Philadelphia Marathon 09

Where to begin...

This is hands down the best race I have ever ran. I can't quite describe the exhilaration of running those last few miles knowing that I was going to finish it well under my 3 hour goal. And I was doing it strongly too, even finding the strength to cheer on some fellow runners who were slowing down at the end.

I came into this race with a 3:05.02 marathon PR achieved in April in St. Louis. 7 months on, with some solid and proper training under my belt and more importantly being healthy, I was able to drop 13 minutes off of that time and finished at 2:51.52 time.

I wanted to start the race slower to figure out how my body was doing. At the corral I found the 3 hour pace setters and ran 20-30 yards behind them the first 6 miles or so. I knew they would pace me at low 6.50s. At that point all I wanted was to get my body going and still be on target. Around mile 7 I felt strong and adventurous enough to skip ahead of them, and started running in the low 6.30s, high 6.20s. I felt good and was not worried about hitting the wall later on.

I hit the mid-way point at around 1:27.30, which was 90 seconds faster than planned. Also I started sighting Robert just ahead of me and was eager to join him. I finally caught up at around mile 16 and we ran together for a mile or so before he told me to just go ahead.

Up to mile 20 in Manayunk I was still averaging around 6.30s and still feeling quite good. My strategy of focusing on each mile at a time was paying off - I wanted to just reach the next mile and not freak thinking that I still had so many miles left ahead of me. The turnaround in Manayunk was when I realized that I was going to run under 3 and actually started running faster. Those were the fastest splits of the entire race; the last 6 miles were ran under 6.20. And my confidence grew as I was gaining on so many other runners.

The end of the race was just a big mess, as other bloggers already have reported. Marathoners, half-marathoners or marathoners still finishing the first half all jumbled together. Really confusing.

But all`s well what end`s well. I ran the second half of the race close to my Half PR of 1:24.30 and the last 6 miles in about 40min. The most amazing part is that my body right now feels great, save my quads are only a bit sore.

It was an amazing day!

A shout to Robert who also ran an under 3 marathon at 2:57.52. Way to go Raccoons!

And to Darien. She was all set to run her first marathon, but ITB problems just 10 days prior to race day hampered her training. She bravely started the race, but was only able to run the Half course. Many more marathons will come her way. I am sure I will see her running again soon, healthy and faster.