Cowboy Hazel

Crazy how much things can change in a year. And how much they stay the same. I dropped almost 19 minutes off my Philadelphia Marathon time from last year, finishing in 2:57:52 but the manner in which I ran the course was eerily similar – I went out way too fast, setting a half-marathon P.R., then bonked late into the race. The only difference was that this year my first half was considerably faster and my bonk wasn't nearly as bad.

I started off okay, staying relatively close to the planned 6:45 miles. I was a little quick, but really worked hard on staying as close to pace as possible. We went down through the city, along a highway, and then doubled back into downtown. That stretch (starting right after the mile 5 marker) was where I got into trouble. Our bibs had our first names printed on them, I was out on my own, the crowd was loud, and everyone was cheering for me. It just got inside my head. I kept trying to slow down, but it didn't happen – for the next 10 miles, I was running closer to 6:30s than the target 6:45s. I got as far off as a 6:24.

I started to hurt bad around mile 16. I figured Antonio would be catching up to me soon and I was right. Running through a water station, I heard the volunteers cheering for him, and then he was next to me. He hung with me for a quarter mile or so, but I told him to run on since he was obviously feeling way better than I was. He went on to finish in 2:51:52! I slowed back down to 6:44 mile 16, then 6:39, and 6:59 the next two.

Seeing Helen and her friends cheering at mile 20 was a huge boost and carried me to a 6:47 mile, followed by a 6:52. But starting with 22, I just fell apart: 7:07, 7:13, 7:05, 6:46, 7:12 (and then a slightly speedier 0.2). I hit mile 23 at 2:35:00 and realized that I was within reach – even if I slowed to 8 minute miles, I would still break 3. It was a complete hell that I was going through at that point, but I fought through knowing how pissed I would be if I missed 3 hours.

So, final thoughts from the race: I'm thrilled with the time – I ran sub-3 like I wanted to. It was a good day. End of story. Right? Well... I just can't help but wonder what would have happened if I had run a smarter race. My second half was almost 4 minutes slower than the first. Why do I keep doing this? When do I turn into a smart runner?

I guess there will be more opportunities, although it might be a while before I try to run this fast of a marathon again. My focus for next year is definitely going to be more about quantity and shifting to the longer races rather than worrying about speed. We'll see. It's a long way off...

p.s. The end of the course was as big a clusterfuck as we all feared it would be prior to the race. Somebody please fix that for next year. Ridiculous.