Philadelphia Distance Run Race Report
The Philadelphia Distance Run half-marathon is in the books and was a definite success! The morning started out beautifully…mid-60’s without a chance of rain in sight. I have never participated in a race with a field this massive. 11,000+ people crossed the finish line. It took me five minutes just to get to the starting line! The field was so enormous that throughout the 13.1-mile race, you never really saw the road for more than 50 yards in front of you. All you saw was a sea of humans. Having never experienced this before, it was a powerful sight to behold. 11,000+ people sharing your philosophy on health and pushing your boundaries. I couldn’t help but smile the whole way through just for being part of this experience. I can only imagine this feeling will be infinitely amplified when my toes touch Mirror Lake next July!
After the five minute walk to get to the start line you run about a mile on the Ben Franklin Parkway to City Hall followed by a series of sharp turns until you hit Market Street. Silvia and I ran together for the first mile and a half. She is ten times the athlete I have ever been or will ever be. She basically agreed to sign up for the PDR and Philly Marathon so I could have some company for my run training in preparation for IMLP. How cool is that?
Things slightly opened up on Market Street but the congestion was still heavy. But a right turn on 4th Street followed by a quick turn onto Walnut Street made for a huge traffic jam. Maneuvering through the sea of people is definitely a skill I’ll have to keep working on. After about 8 blocks on Walnut I hit Mile 3 feeling great. With a goal of breaking 2 hours, I checked my watch and seemed to be right on pace. After a right on 16th Street I made my way back to the BFP to head out onto West River Drive. I followed fellow tri-blogger Bob Mina’s PDR race report advice and tried to run the tangents as best as possible. Hurricane Bob managed to crush his half-marathon PR, so make sure to give your kudos to him! With all the twists and turns through the first four miles, I really felt like this strategy made a big difference.
The first aid station to have a sports drink was between miles 3 and 4 on the BFR. Unfortunately, the race director opted for Amino Vital. Maybe I just have a sensitive palate, but I thought Amino Vital tasted worse than vomit! After my first sip I decided it would be water for the rest of the way for me. Looking back, I think I only managed to consume about 10 ounces of fluid throughout the race, which is a pretty crappy nutrition strategy compared to my plan of drinking fluids every two miles. I think 13.1 miles is short enough to have a bogus nutrition strategy and still physically hold it together as long as your pace isn’t crazy fast. This won’t fly in the Philly Marathon and especially not at IMLP. My problem at the aid stations was that they were so bogged down with people, it was incredibly hard to get a drink. If I were to hydrate properly throughout the race I think I would have lost about 3 or 4 minutes. At the Philly Marathon I fully intend to walk through the aid stations and hydrate properly.
The spectator crowd was briefly thicker when I hit the fifth mile out by the Art Museum. West River Drive was pretty desolate in terms of fan support, but the shaded road and thousands of runners were a great help. Miles 5 through 9 were pretty uneventful…just lots of winding, shaded roads. At Mile 9 you reach Falls Bridge. I thought the bridge was only a slight incline, but lots of people on course made a big deal about it. When I was crossing the bridge I drew strength from the crowd, but I drew most of my strength when I thought of my mom. Her struggles go so far beyond a road race. My next blog post will delve into this in greater detail if you don’t have the context for this comment yet.
After you cross the bridge it’s basically a four mile trot back into town on Kelly Drive. Once I hit Mile 10, my split indicated I was going to finish right around 2 hours. My last 5k felt solid. I really drew a lot of energy off of the crowd in the final mile and managed to finish in 1:59:13. Certainly no world record, but I beat my goal time by 47 seconds!
PDR was a huge confidence booster for the Philly Marathon in 8 weeks. I have plenty of long runs to still get in before November 19th, but my endurance at this point is starting to feel solid (for me, at least). My pace was remarkably consistent throughout the race. I was 28:06 at the 5k mark (9:04 mile pace), 56:23 at the 10k mark (9:06 mile pace), and 1:31:11 at the 10 mile mark (9:07 mile pace). My splits ranged from no lower than the 8:50s to no higher than the 9:10s. 1:59:13 is 9:06 mile pace, so I basically held even the entire way. At no point did I feel like I was really blowing a gasket. If this was my “A-Race” I would have approached it much differently in terms of my training and race pace. I can’t complain at all about my results. Just a steady pace, beautiful race day conditions and some good chats with fellow runners (including a guy dressed in a head to toe Cow Suit who I managed to pass after about 8 miles!). All in all, just a terrific long “training” run.
I felt like I could have kept the pace up beyond the finish line but I’m not sure for how long. I haven’t established a time goal for the Philly Marathon yet, but based on my half-marathon results, I’m thinking I should try to shoot for roughly a 10-minute mile pace. But similar to the PDR, as long as I cross the finish line, my primary goal is accomplished.
One final thank you note to Silvia. Having you with me for the half-marathon made the day so much more special! You make these accomplishments infinitely more meaningful. Ohh…and one final final note…happy birthday to me (three days ago). To further confirm how awesome Silvia is, she decked me out with gobs of tri gear. A new Profile Design aero drink bottle, GU bike mount and shiny new heart rate monitor…How cool is that? I’ve never had any of these “toys” before and can’t wait to starting playing with them.
After the five minute walk to get to the start line you run about a mile on the Ben Franklin Parkway to City Hall followed by a series of sharp turns until you hit Market Street. Silvia and I ran together for the first mile and a half. She is ten times the athlete I have ever been or will ever be. She basically agreed to sign up for the PDR and Philly Marathon so I could have some company for my run training in preparation for IMLP. How cool is that?
Things slightly opened up on Market Street but the congestion was still heavy. But a right turn on 4th Street followed by a quick turn onto Walnut Street made for a huge traffic jam. Maneuvering through the sea of people is definitely a skill I’ll have to keep working on. After about 8 blocks on Walnut I hit Mile 3 feeling great. With a goal of breaking 2 hours, I checked my watch and seemed to be right on pace. After a right on 16th Street I made my way back to the BFP to head out onto West River Drive. I followed fellow tri-blogger Bob Mina’s PDR race report advice and tried to run the tangents as best as possible. Hurricane Bob managed to crush his half-marathon PR, so make sure to give your kudos to him! With all the twists and turns through the first four miles, I really felt like this strategy made a big difference.
The first aid station to have a sports drink was between miles 3 and 4 on the BFR. Unfortunately, the race director opted for Amino Vital. Maybe I just have a sensitive palate, but I thought Amino Vital tasted worse than vomit! After my first sip I decided it would be water for the rest of the way for me. Looking back, I think I only managed to consume about 10 ounces of fluid throughout the race, which is a pretty crappy nutrition strategy compared to my plan of drinking fluids every two miles. I think 13.1 miles is short enough to have a bogus nutrition strategy and still physically hold it together as long as your pace isn’t crazy fast. This won’t fly in the Philly Marathon and especially not at IMLP. My problem at the aid stations was that they were so bogged down with people, it was incredibly hard to get a drink. If I were to hydrate properly throughout the race I think I would have lost about 3 or 4 minutes. At the Philly Marathon I fully intend to walk through the aid stations and hydrate properly.
The spectator crowd was briefly thicker when I hit the fifth mile out by the Art Museum. West River Drive was pretty desolate in terms of fan support, but the shaded road and thousands of runners were a great help. Miles 5 through 9 were pretty uneventful…just lots of winding, shaded roads. At Mile 9 you reach Falls Bridge. I thought the bridge was only a slight incline, but lots of people on course made a big deal about it. When I was crossing the bridge I drew strength from the crowd, but I drew most of my strength when I thought of my mom. Her struggles go so far beyond a road race. My next blog post will delve into this in greater detail if you don’t have the context for this comment yet.
After you cross the bridge it’s basically a four mile trot back into town on Kelly Drive. Once I hit Mile 10, my split indicated I was going to finish right around 2 hours. My last 5k felt solid. I really drew a lot of energy off of the crowd in the final mile and managed to finish in 1:59:13. Certainly no world record, but I beat my goal time by 47 seconds!
PDR was a huge confidence booster for the Philly Marathon in 8 weeks. I have plenty of long runs to still get in before November 19th, but my endurance at this point is starting to feel solid (for me, at least). My pace was remarkably consistent throughout the race. I was 28:06 at the 5k mark (9:04 mile pace), 56:23 at the 10k mark (9:06 mile pace), and 1:31:11 at the 10 mile mark (9:07 mile pace). My splits ranged from no lower than the 8:50s to no higher than the 9:10s. 1:59:13 is 9:06 mile pace, so I basically held even the entire way. At no point did I feel like I was really blowing a gasket. If this was my “A-Race” I would have approached it much differently in terms of my training and race pace. I can’t complain at all about my results. Just a steady pace, beautiful race day conditions and some good chats with fellow runners (including a guy dressed in a head to toe Cow Suit who I managed to pass after about 8 miles!). All in all, just a terrific long “training” run.
I felt like I could have kept the pace up beyond the finish line but I’m not sure for how long. I haven’t established a time goal for the Philly Marathon yet, but based on my half-marathon results, I’m thinking I should try to shoot for roughly a 10-minute mile pace. But similar to the PDR, as long as I cross the finish line, my primary goal is accomplished.
One final thank you note to Silvia. Having you with me for the half-marathon made the day so much more special! You make these accomplishments infinitely more meaningful. Ohh…and one final final note…happy birthday to me (three days ago). To further confirm how awesome Silvia is, she decked me out with gobs of tri gear. A new Profile Design aero drink bottle, GU bike mount and shiny new heart rate monitor…How cool is that? I’ve never had any of these “toys” before and can’t wait to starting playing with them.
posted by Jeremy at 2:28 PM
2 Comments:
Thanks for a great race report and congrats! Time is ticking down for the marathon, so I'm looking forward to a nice LSD this weekend -- maybe I can have such consistent splits, too!
Kudos for a job well done!
Jeremy,
Congrats on a good half mara. I am glad they don't serve that stuff on IM. Even the name sounds disgusting. On the other hand, it will motivate me to run faster so i can drink something good :)
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