With yesterday’s Philadelphia Distance Run being my 6th in a row, you’d figure that I would have managed to figure out how to properly run the race. Not necessarily to run much faster, but to run better. Well, I now realize that I’m the walking (albeit with sore quads) poster child for how to not run a race.
First, some history, which is easy to show since I’m something of a pack rat by keeping all of my racing numbers and writing finishing times on them.
2000 – 1:38:27 (7:41 pace)
2001 – 1:30:27 (6:59 pace)
2002 – 1:41:19 (7:45 pace)
2003 – 1:38:14 (7:27 pace)
2004 – 1:32:30 (6:59 pace)
Obviously, there’s some fractional differences between the 2001 and 2004 pace times, but you can see the schizophrenic times in there. Granted, in 2002 and 2003 it was disgustingly humid out, and I know that had an effect on my performance. The difference-maker in 2004 was that I ran most of the race with other people.
This year, I had intentions of doing the same, but it didn’t turn out that way. I didn’t want to start out with people who I knew would be too fast for me, since I know that if I start out too fast, I’ll never be able to hang on. However, not being one to be able to learn from my past running mistakes, I started out a bit faster than I could handle for the entire distance and was pretty much by myself.
Mile 1 – 6:56 (For some reason, the beginning of the race felt slow. If only the rest would’ve felt that way.)
Mile 2 – 6:43 (There must have been something special about this mile, but I can’t really tell. I don’t know why I sped up; it didn’t feel like I did. I passed Mony who was hurting something fierce at the time.)
Mile 3 – 6:56 (I’m feeling pretty good at this point, even knowing that I could be suffering later. Maybe I would be lucky and get through it OK. Man, I can be such a dumb-ass sometimes.)
Mile 4 – 7:01 (Somewhere around here, the wheels start to fall off.)
Mile 5 – 7:16 (Hmm.. slowed down a bit here. I hope everything’s OK.)
Mile 6 – 7:36 (Grunt)
Mile 7 – 7:42 (Oh, crap! What’s happening! I know I’m not feeling all that great running-wise, but can’t seem to hold any pace. This is where running alone hurts; no one to pull off of and trying to hang onto random people isn’t working.)
Mile 8 – 7:43 (Oh, goody! Not slowing down too much over that last mile!)
Mile 9 – 8:02
Mile 10 – 8:06
Mile 11 – 8:28 (Egad! What’s going on now? Legs are turning into fast-drying cement. My feet feel like bricks or lead bars, I’m not sure which, but they’re insanely heavy.)
Mile 12 – 10:45 (Things were truly awful. A little short of breath, but nothing major. Legs totally shot. Had to stop to walk, stretch out the calves, walk a bit more, and then start running again. During this mile, I tried Endurathon. I wish I hadn’t. Some truly nasty-tasting stuff. I even tried diluting it with more water, and it didn’t improve the taste. I figured I should try it, since I was severely bonking.)
Mile 13 – 8:41 (Hey, wow! This running is faster than walking! Also, it helps end the pain, etc.)
Last 0.1 – 0:51
Total time: 1:42:52 (7:20 pace according to my watch, which can’t be correct)
So, what happened? I wish I knew. The only rational explanation I can come up with is that I wasn’t ready for the race. That’s it. While I did start out too fast for my liking, I couldn’t get myself to slow down until it was too late to recover.
Lessons to be learned? Other than to listen to the watch in longer races instead of how I feel (i.e., slow down)? Train more (OK, that’s rather obvious) and run the race with someone. I’ve learned that in shorter races, like 5Ks, you can go out hard and it’s not bad if you bonk early, since the race is short enough that it won’t be a problem.
I did miss Drum Guy, who had been at Falls Bridge, pounding out a great beat. The chamber music was not all that inspiring. And the folk music (or whatever that crap was) just past Lloyd Hall was so bad as to be nearly suicide inducing. What’s next: Morrissey?
Well, there should be enough time to recover and get ready for the shorter races this fall. No marathons for me.
