My 2008 Philadelphia Marathon

Today’s race was a huge ego check for me. I remember thinking right after the Mile 17 marker, This isn’t even that hard. I can’t believe that I made such a big deal about finishing one of these. At that point, I still had an average pace of 6:50 and was starting to fantasize about a sub-3:05 finish. I had already set my half marathon P.R. (1:29:30, or thereabouts) and was cruising along much faster than planned and still feeling great.

Unfortunately, the course heard me and took offense. Less than a half mile beyond that thought, I felt my body run out of fuel and begin to shut down. My pace quickly slowed, but I thought, It’ll be alright. I still have a huge buffer and can still finish with a Boston Qualifier. And, I probably would have if it wasn’t for the cramps. Mile 22 rolled around and I was running (much slower, but still running) when this unimaginable pain attacked my left quad. I tried to push through it, but a few steps later there was suddenly a matching one in my right quad. I had no choice but to walk. I passed the Gatorade stand, took 3 cups and tried to start up again. I did run briefly, but the cramps came back full-force within a few hundred yards. I walked to the side of the course and tried to stretch, but that caused my hamstring to cramp up. So, for the next two miles, I was forced to alternate between walking and a slow jog. I was in a lot of pain physically, but it was nothing compared to the mental hurt that came when the 3:10 pace marker with his balloons ran past me on the left. I can’t even describe. By the time the Mile 24 marker came around, the cramps had gone away somewhat and I told myself I was going to finish this thing running and sub-3:15. I did finish running the last 2.2 miles, but didn’t quite hit the time: My official finish was 3:16:41 — missing Boston by over five minutes.

I have to admit, though, despite the obvious disappointment of not achieving my goal of the B.Q., I had a great weekend. Even though he wasn’t able to run because of injury, Antonio still traveled down to Philadelphia with me. We went to the expo, then grabbed lunch at Hard Rock Cafe before going over to the art museum to see the starting line and, of course, the Rocky steps. After than, I did a 3 mile warm-up run on the treadmill in my hotel (which, by the way, was ridiculously nice) and then we met up again to go get dinner. We looked for Italian food, but apparently everyone else was thinking the same thing and there were huge lines, and so we ended up eating sushi instead. The sushi actually sat really well on my stomach and is going to become a part of my pre-race ritual. Stopped by a cool wine bar after that and had a glass of wonderful Malbec.

This morning, the first big chunk of the marathon was really fun too. I intentionally started slow, but after realizing I was a little behind pace at Mile 2, dramatically picked up the pace. For the next 15 miles I had a tremendous amount of speed and energy. It felt great. The course was fantastic (despite being a little confusing at the split between the half and full marathons). There were some hills, but nothing too intense. Honestly, I didn’t really pay attention to much of the scenery, but at the moments where I did look around, it was very scenic. I’d definitely like to go back and run this race again someday (especially now that I have unfinished business with it.)

After the race, I was sore, but not exceptionally so. I didn’t pose for any of the finisher pictures because I was really pissed off and not in the mood for celebrating. Instead, I headed back to my hotel, answered messages on my phone with the bad news, showered, checked out, then met up with Antonio and we went to get lunch. I had been looking forward to Qdoba after the race all weekend, but my stomach wasn’t on the same page as me. We ended up just going to a bar and I drank my lunch (a frosty glass of Yuengling) before heading back to the train station and returning to New York.

So, what next? Well, first off, I can relax a bit because I now have my first marathon under my belt. I’m going to focus on shorter distances all winter and then start training for Chicago in June. Beyond that, we’ll just have to wait and see.