The Philadelphia Experiment

Marathon #2 of the Season, Marathon #5 of my lifetime. I am a master multi-tasker and enjoy the idea of accomplishing a whole lot of things in one trip. Here are the reasons why I chose this race:

1. My son, Marco, goes to school here (at Drexel University) but I've never been to Philadelphia before.  Martin accompanied Marco for Freshman Orientation so this trip would be my first look at the city my son loves so much.
2. The race falls on the weekend before Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday). This year I get a "pass" from cooking the Thanksgiving meal so we planned to extend our stay through Thanksgiving and make it into a vacation. 
3. Through Facebook, we found a college classmate who lives in one of the suburbs near Philadelphia. So we get to visit with her and her family and spend Thanksgiving with them while I continue to enjoy my free pass from cooking the Thanksgiving meal. 
4. Martin's two older brothers each have a daughter who live nearby - Ashley in New York and Bea in Ohio - both will be joining us while we're in Philly. We get to have a nice little family reunion! 

One of the cardinal rules of long distance running is never to introduce anything new on race day that you have not tried out during training on a long run. I broke that rule several times over. Fortunately for me, none of them came back to bite me in the proverbial ass. I also did almost everthing right pre-race.

Here's what I did right:

• I was well hydrated and made smart food choices to avoid getting the nasty cramps in my legs.
• I kept up with my stretching and rolling exercises using my Trigger Point kit to keep any IT band flare ups and Plantar Fasciitis pain at bay.
• The weather forecast was cold but dry. Highs in the low 50's. My kind of running weather.
• The hotel was a straight shot of about 1 mile from the starting line which meant a nice warm-up walk before race start and no risk of getting lost on the way there.

Here are the "new" things I introduced during this race:

• I used my iPhone and listened to music from Pandora Radio while I ran. I don't usually run with music. The ear buds I used weren't new but I had never run with them before. The portable music was a great idea after all because there were only a few bands along the race course. The music was a big help.

  

  New tech running vest

  
• Part of the mileage accumulated on Saturday included searching for an AT&T store and later an Apple store to find a cable for my iPhone because my phone wouldn't sync to my laptop. This meant that I couldn't use the new playlist that I created for the race. The new cable didn't work because it was iTunes that caused the sync failure. Thank goodness for Pandora!
• I bought a new vest at the Expo from http://www.ruseen.com/. As it turned out, the vest was perfect for the weather. I was never too hot nor too cold. I had no issues with my new gear. 
• I was able to practice Pose Running for about 90% of the course with a few minor lapses here and there. The longest I've been able to practice Pose Running in the past was 3 miles before I reverted back to my old form. I think the Pose Running actually helped when my feet started to hurt from my plantar fasciitis.
• My running friend, Sheri D., suggested I try the Metamucil route to avoid the stomach cramps that I experienced during the Frankenthon Marathon. Sheri uses this technique all the time for races and for long runs. It worked perfectly for me. No stomach cramps at all during the race. I didn't even need to stop for a potty break.
• The Metamucil route involves taking the recommended dose of Metamucil and water daily starting on Thursday through Saturday.
• Although I still did the Galloway Run-Walk-Run method, I only walked while I refueled with the Sport Beans, or took my Succeed S-Caps and refilled my water bottles. This means I only walked every 15 - 20 minutes.
• In hind sight, I wonder if my legs would have been less fatigued had I included more walk breaks around the first 6 miles because that's precisely what they're for.

My Galloway running coach, Will Carlson, always sends out a reminder email on race week. In it, he tells us not to spend too much time roaming around the Expo during packet pick up and avoid being on our feet on Friday and Saturday before the race. Like I said, I almost did everything right except adhering to that particular rule. The excitement of this trip had me on my feet, walking around the airport instead of keeping Martin company on the moving walkways. When we got to Philly, I felt the big city lure to walk, walk, walk. Oh and not just a slow meandering walk, more like a brisk, white-rabbit-I'm-late-walk. I think I walked over 5 miles on Friday in shoes that were meant to be worn from the parking lot to the yoga studio. In other words, they were not walking shoes that offered any kind of support. Sadly, they were the only pair of shoes that I had brought (aside from my running shoes, flip flops, and two boots). Needless to say, my feet and my legs were slightly tired come Friday evening. By Saturday, I admonished myself not to walk too far so of course we ended up walking for a several hours and I was still wearing those silly yoga shoes. By early Saturday evening, my legs had it. I prayed for a miracle on Sunday.

As usual, I couldn't sleep very well (strange bed, snoring husband, fear of being late to the race) and I woke up without incident and followed my morning routine - dress up, coffee, eat, and make my way to the starting line. I was there at 6:00 a.m. and race start was at 7:00 a.m. I joined the Lululemon pre-race warm up. Fortunately, they did a lot of the stretching that we do at TriZones. I seeded myself in my corral and waited for the announcements, the National Anthem and a little after 7:15 a.m. we were off!

I felt good at the start and I was careful not to go out too fast. I was able to stay on target until we started hitting the hills around mile 9. The hills slowed me down quite a bit. I had moments of recovery but I could not sustain my targeted pace. My legs were just plain tired.

At mile 12, the thought of just finishing a Half Marathon instead of the 26.2 miles crossed my mind for a few moments. I thought, "What if?" This was the first time I had ever considered such an idea. Somehow, I think I read that suggestion in our race packet and that's how the idea got planted in my head. I did a quick check from head to toe. Nothing about my body hurt. It was just fatigue that I was feeling and everyone goes through that. Fortunately, the amount of time it took to think these thoughts were about as long as I considered it. I saw some beautiful scenery ahead and quickly pushed the thought of a shortened run out of my mind.

Around the rolling hills of Manayunk, PA (which are more like the hills on Enfield in Austin) my feet started to hurt pretty badly. I describe it as stepping on shards of glass. Now, having never stepped on shards of glass, I don't know how accurate I am with my description. So based on personal experience, it's more like running barefoot and stepping on sharp rocks and pebbles. I slowed down even more at this point but I stayed true to my Pose Running. I knew that good form would get me through this.

When I finally got to the last 4.2 miles, I could feel a few twinges on my left IT band, my left calf and both my feet still hurt. I popped a couple of Advil just as additional insurance. I did not hit a wall. I just hit that terrible treadmill going nowhere. It's the same deadmill that I got on when I ran Frankenthon. So I kept going back to concentrating on my running form. Pulling my leg up and letting gravity help me move forward.

Cool Medal!

The crowds started to thicken so I knew it was close to the finish. Because this course is so unfamiliar to me, it was hard to determine just how close I was. As soon as I saw the finish line, I turned on the jets and gave it all I had. I finished in 4:41:46 with an age-graded equivalent time of 4:13:59. No PR, but I got a cool medal and I had fun! The end of the race marked the start of my vacation! As long as Marco lives here in Philly, I will likely run this race again. I just need to make sure I heed my coach's reminders and stay off my feet next time.

As I write this, I've already fully recovered from the race and I was able to run 4 miles around Philadelphia this morning. I'm already excited for my next race is in December, the Decker Half Marathon in Austin.