Jorge's Report on his Philadelphia Marathon (Nov 18, 2007)

At age 46 and a year after my first marathon (Philadelphia was my 5th)  I became a 3:20 marathoner. I ran a PR and beat the BQ goal (Boston Qualifier) by 10 minutes.
Age group place:  76 out of 545.  Age grade: 67.2%
First half 1:39:31, second half: 1:40:46 (1:15  positive split).
Chip time: 3:20:17

Training:
Hal Higdon Intermediate II plan with some variations: tempo runs, long tempo runs and lots of biking (avg 70 miles on the weekends).
3 peak weeks of 50 miles with a 21 mi long run each.

Last week of taper:
Sun 8 mi, Mon off, Tue 3 mi, Wed 4 mi, Thur & Fri off, Sat 2 mi.

Injuries:
4 weeks out I strained my left hamstring. This sidelined me for about 10 days.

Saturday before the race:
Rested as much as I could. I went to the expo and back “home” to Newtown, PA where I stayed with friends. No sightsighting at all.

Race day:
Woke up at 3:30 am. Breakfast at 4:45 am : oatmeal. No more food after that.
Got to the Art Museum around 5:15 am and made a bed of newspaper and rested until around 6:40 when I headed to the port-a-potties.  Race started at 7:00.

Race:
I started right after the 3:10 pace group and before the 3:20 pace group. My goal was a 3:15 finish.
I don’t run with a Garmin but with two watches. On my right hand watch I keep the overall time and on the left one the splits. I wore a 3:15 wristband but was never able to read it (I wear eyeglasses but I don’t run with them).

First two miles I ran about 7:30 each. In the middle of mile 3, I asked this girl with a Garmin what her pace was. “It is 7:15” she said. “Too fast for me”, I thought. I slowed down and let her go.
I ran with a hamstring support due to my hamstring injury. The big question was would my hamstring stand a 7:30 pace for a 3:15 finish? By mile 5, I started feeling some chafing from the hammy support. I thought of getting rid of the support but decided against it.
When we got to South St where there were some crowds and I raised my arms several times asking for cheers. The crowd responded “Go Kansas” due to the sign I had on my shirt. It was a lot of fun.

By mile 9, I hear a group of runners talking behind me. I turn my head to see if they were the 3:20 pace group but they were not. The chafing from the hammy support is getting worse but I try to forget about it, and in fact I did for the rest of the race.

At mile 10, I see this guy with the pink tutu passing me on the left. I try to follow him. I put in a 7:24 at mile 10, 7:20 at mile 11 and 7:17 at mile 12. I am happy that I am flying and making up time from slower miles. He gives me his smoke and I don’t see him any more. At the halfway point, I think I am right on pace for a 3:15. “Just hold this for 13 more miles and I will get my goal, I thought”.

When I see the crowds at the 13.1 mile mark, I raise my hands several times again and they cheer me up. I am a happy man. I am feeling great, my HR is under control (and so it remained for the rest of the race)  and I think this will be my day. I had not had so much fun in a marathon before.

I prepare myself for Lemon Hill at mile 14 and I feel strong going uphill. On the downhill I release the brakes and test my hamstring. If feels OK.
However for the next two miles I feel that I am slowing down. I see a 7:45 for mile 15.  At mile 16, I see this lady on my right with what I thought it was a Garmin and ask her what this pace was. It was not a Garmin and she said, “ I think it is 8:00, that is my target pace”.
“You are wrong”, I thought. This is more like a 7:40. I see a 7:55 at mile 16. She was right!

I need to get away from this lady, I thought. I increased my pace and leave her behind. I put a 7:40 at mile 17. At mile 18 I feel I am slowing down again. I see the 8 minute lady on my left. “Oh no!  I don’t want to see you” I say to myself. I leave her behind again only to see a 7:50 for mile 18.

I am looking forward to seeing the turnaround at mile 20.  I encourage myself - “from here it is just 6.2 miles”. But the miles start to seem longer and longer.
I finally get to mile 20. I did some “math” and I think I still can run a 3:15. I put a 7:35 in mile 21 and I am a happy man again. However in mile 22 I feel really tired, I slow down and I see a 7:50. My hamstrings take turns acting weird. I am afraid of a pull and slow down even more. I forget about my 3:15 goal. I just want to finish under my BQ (Boston qualifier) cutoff (3:30).

At mile 23 my right quad is screaming. I don’t remember the splits here but I know they were still under 8:00. “Just hold this pace and you will get your BQ,” I said. At mile 24 my right quad feels like gelatin. Then when I am about to get to mile 25 I hear this guy screaming and encouraging others. It is the 3:20 group leader. They pass me on the right. I don’t fight. I just want to finish. “ What am I doing here? How come I train 4 months and then I come here to suffer like this?”
However, I fight these thoughts and think of the final mile. I am behind the 3:20 group now.

I finally see the sweet sign for mile 26. I look at my right watch and it reads sub 3:20. I sprint all out for the last .2 miles and I see the finish line clock reading 3:20 and some. I then realize how good this result was. I am sooo happy. I cross the finishing line, I am exhausted and my tank on empty. It was hard to keep my balance. I grab a cup of Gatorade and I collapse on my knees. I was so happy I couldn’t hold back my tears and I cried like a kid. Then I laid down on my back and stretched my hamstrings. I felt better now, stood up and got a blanket and headed for a massage.   

Question and answers:

Was I in 3:15 shape?
Maybe, maybe not.

Would my hamstring have stood a 3:15 pace? Maybe, maybe not.

Am I good at Math? No

What is next?
Boston. However, I am not sure if I will have enough time to train for 3:15. I NEED to finish my doctoral dissertation at KU next semester. Chances are that I will just run Boston for fun as opposed to race it, but I will decide later in January.

-- Jorge Carvajal