So I woke up this morning at 4:45am still not feeling nervous. Then I started wondering why that was. I guess part of it was knowing that I was definitely going to beat last years time 4:26 and was going to beat my last marathon (in NJ) which was 4:05. Why did I know that? Felt better prepared, have been running faster, more miles, less injuries this year. So I came up with a crazy goal of 3:30 to challenge myself. It was unrealistic yet I was prepared and fine with crashing and burning but at least trying to hit it! I always set A, B, C goals for myself;
A goal: the crazy goal 3:30
B goal: the realistic but would make me very happy goal: 3:45
C goal: beat 4 hours
So my mind figured out that if I stick out 8 min/mile for as long as I could and crashed and burned I could still muster up the 3:45 in the end. So heres how it played out:
Pre-race
Got up at 4:45am and started getting my stuff together, had my PBJ (my standard pre-race meal). Not sure what I was doing but I actually got out the door a little late, it was after 6am and the race starts at 7am. My normal parking area was already full so I had to drive around and started getting a little stressed. Finally found parking and rushed to check my bag, use the porta potties and stretch a little. And ran to the corral.
Starting line:
Yet again I could not find my official pace group this year. I saw the 3:40 pace group way in the back of my corral and I was up front. The 3:30 group was supposed to be right in front of me. So I decided I would run on my own and not allow the 3:40 pace group to pass me at all costs! There was some late comers to the corral that were trying to push their way into the corral in front of us. I kept thinking it would probably benefit them to stay in the front of my corral instead of the back of the next one. One particular obnoxious person in a blue top bumped me trying to get to the next corral – remember Mr. Blue shirt – he helped me inadvertently during the race.
So we take off at 7:05am and race down the parkway. Legs felt a little stiff, wish I had had more time to stretch before. Went a little too fast 7:50, so slowed down on the next mile to 8:20, trying to hit an even 8 min/mile. We ran down race street and saw Bobby standing there waiting, ran right past him and he didn’t see me until I waved. Ran down Columbus blvd still trying to get the right pace but was more like 8:15. Its so hard to hit a right pace, the smallest adjustments drastically affect the pace.
Crossed the city (Miles 5-7) on south and chestnut and found my goal pace of 8 and held it for those 3 miles. My GPS had something like an 8:05 average pace which was apparently a little inaccurate compared with the official times they have. My watch added 0.2 miles (which is standard for city runs, its always the same distance during these runs and effects the average pace on my watch).
1st big hill (which is ridiculous tiny compared to Ragnar), but always hit me hard last year, felt like nothing. Did that mile in 8:17, not bad, didn’t slow me down too much. Raced down the back end of that hill in 7:50. And then the next hill up past the zoo, 8:11 still not bad when hills are a huge weakness for me (just ask Paul who paced me on my night leg with my pathetic 500 foot hill which I whined about the whole way).
West river drive came up and I ranged 8:04-8:10 for he next few miles. Still felt really good, felt like I could run forever at that pace. Kelly drive towards Manyunk I picked up the pace to more of a consistent 8:05. My GPS at this time still said I was averaging 8:05.
Came through Manyunk and saw Tim (sorry Joy didn’t see you), and saw my sister and her friend Jess further down. My pace suffered a little bit but not too bad, up to 8:20s. I took great pleasure at this point passing Mr Blue shirt who had pushed his way into the “faster corral” and started a couple minutes ahead of me!
Miles 22/23 is when things started turning in a bad direction. I was back on Kelly Drive and the finish felt soooo far. The first thing I noticed was my legs started feeling heavy, my breathing was still fine. I kept telling myself that it was going to get real hard the last 6 miles and I had to push thru. I was within 4 miles when it really felt hard. Its funny tho, I didn’t really feel like I hit a wall exactly. I would feel like there were little walls, more like hurdles that I had to fight to jump over and then I could get my pace back up. But I kept speeding up and slowing down for those 2 miles, average time 9 min/mile.
Mile 24; All of sudden there is a guy with those damn balloons standing next to me and it the 3:40 pacer. NO you cant pass me. He kept yelling at his group “I know it feels hard but stay with me” I tried and tried so hard to keep up and made just shy of mile 25 and had to stop. Now real pain/spasms in legs and way out of breath. Stretched real quick, walked for 0.05 mile and then started running again. Pace was suffering fast, 9:30, 9:45….
Halfway thru mile 25, another quick stretch stop, really my IT band hurts, really? Ok everything hurt, my neck, back, legs.
Mile 26: Crowds are thick, people are yelling my name and “nice beard” for some reason. But this really helps me keep going. I start counting traffic cones. Yes its weird but whatever gets you thru right? Its actually more counting down. I guess how many more cones I think there will be and count down. It helps me focus on a smaller level of accomplishment, I passed 5 cones only 25 more to go! Weird yes I know. The crowd has me amped up again and my pace naturally improves back down to 8:50. I kept running and was getting a little frustrated how FAR down the parkway the finish line was, so close but SO FAR!
The FINISH LINE: I pass under the banner knowing I hit 3:43, Beat B goal with time to spare. It funny how emotional you get when you accomplish something like this. I saw Mahnia right after the finish line and was sitting on the ground, refusing to get up. She was probably wondering why I took so long to get up and say hi. But I was trying not to vomit ;) Once the feeling passed I went over to say hi, and I really still couldn’t talk. Combination of emotion and exhaustion. That sensation lasted right thru the food line.
Final thoughts: While I thought I was going pretty close to 8min pace (8:05-8:07), I was actually running more 8:10-8:15 but I kept that going at that pace pretty long. So many people warned me if I went out too fast I was going to crash and burn and wouldn’t do as well but Im glad I tried. It would have been nice to have a time in the 3:30s but NOW the next marathon 3:30 moves up to goal B. I don’t even want to think what the next A goal will be, but it will be insane I promise you!
Thanks to all that came out to cheer me on, at least it was warm this year!
Thanks again to team Philly www.meetup.com/teamphilly and Bobby (personal trainer) for pushing me along the way.
Thanks to Ben and Nick for the awesome running music. Definitely kept me going!
Thanks to those that supported my fundraising efforts. There is still time to donate if you didn’t get around to it: http://www.crowdrise.com/MikeFiorito. Almost to $1000, not bad considering I didn’t do a Happy hour fundraiser this year.
Now to get ready for Surfing in Costa Rica! And a nap and some left over cannoli! And maybe a massage tomorrow.
way to go Mike!
Posted by: Sandy Gilmore | 11/20/2011 at 07:57 PM