behind and knowing there was a big hill at the end, I dug even deeper and sped up to 6:30s. I don't remember any of the sights around me at that point. I was just looking at the ground in front of me and focusing on fighting through the pain.

Luckily, the race directors had changed the course since and fixed the problem at the finish (last year, we had to wade through slow half marathon finishers on our way to the marathon finish line) – I don't think I could have handled having to dodge the run-walkers. I heard the announcement that only a minute was left before 3 hours, but still hadn't seen the finish line. I started running as fast as I possibly could (which wasn't all that fast at that point) and then looked up to see the finish line quickly approaching. I looked up to see 2:59:45 as I crossed and had a huge smile on my face. (I later learned that my net time was 2:59:43.)

Helen was taking it easy and so we planned on meeting back at the hotel. I'm so glad we did. I was freezing cold and such a wreck – my emotions were a ridiculous roller coaster going from elated to angry tears and then back again within minutes. She finished in 3:25:06, which she was happy with.

So, overall I have to be happy with how the race turned out. My A+ goal was to beat last year's time, which I didn't do. But, my close runner up goal was to finish under 3 hours and I got that. Considering everything that I was up against, I feel like it was a solid result. Better yet, I know I didn't leave anything out there. Oh, and the best part? I beat Helen's AG%. I know she wasn't racing all out, but still.