Week Update/Philadelphia 1/2 Marathon Recap

Haile is running Tokyo in February, Shalane is leading the U.S. Women's revolution in long distance running, Brad Hudson analyzes Ritz, and a weird tidbit from the crazy Boston registration this year.

Playing some catchup, so bear with me.

Tue - 7 miles with drills - went out with Pat and Crystal, did 4.5 up, 20-30 minutes of drills at the track, 2.5 back. As usual, sped up coming in and blazed through the last half mile (low 8 minute pace overall). Felt pretty good overall.

Wed - 0!!! Couldn't really work it into my schedule due to cold weather + rain, started rethinking my objectives with the upcoming 1/2 marathon since I was feeling better, and reasoned that it was race week and needed to get a little rest

Thur - 7 miles with drills - did solo around town, legs were really tired and sore and took it very easy. 5 up, did drills right outside my neighborhood, paced out 40 yards and went right down the line and nailed the workout. 2 easy to finish it out. Legs felt much better when I was done.

Fri - 0 - travel day to D.C., considered doing a few miles in the morning but the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the consequent 2.5 hours of sleep killed that thought.

Sat - 5 miles - ran a loop with Shane around Washington D.C. - did his monument loop which starts at the Capitol Building and loops around the Washington Monument, FDR Monument, and Lincoln Monument. Super scenic, tons of people out, actually passed by a 5K in the Mall that was being held for the homeless. Just reinforces my theory that the best way to see a city is to run through it. Weather was high 60's, just ridiculously perfect.

Sun - PHILADELPHIA 1/2 MARATHON - 13.1 miles - 1:25:18 PR Since this race was an important one for me (for many reasons), will revert back to the old format of race reporting.

Drove into Philly the night before (roughly 2-3 our drive sans traffic), hit massive traffic jams on I-95 due to some 50+ car pileup which consequently shut down BOTH lanes. Started considering whether this was worth the 5+ hour drive since we were coming close to missing the expo. Using Google Maps, hit some side roads, drove through the side roads of Maryland, and eventually got back onto the interstate and into Philly. Made it to the downtown Philly with roughly an hour to spare at the Expo, hit up Hard Rock Cafe for a late night dinner, got to the hotel and repelled any bad notions of visiting Harrah's Casino down the road from our hotel, and went to sleep.

Race Morning

Woke up super early, the lack of sleep from the previous nights plus the hour time difference being on Eastern Time Zone was taking its toll. Made our way downtown, had slight problems finding parking and was definitely running late. Walked to the start, pretty scenic downtown and saw a lot of buildings that I recognized in various shows/movies. We started in front of the Art Museum and looped our way around the city. Was scrambling to get to the bag check off, and back to the start, and definitely was starting to panic slightly.

At the Start

Had 10 minutes to spare by the time I got to the bag drop off, and had to work my way through a few thousand people to get to my start corral. Absolutely 0 warmup, 0 stretching, was going into this cold. Legs felt ok though, and the weather was cold (38, would eventually get up to the low 40's), but really perfect to run since there was minimal breeze. Barely made it to the start to watch the wheelchair participants go off, and get my shoes tied up. Made my way up, was getting really anxious and actually had some butterflies, and tried to visualize the race and get into focus.

Race Report

Gun goes off, and here we go! Quite a few people were surging forward, and was a little perplexed to see everyone starting hard. I knew this was supposedly a fast course, but everyone seemed to be hauling. Kind of a weird feeling, since I hadn't done much in a while so the speed took a little bit to get adjusted to. Kept monitoring my Garmin, was definitely going out pretty fast. Looped around downtown, pretty scenic and had some decent cheer zones. I always go out freaking hard in these races and tried to dial it in - the cold didn't help. Fortunately, I felt pretty good and it was a pretty flat start and I had a good group of people to run with. [Miles 1-3 splits: 6:14, 6:17, 6:22]

Definitely went out a bit hard, but was still ok. Started to dial in a pace, and tried to get settled in. Looped back and started leaving downtown alongside the river towards some outer neighborhood like areas. Had a goofy looking guy with a funky stride clearly single me out, and he had it in his mind not to let me pass him because he kept surging forward. Felt bad because he was breathing waaay too hard for that early in the race, and he had a friend that was biking/taking photos yelling at him to slow down. Not surprised to drop him hard at the 5th mile. Started to feel a little tired, but tried to push those evil thoughts and get settled in. Found a group of runners to work with, and tucked in behind. Pretty awesome to run through this area which had Independence Hall, and a few coffee shops/retail shops. Great scenary, and was appreciating seeing Philly like this. Lots of cheering around, lots of fun. [Miles 4-6 splits: 6:30, 6:29, 6:26]

Started hitting some rolling hills a bit later. Ran through the 10K at 40:00 (would have been a PR sadly), and felt pretty good. Looped around this neighborhood like area, and hit a few long hills. Had to adjust my stride a bit, and started to labor over some of the long climbs which felt like eternity at times! I was still running in a group at this time, and had to battle to get my heartrate and breathing back to normal since they were surging out as soon as they hit the flats. I really didn't want to lose them, so had to adjust and really talk to myself to get back into form. Defintely starting to struggle a bit, but the downhills helped a little. [Miles 7-9 splits: 6:10 (I think this was short, but this was a really downhill mile, 6:37, 6:26]

I had done my homework for this race, via the Running Laminator, and knew to expect some painful hills around here. Hit one of the nastiest uphills around mile 10 around the zoo area, which pretty much took all the wind out of my sails. Pace dropped substantially, and my entire group was staggering up this mountain. Decided to just slow it down and try to make it up without expending too much energy, but it definitely took its toll. The others took off, and I tried valiently to keep up but started to get gapped. Legs were dead at this point, and the lack of training was pretty evident. Eventually got my breath and legs slightly back, and made my way back up. Started looping around back towards the city at this point, and could see the runners behind us. Ran around a circular drive, and started to lose my mark (one of the women marathon runners), and the group was officially done at this point. Started getting some really dark thoughts, and the girl was gapping me again, but vanquished all the negativity and pushed back forward. The Running Gods rewarded me with a nice downhill and was able to get back into pace a bit. Started visualizing the final 3 miles as my G.C. loop back home, and tried doing the math to see where I was at since I was on PR pace. Headed back towards downtown, pretty cool to see the River and the city as we approached it. Started talking to the girl a little bit that I was working with, found out she was aiming for low 2:50's and she was just in cruise control. A bit demoralizing since I was pretty tired, but we encouraged each other and I started to pick it up with a mile and a half to go. Started to get a little excited when I saw the split from the half and full marathoners, and picked it up a little. Worked with 2 others and pushed it towards the end. [Miles 10-13.1 split: 6:47, 6:21, 6:25, 6:22, not sure the last because my watch was messed up]

RESULTS
Peter Kim M31
Clock Time: 1:25:28
Chip Time: 1:25:18 PR
Overall Place: 94/9500?
Gender Place: ?
Division Place: 12/?
Pace: 6:30/Mile

Final Thoughts

Pretty stoked, had no idea where that came from with virtually no training and being slightly overweight, but it was clear the fresh legs helped me though and all the work I gave my lungs when they were pretty much closed helped a bit. Definitely recharged and motivated to push forward, still completely speechless. The stars may have aligned for that one day, but there is still much work to be done. Shane finished shortly after at 1:31, just missing his PR but still a great time. Marc finished a little after at 2:03, he was using this as a workout and had a good run until his IT bands started to flare. Good races all around!

In D.C. for another day, hoping to get in one more workout with Shane before heading back tonight. All in all a solid week, hit around 40 miles which was good, and hoping the holiday week doesn't derail me too much from hitting some good miles!