Here goes part 2 of my race report (hopefully I can get it all written tonight)

The second 10 miles

I wrote in part 1 that I started to have groin/quadricep pain, but thankfully it didn’t turn out to be anything major (except a nuisance). The course started to change through mile 10 from city streets to the Fairmount Park section of the course, which started to offer some hills and more challenging terrain. It wasn’t anything that I couldn’t handle and was a welcome change from the flat streets earlier in the course… it was like the kind of terrain you would do your Sunday run on, it was nice.

The temperatures throughout the course seemed to change depending on where we were. I found myself rolling up my sleeves, then rolling them back down constantly throughout the course. I was more warm and sweaty than cold, so I think I dressed right, but once you’re all sweated up, its a whole different ballgame. As far as my pace was concerned, I was keeping a steady 9:05-9:20 pace up until this point and was still feeling pretty good.

We actually headed back down to the start/finish area around mile 12 so that the half marathoners could finish and the full marathoners headed up the last half of the course. The number of people on the course after the half marathoners exited dropped off considerably, which was a good thing and I figured it was time to really get serious. As we turned and headed north, and out of the sun (as we ran along the banks of the Schuylkill river), it actually got kind of cold for a few miles. The best part of this course was that we were now running parallel with the path to the finish … which meant that the winners and elite runners were passing us on the left (going south) as we were heading north. I’d never seen elite runners actually run in a race, so it was quite a site to see… we fortunately got to see the runners all the way up to the the town of Manayunk.

I dealt with some rolling hills at this point and at around mile 19, they were handing out free beer… ugh, I can’t imagine drinking beer and running a race, but some people were doing it. The smell of it almost turned my stomach (which was quite upset by this point anyway). Suffice to say I passed on the beer and went on my way to the turnaround … which meant it was all downhill from here.

The last 6.2 miles (its all guts from here)

I was impressed that by mile 20 or so, I was still maintaining my pace although it was starting to slip to a 9:20-9:30, which I figured was okay. My pace band was counting on a 4:05 finish, and at mile 21 I checked where I was and it indicated I was 3 minutes under … so I had time to spare.

Unlike in Baltimore, there were still fully staffed water tables up until the finish and I was thankful to be handed a 20oz water bottle at the second to the last water table at around mile 22. I’m not sure how I ended up with it, but someone was handing them out, so I took it… it was at this point that I realized that I could possible break a 4 hour marathon time if I could just pick up the pace a little bit. I then convinced myself that I just didn’t have it in me at that point… and just kept my pace.

Around mile 24, I was starting to dehydrate real bad despite all the water I took in. I felt my heart rate pickup and started to feel fatigued. My groin/quadricep was bothering me more than it was earlier, but I needed to finish. I figured I would try an energy boost and struggled to get down half of my last PowerGel before I almost puked on it (I held it together though). I knew at this point (since we already ran the opposite direction) that the finish line was coming up. I passed by the last water table at mile 25 since my stomach was barely holding it together as we turned the corner toward the city…

I’d run a lot of marathons before, with all decent sized crowds, but never finished the last 3/4 of a mile feeling like a real winner and that people were actually cheering for me. Its hard to explain, but I had most of the last section until the finish to myself (nobody ahead or behind me) and the crowd was going crazy rooting me on … it was amazing, what a rush I got from it. Like a goofball, I threw my hands in the air and encouraged the crowd to cheer more until I turned the corner and saw the finish line….

With a final burst of speed, I crossed the finish line with my arms in the air at 4:02:55 … feeling like a true winner, knowing that I just ran my best time so far this year, and felt good about it… I really think this is the image I want to keep in my head that will make me continue running marathons again and again. I really outdid myself, and I was so proud of it…

Now back to the reality of finishing the race …. Yep, I was extremely dehydrated, very light headed, really sore and feeling like I was going to barf. Not a good thing. I managed to get myself off to the side after collecting my medal and mylar blanket to keep warm. It took a few minutes to gather myself and I moved through the food and drink line and called it a day. Well, more than a day, a GREAT day, one of those races i’ll remember.

So my overall opinion of the Philadelphia marathon is A+++. Not just because of my time, but I can’t find anything that wasn’t good about it. I always write about the times i’ve done the Steamtown marathon, and how well run that is, well for a LARGER marathon, this was run very, very well. From the expo, to the convenient and efficient start area .. the course itself, the porta-potties, the crowd support and the volunteers all the way to the end, there are NO complaints on my end…. I highly suggest this to anyone looking for a late marathon to finish off their fall marathon season.

I tried to mix in to both part 1 and 2 the awful pictures I took while in Philly (including the goofy picture of me above at the finish), hopefully it gives a feeling of the day and enhances the story.

So Thursday is my annual “Turkey Trot” in Berwick, Pa… the 100th Run for the Diamonds. This is more of a social event for me, i know a lot of people running it, so it should be fun …

Whats next? Well, I will conquer the Ocean Drive marathon in Jersey in 2010. It beat me 3 years ago, but won’t beat me again. I gotta rest up, only a couple weeks left until training starts again ……….. (ugh)