Category Archives: Philly Marathon

Philadelphia Marathon Race Recap

Posted by Melissa on November 26, 2012 34 comments

It’s hard to believe last weekend I completed my second marathon. It wasn’t the picture-perfect race I envisioned, where I’d cross the finish line with a huge PR feeling like a million bucks. In fact, if you can believe it, I actually finished slower than my first marathon. My training runs weren’t as fast as I’d hoped. Work was kicking my ass in the weeks leading up to the race, leaving me drained and wanting nothing but to be in bed as early as possible. I abandoned all pace goals for Philly and decided to simply focus on finishing. Also, on the Tuesday before the race I came down with a sore throat, cough, and a cold. Of course I did. I armed myself with Vitamin C, cough drops, and enough meds for an army in an attempt to stop the illness in its tracks. Unfortunately, the illness carried right through race day.

Sunday morning Brad and I met up with Shannon, Ashley, Ritsa, and Kara in the lobby of my hotel. I was oddly calm despite the fact I was about to, you know, run a marathon.

We made the mile trek to the start line, talking about the race and trying to keep warm. Once we arrived at Eakins Oval in front of the Art Museum it started to feel a little bit more real. Ritsa and Kara were running the half, Shannon and I were running the full, Ashley had plans to be the World’s Best Spectator (and she was!)

Ashley, Shannon and I

And my race shirt:

The race officially started at 7am but since our corral was a little further back, we didn’t cross the starting line until nearly 7:30. The first few miles were fairly congested but once everyone settled into their pace it seemed to space out a bit. I was fueling with Honey Stinger chews, which I had used religiously throughout training. Unfortunately that morning my stomach decided it didn’t like them. I knew there would be Clif Shots in the later miles but it wouldn’t have been smart to go without until that point. So every 30 minutes I ate 2-3 chews.

Around mile 7 (after several miles of trying to talk myself out of it) (and pleading with Shannon not to kill me for having to stop) I decided to make a pitstop. The portopotty lines were ridiculously long so I took my chances on a Starbucks bathroom. Thankfully the women already in line ushered me to the front since they knew I had a race to get back to – so nice of them! Shannon and I were on our way very quickly afterwards.

My stomach felt a bit better but my legs were already feeling heavy. Great feeling to have when you aren’t even halfway into your race. My walk breaks became more frequent and I continued fueling as planned, hoping the sugar & carbs would keep me moving. Shannon was trucking along in front of me, killing it – feeling GREAT! I was so proud of her. I felt like I was holding her back but she insisted she wasn’t going to leave me. So thankful for her – she definitely saved me.

As we neared the halfway point, I heard the crowds cheering. Half-marathoners filtered out as they made their way to the finish. I really hated how close we had to run to the finish line. But not as much as I hated the miles I was about to run…

Miles 13-17 were hard, but I was going to see my family at mile 17 so that kept me moving. Shannon was still a bit in front of me, basically my carrot, pulling me through the miles. On a walk break, I texted Brad to let him know I wanted him to jump in at mile 17. Shannon and I discussed that she was going to push ahead and meet a friend at mile 20, and then we’d meet back up again at mile 23. I was so happy that she was going to run ahead because she was doing SO well – she needed to keep going and not worry about me.

The graceful water bottle swap for fresh Nuun at mile 17:

Why yes, I DID wear sparkly leg warmers.

Brad handed his jacket to my parents and jumped in with me to tackle a few miles.

Brad was smiling. I’m pretty sure I was not.

Had I done a bit more thorough research on the course for Philly, I would have noticed miles 13-26 were an out-and-back. I absolutely DESPISE out-and-backs.

When you’re heading out at mile 13, watching runners hauling ass to the finish near mile 26 is brutal. And then you continue to watch those faster runners all the way to the turnaround in Manayunk. So tough. Mentally it tore me apart. Thankfully I had Brad with me, who listened as I rehashed the first half of the race. Around mile 21 I realized my phone was vibrating. I had a text from Shannon, saying she couldn’t stop at 23 or she might not be able to finish the race. I completely understood (I even mentioned to Brad a few miles back that I wasn’t sure how she was going to stop and wait for me, because it would be tough to start running again) and wished her luck. Go check out her race recap – she did amazing!!

I was going to drop Brad back off at mile 22 with my parents but he offered to stick with me until 23 and then I’d fly solo to the finish.

Could have been a good shot, if Brad wasn’t blocking my face.

I was trying to fuel but my stomach didn’t want the Honey Stinger chews and it wasn’t a fan of the Clif Shots either. I tried sipping Gatorade instead of Nuun at water stops for the extra calories but (unsurprisingly) my stomach couldn’t handle the way-too-sweet Gatorade. I’m pretty sure miles 20-26 were 90% walking and 10% running shuffling. Every time I tried to run, I could hardly lift my legs off the ground. I had hit the wall at mile 18 (WAY too early) and every step after that was a struggle.

The last three miles were quiet, lonely, cold, and LONG (18:21, 19:51, 20:23 – NOT an exaggeration). I wanted so badly to be done, to see the finish line, to sit down. Once I came up on mile 26, I saw Shannon + her boyfriend, Ashley, and Kara screaming their heads off for me. They gave me the push I needed to start running again. Ashley jumped in with me for a minute, telling me to keep running and haul ass to the finish. So I did. Heel strike and all.

yup, didn’t buy that photo. stolen.

I got my medal, a heat sheet, and quickly made my way out of the finisher’s chute.

I’ve never been so happy to finish a race.

It wasn’t the race I hoped for – not even close. I’ve decided I’m going to hang up my 26.2 shoes for awhile. Ideally until 2014, but knowing myself I probably won’t be able to hold off for that long. I want to not dread 3+ hour training runs. I want to focus on running faster in shorter distances. I want to PR in the 10K and half marathon. I’ll certainly have plenty of chances in the spring: 3M, Austin, and ZOOMA.

I don’t want to run races to finish. I want to give them my all – leave everything I’ve got out on the course.

My calendar is full of races and I’m ready to put in the work. I’m ready to push hard. I’m ready to dig deep and run strong.

I’m ready to RUN.

Hot, hot, hot

Posted by Melissa on August 2, 2012 14 comments

Back in the beginning of June, I committed to outdoor weekday runs. Determined to become a runner who embraced hot weather pavement pounding, I headed out every Tuesday and Thursday night to get some miles in. It was hot, and the pace wasn’t my fastest, but the runs were done every single week like clockwork.

Then marathon training started. I needed to start hitting faster paces in my speed and tempo workouts. No matter how well fueled or hydrated I felt I was, I still couldn’t drop the pace as low as it needed to be. Incredibly discouraged, my goal for the Philly Marathon was bumped up to sub-5 from 4:40. The heat kicked my ass at the track, leaving me defeated and upset.

There are two times to run during the summer in Texas: early morning or late evening. Early morning (6-7am) you can expect 80-85 degrees with 80-100% humidity, depending on the day. Late evening (8-9pm) is generally in the ballpark of 90-100 degrees with humidity in the 30-40% range, again depending on the day. I logged enough long runs last summer during marathon training to know that yes, I can run through humidity, but my pace will be nothing to write home about. There were a few runs I was forced to do on the treadmill and my pace improved by over a minute per mile. That’s HUGE.

Yesterday I saw a tweet from Jeri that linked to an article on Women’s Running about running through the humidity.

From the article:

Running in humid weather can be a brutal adventure. Suddenly your normal pace takes a good beating as you try to navigate through the thick, soup-like summer air. Though the rays of beautiful sunlight are ever so enticing, running indoors might be a better option during periods of high temps coupled with high humidity. Check out this chart that shows how the percentage of humidity affects the relative temperature:

It’s one thing to push through the heat, but it’s another to be attempting to nail tempo paces (ahem, strenuous activity) when you’re in the extreme caution or danger zone. I’d rather successfully complete my runs than be disappointed week after week as the heat zaps my energy levels and decreases my pace, causing me to miss key workouts. Until it cools down just a bit, I think I’ll be moving my mile repeats and tempo runs inside to the hamster wheel. Better to be safe than sorry!

Is it fall yet?

How do you deal with running in the heat? Do you ever take the workout inside to be safe?

What’s your breaking point, temperature-wise, for when you know it’s time to hit the ‘mill?

Philadelphia Marathon Training Plan

Posted by Melissa on July 31, 2012 12 comments

Welp, it’s finally done.

I’ve been working on this damn training plan for MONTHS, tweaking it here and there, adjusting paces and LR distances. The RLRF FIRST plan I started with was for a 4:45 finish. After an exciting and successful night at the track, I changed it to 4:40. And then there were those failed 800s last week that knocked me right back down to reality. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to adjust my goal. I’d rather start out on the conservative side of challenging, rather than the setting-myself-up-for-disappointment side.

After much debate, I settled on a goal: SUB-5.

If I feel stronger in a couple months and the paces just aren’t cutting it, I can always bump them down. I’d rather, you know, not have my confidence crushed on Day One. I also removed all pace goals from long runs. When it’s 90 degrees, I’d rather focus on not dying than stalk my watch to make sure I’m going fast enough. So my long run goal is distance. And distance only.

Here’s the plan I’ll be following from now through November 18th:

click image to view full doc in Google Drive

What training plan do you use? Galloway? Higdon? FIRST? Or do you make your own?

What distance do you use for your longest half/full marathon training run?

Track Trial: 400s

Posted by Melissa on July 19, 2012 7 comments

With marathon training just around the corner and an unfinished training plan on my desk, we decided to take Tuesday night’s four mile run to the track.

It’s been a looooong time since I’ve done speedwork and had no idea what paces I was even capable of. My NJ Marathon plan was tough but doable, but I also went into it with a much stronger training base (ie. a 26.2 & 2 x 13.1 races in the 3 months prior). So we figured we’d start small with a progression 4 x 400m (400 RI), running each split just a little bit faster than the last. There wasn’t a pace we were hoping to nail for the first split either. I figured we could push it until it was uncomfortable, and decrease from there.

After an easy warm-up mile (4:1 run/walk, 12:05 pace) on a nearby trail, we made our way over to the track. First order of business – stash water bottles on the side of the track to grab post-lap. Next I skipped through the playlist on my iPod to find a suitable song for lap numero uno. And then?

GAME ON!!

400m — 2:05 (8:21 pace) “We Run the Night” by Havana Brown

400m — 2:01 (8:05 pace) “Runaway Baby” by Bruno Mars

400m — 1:59 (7:57 pace) “Run” by Flo Rida <— his new album ROCKS. Download it now, thank me later.

400m — 1:51 (7:26 pace) “Now You’re Gone” by Basshunter

Followed by an easy cooldown mile where I tried not to die. Seriously, my stomach was PISSED.

So to recap, we nailed the intervals AND they were faster than expected. I was wavering between a 4:40 and a 4:45 plan for Philly, but I’ll be sticking with the 4:40 to make sure I’m pushing myself hard enough.

Next week: 800s!

Remind me to thank John for a lovely weekend {Ian Malcolm}

Posted by Melissa on July 16, 2012 4 comments

Base building for Philly is well underway and I’m really happy with the way things are going. Our Tuesday/Thursday runs have been pretty consistent pace-wise and as the Saturday long run mileage increases, the pace has been decreasing. Definitely headed in the right direction! There’s still two weeks until training “officially” starts, but going into it with a solid base will without a doubt help kick it off on a high note.

Believe it or not, the training plan for Philly is STILL under construction. I made the mistake of playing around with SmartCoach on the Runner’s World website and now I’m rethinking some of my training paces. However, it WILL be done soon and then I can finally stop obsessing (and stressing!) over it.

Saturday morning Brad and I ran a steamy six (well, 6.2) miler at Brushy Creek.

We recently upped our intervals to 4:1 and surprisingly, we haven’t been struggling. Ideally I’d like to keep bumping up the intervals a little every couple weeks so eventually (after 10:1) walk breaks will be wiped out completely. Probably could have done this from the beginning, but after a few low mileage months I didn’t want to push it right off the bat.

Our running pace was in the 11-12:00 min/mi range, with a final overall (with walk breaks) pace at 12:43. Still not where I’d like to be, but getting there. Temps were at a comfortable 73 but the humidity was at 93% and the air was THICK. At one point we stopped to stretch, using a railing for balance.The entire railing was covered in condensation! The run was a certified sweatfest. BUT! We were done by 8:30 and had the rest of the weekend to do important stuff…

like stop for some caffeine to power us through grocery shopping with the crazies

and use a $3.50 coupon + rogue gift card in my wallet to update my summer nail polish collection:

watch a Friends marathon

cook a super clean dinner Saturday night {I shared the giant piece of pork with Bo – he’s most certainly not spoiled. at all.}

read this book

watch the CMT Top 20 Countdown {love the top 3}

prep meals for the week {asian turkey meatballs + fried rice}

wonder why our Body Issue of ESPN the Magazine had Jose Bautista on the cover instead of Gronk

uncork a bottle of cab mid-afternoon on Sunday {hello, cheat day!}

inhale a delicious plate of Chicken Tikka Masala

and watch Jurassic Park for the 37893rd time.

After grocery shopping post-run on Saturday morning, we didn’t leave the house for the rest of the weekend.

And it was AWESOME.

How was your weekend? Do you like country music? What’s your favorite part of Jurassic Park?

Wordless Wednesday: Philly Marathon {temporary} Training Plan

Posted by Melissa on July 4, 2012 12 comments

0 for 2

Posted by Melissa on April 29, 2012 9 comments

So last Tuesday Nuun announced the lucky women chosen to run Hood to Coast 2012 on their team.

Sadly, I didn’t make the cut. But I wasn’t completely surprised. The field was uber competitive and the odds were not stacked in my favor, with my not-over-the-top-creative application and lack of a huge blog following.

On Wednesday, the lottery results for the ING NYC Marathon were revealed. After refreshing my bank account 4589764 times and desperately stalking the NYRR website for hours on end, the results were in: Not Accepted.

So now what? After my rejection from NYC, I was on the prowl for a rebound marathon. Or a fall race longer than a 10K, for that matter. I had planned on giving See Jane Run another shot but an email received late last week informed us they wouldn’t be back until maybe 2013. So much for that idea.

There’s not a chance in hell I’d run the 26.2 in San Antonio in November, especially with the steamy temps Texas has been experiencing during our fall/winter months. The same goes for the Chosen Marathon in New Braunfels in October. Heat & humidity – no thank you.

After a quick Twitter consultation and a Google search, I found two marathons I deemed worthy of suffering through another training cycle during the 100+ degree summer:

My next potential victim will either be Long Beach on October 6th or the Philly Marathon on November 18th. The price increase hits May 1st for Philly so I’ll be making a decision REAL soon.

Have you run either Long Beach or Philly? Thoughts on which I should choose? Wanna run with me?