I went to graduate school in Philadelphia and ended up being based there for 9 years, through 2006. So running the Philadelphia Marathon was a great opportunity to go back to my beloved city and see friends, many of whom also ran either the half or the full marathon. I didn't really run when I lived there, except for some occasional light jogging when I attempted (and usually failed) to keep up with my girlfriend (now wife). But it turns out that they put on a great marathon there, with a really good course, enthusiastic spectators, and excellent organizers. I was aiming to run under 3 hours but managed only a 3:06. Despite falling short of my goal, I'm surprisingly not disappointed. Here's how the race transpired, with my mile (from my Garmin) and official splits on the left next to splits from my previous marathon, the Marine Corps Marathon a year earlier:
Philadelphia 11/17/13 MCM 10/28/12
mile 1: 7:04 6:53
mile 2: 6:37 7:02
mile 3: 6:42 6:50
mile 4: 6:44 6:40
mile 5: 6:48 6:50
mile 6: 7:07 6:43
[10k: 42:01 42:38]
mile 7: 6:34 7:01
mile 8: 6:55 6:47
mile 9: 6:45 6:51
mile 10: 7:05 7:10
mile 11: 6:47 6:49
mile 12: 6:46 6:51
mile 13: 6:55 6:53
[Half: 1:29:27 1:30:14]
mile 14: 6:49 7:12
mile 15: 6:49 7:27
mile 16: 6:55 7:13
mile 17: 7:17 7:20
mile 18: 7:36 8:25
[30k: 2:08:42 2:12:09]
mile 19: 7:29 7:31
mile 20: 7:36 7:39
mile 21: 7:36 7:33
mile 22: 7:34 7:41
mile 23: 7:41 7:31
mile 24: 7:32 8:14
mile 25: 7:39 8:22
mile 26: 7:42 8:02
finish: 3:06:26 3:12:17
The splits in these two races do not look all that different. In Philadelphia, I was a tad faster in the first half, but the main differences come in the second half. At the 2012 MCM, I had a sharp stomach pain at halfway after eating a gel right when the course turned into a strong headwind. I immediately slowed down, attempted to regain my pace after the pain subsided a mile later, but then stopped briefly at a water stop (in mile 18) before settling into a pace in the 7:30's, which slipped over 8 minutes in the last few miles when the course turned into the wind again. That was a year ago. Yesterday in Philadelphia there was no wind to speak of and I never had any significant stomach issues. I stayed on sub-3 hour pace through 16 miles but began to fade in mile 17. In fact, I noticed again around halfway that my energy was beginning to flag, after running more comfortably in the first half than I was able to last year. But since I had eaten my second gel around mile 10 or 11, I didn't immediately eat another one when I noticed my energy flagging around halfway. I think I waited until around mile 16 to eat another gel, and by then it was too late. The wall came in mile 17, where my energy plummeted. I fell quickly from the 6:50's to the 7:30's within two miles, and the negative thoughts came rushing into my mind. All that hard training and the same thing is happening again! This is the last time I'm doing this crap! Am I even going to be able to finish? Of course there was also a steep hill right when I felt the worst. But at the next water stop I ate another gel, probably not more than 2 miles after the previous one. Those two gels helped me pull it together, push away the negative thoughts, and settle into a consistent pace averaging in the 7:30's for the rest of the race. When I tried to run faster, I felt fainter and worried that I wouldn't be able to hold the faster pace for long, and my calf muscles also threatened to pull. So I ran as fast as I could without those things happening. By mile 19 or 20, my head was back in it, I knew I could hold roughly that pace until the end, and I calculated that I would probably finish between 3:05 and 3:07. And so I did.
Why did I run 3:06 instead of 2:59? At this point, several explanations occur to me. The main one concerns fueling. Either I should have eaten more gels before hitting the wall (I ate gels with water at miles 5 and either 10 or 11), or I should have supplemented the gels I did eat with gatorade, which I began doing only after the wall came. Because of my experience last year at the MCM, I was afraid of irritating my sensitive stomach, and that led me to err on the side of not taking enough in. That, I think, was my chief mistake in Philadelphia. It's impossible to say what time I could have run if I had fueled better, but figuring out a fueling strategy that works better for me is at the top of my list of things to work on for my next marathon. The other explanations concern training, and here I have fewer determinate thoughts at this point. Last year I was sure, immediately after running 3:12, that I was in shape to run 2:59 if only it had been less windy and if my stomach hadn't gone out on me. But later I started to fault my training as well, mainly for incorporating too little marathon pace running, but also for some other reasons that I tried to address this time around. This time I ran more miles, but not by much due to my extended taper - the last couple weeks of which, however, I think went perfectly. I tried to incorporate some more running at paces faster than marathon pace, but I couldn't handle much of that, and that's why I needed to drop my mileage earlier than planned. I did get in some more running at marathon pace, but I probably need to do still more of that. I'm less sore and worn out after Philadelphia than I've ever been after a marathon, which I attribute to the half dozen 80 mile weeks I ran in the past few months. But no doubt too many of those miles were too slow - "junk miles," as people say - that may have helped my body recover faster but didn't help me much if at all in the marathon itself. I'm not suggesting that I should run fewer miles in marathon training, but that a higher proportion of whatever miles I do run should be quality miles if I want to run a faster marathon. My body couldn't handle any more of that this time around, but maybe it will be better able to do so the next time around.
But now it's time to rest, and to plan for the future. Each of the past two years, I failed to let my body recover adequately after a Fall marathon and ended up getting injured in January. This time I'm not going to let that happen. We'll see whether I actually take two weeks entirely off from running, as I earlier vowed to do. It depends on how I feel. But certainly I won't do any sort of hard running, whether training or race, for a month or so. When it's safe to start easing back into harder training, I plan to focus for a while on improving my speed at shorter distances. I'm not sure yet, though, whether I'll remain focused on that through the Spring or whether I'll do a Spring marathon.
Philadelphia 11/17/13 MCM 10/28/12
mile 1: 7:04 6:53
mile 2: 6:37 7:02
mile 3: 6:42 6:50
mile 4: 6:44 6:40
mile 5: 6:48 6:50
mile 6: 7:07 6:43
[10k: 42:01 42:38]
mile 7: 6:34 7:01
mile 8: 6:55 6:47
mile 9: 6:45 6:51
mile 10: 7:05 7:10
mile 11: 6:47 6:49
mile 12: 6:46 6:51
mile 13: 6:55 6:53
[Half: 1:29:27 1:30:14]
mile 14: 6:49 7:12
mile 15: 6:49 7:27
mile 16: 6:55 7:13
mile 17: 7:17 7:20
mile 18: 7:36 8:25
[30k: 2:08:42 2:12:09]
mile 19: 7:29 7:31
mile 20: 7:36 7:39
mile 21: 7:36 7:33
mile 22: 7:34 7:41
mile 23: 7:41 7:31
mile 24: 7:32 8:14
mile 25: 7:39 8:22
mile 26: 7:42 8:02
finish: 3:06:26 3:12:17
The splits in these two races do not look all that different. In Philadelphia, I was a tad faster in the first half, but the main differences come in the second half. At the 2012 MCM, I had a sharp stomach pain at halfway after eating a gel right when the course turned into a strong headwind. I immediately slowed down, attempted to regain my pace after the pain subsided a mile later, but then stopped briefly at a water stop (in mile 18) before settling into a pace in the 7:30's, which slipped over 8 minutes in the last few miles when the course turned into the wind again. That was a year ago. Yesterday in Philadelphia there was no wind to speak of and I never had any significant stomach issues. I stayed on sub-3 hour pace through 16 miles but began to fade in mile 17. In fact, I noticed again around halfway that my energy was beginning to flag, after running more comfortably in the first half than I was able to last year. But since I had eaten my second gel around mile 10 or 11, I didn't immediately eat another one when I noticed my energy flagging around halfway. I think I waited until around mile 16 to eat another gel, and by then it was too late. The wall came in mile 17, where my energy plummeted. I fell quickly from the 6:50's to the 7:30's within two miles, and the negative thoughts came rushing into my mind. All that hard training and the same thing is happening again! This is the last time I'm doing this crap! Am I even going to be able to finish? Of course there was also a steep hill right when I felt the worst. But at the next water stop I ate another gel, probably not more than 2 miles after the previous one. Those two gels helped me pull it together, push away the negative thoughts, and settle into a consistent pace averaging in the 7:30's for the rest of the race. When I tried to run faster, I felt fainter and worried that I wouldn't be able to hold the faster pace for long, and my calf muscles also threatened to pull. So I ran as fast as I could without those things happening. By mile 19 or 20, my head was back in it, I knew I could hold roughly that pace until the end, and I calculated that I would probably finish between 3:05 and 3:07. And so I did.
Why did I run 3:06 instead of 2:59? At this point, several explanations occur to me. The main one concerns fueling. Either I should have eaten more gels before hitting the wall (I ate gels with water at miles 5 and either 10 or 11), or I should have supplemented the gels I did eat with gatorade, which I began doing only after the wall came. Because of my experience last year at the MCM, I was afraid of irritating my sensitive stomach, and that led me to err on the side of not taking enough in. That, I think, was my chief mistake in Philadelphia. It's impossible to say what time I could have run if I had fueled better, but figuring out a fueling strategy that works better for me is at the top of my list of things to work on for my next marathon. The other explanations concern training, and here I have fewer determinate thoughts at this point. Last year I was sure, immediately after running 3:12, that I was in shape to run 2:59 if only it had been less windy and if my stomach hadn't gone out on me. But later I started to fault my training as well, mainly for incorporating too little marathon pace running, but also for some other reasons that I tried to address this time around. This time I ran more miles, but not by much due to my extended taper - the last couple weeks of which, however, I think went perfectly. I tried to incorporate some more running at paces faster than marathon pace, but I couldn't handle much of that, and that's why I needed to drop my mileage earlier than planned. I did get in some more running at marathon pace, but I probably need to do still more of that. I'm less sore and worn out after Philadelphia than I've ever been after a marathon, which I attribute to the half dozen 80 mile weeks I ran in the past few months. But no doubt too many of those miles were too slow - "junk miles," as people say - that may have helped my body recover faster but didn't help me much if at all in the marathon itself. I'm not suggesting that I should run fewer miles in marathon training, but that a higher proportion of whatever miles I do run should be quality miles if I want to run a faster marathon. My body couldn't handle any more of that this time around, but maybe it will be better able to do so the next time around.
But now it's time to rest, and to plan for the future. Each of the past two years, I failed to let my body recover adequately after a Fall marathon and ended up getting injured in January. This time I'm not going to let that happen. We'll see whether I actually take two weeks entirely off from running, as I earlier vowed to do. It depends on how I feel. But certainly I won't do any sort of hard running, whether training or race, for a month or so. When it's safe to start easing back into harder training, I plan to focus for a while on improving my speed at shorter distances. I'm not sure yet, though, whether I'll remain focused on that through the Spring or whether I'll do a Spring marathon.
