Philly 2011...just enough for redemption.

This was my sixth marathon, and my second Philadelphia Marathon, having PR’d
(3:29:35) and gotten my first BQ back in 2009. For this go at it, I felt the
need to redeem myself after my disappointing performance at Boston earlier this
year. I also obviously needed to recapture the BQ after not coming close in
April.

After Boston, I licked my wounds, and did a bit of base
building before starting the training cycle for Philly. I put in several solid
months of training, nailing almost every workout, and getting faster than I had
been in the past. Unfortunately, about two months ago, my right knee, which has
been operated on three times, started to show the effects of all those good
training miles. As a result, the last two months of training ended up being
pretty spotty. On top of that, I’ve had a mild lingering chest cold for the
past couple of weeks that has definitely affected my breathing. O.K…enough with
the excuses.


On Saturday I drove with my best friend Michael to Philly
where we were staying with his brother, who lives about 25 minutes from the
start. I had planned to have dinner with Kenny and his family, but I had been
feeling pretty crappy due to the cold, so Michael and I had dinner near his
brother’s house. I was in bed by 8:15, and probably got the best pre-marathon night’s
sleep I’ve ever had.


Sunday morning, Michael dropped me off at Kenny’s hotel,
which was a five-minute walk to the start. Kenny and I walked to the start,
waited in the porta-potty lines, and than made our way to the corral. We ran
the first mile together, and then Kenny got out ahead, as was his plan
(congrats to Kenny on a great PR). We’d see each other twice during the out and
back during the later miles.


Almost immediately, I realized that my Garmin was shorting
my miles by about 10-15 seconds a mile, and had been during training. This
meant that my training paces were slower than what I had thought, and was
resulting in slower splits during the race. (you can see from my splits below
that the Garmin had me running over half-mile more than I actually did).
Probably by mile 6 or 7, I knew that my “A” goal of 3:25, which would have been
BQ – 5 minutes, wasn’t going to happen. I was still way ahead of what I needed
for a PR and BQ, so I wasn’t really upset. I cruised along pretty well for the
first half of the race, taking the only two hills on the whole course (at miles
8 and 10) with little problem.


The second half of the marathon is out and back to the
neighborhood of Manayunk. I was looking forward to this part of the course,
since I was able to run a negative split in 2009. I was still feeling pretty
good until about mile 15 or 16, when I started to notice my right calf
tightening up a little. I was hoping that it wouldn’t get any worse, but by
mile 18, I had a whole new experience to deal with. The calf almost totally
seized up on me, and I was running in a world of pain. At this point, I was
still on track for about at 3:27 to 3:28 finishing time, which would have been
a healthy PR, but the calf was just
too painful to maintain the pace, and my splits started to suffer. At mile
21, I actually pulled off to the side for a few seconds to try to stretch it
out. The pain was so great that there was a brief moment when I feared that I
might not be able to continue. The stretching did very little to help, so I
continued on in pain. I ran miles 21 to 25 all over 8:00 min/mile, which was
where any hope of a PR was lost. There was also a healthy head wind for all
those miles, making it a bit more of a struggle. By mile 24, I had nothing left
in the tank, and was truly running on fumes. With about a mile left, I was
still on track for getting in under 3:30 and securing the BQ, but I also knew
that I couldn’t keep dogging it, despite the pain. I’d have to forget about the
calf, and finish with a strong last mile. I picked the pace back up, running
the last mile at about 7:49, and pretty much sprinting the last 800 meters to
finish at 3:29:46, grabbing the BQ by a mere 14 seconds and missing a PR by
only 11 seconds.


Michael met me at the finish. We walked about a ½ mile
to the car, and drove back to his brother’s place, where I iced for a little
while and showered. All along I
was getting congratulatory texts from members of my club (The Westchester Track
Club), as well as a really nice surprise call from Randy Egge. After grabbing
lunch and a beer, we drove back to NY.


By the way, the men’s winner, Folisho Tuko, is a member of
our club. I’m so happy for our coach Mike Barnow, who when I spoke to after the
race, was a pretty happy guy.


As I sit here this morning, I feel like someone took a lead
pipe to my right calf, and the rest of my lower body isn’t much better. I’m
definitely more beat up after this marathon than after any previous one, even
Boston. I’ll probably just have to be on the shelf for a bit longer than usual.



So that’s it. As the title of my blog suggested, this was
all about redemption after Boston. While I didn’t hit either my A or B goal, I
got the C goal, and that should be good enough to get me back to Boston in 2013
(based on how this year’s registration went, and the fact that qualifying times
are now 5 minutes faster).


Once I heal up, and most importantly, see how the knee is,
I’ll start to think about whether I want to try to improve on my time with a
Spring marathon. That’s getting ahead of myself though. For now, I’m content to
sit here drinking my coffee and being really, really sore!


Thanks as always for everyone’s support all along the way.


Below are my splits and a post race photo of Michael and I.

First - great report and great picture. You can imagine the big "whew" feeling that you must of had.

Second - what a way to finish - from the looks of it, your pickup at the end there completely saved the day!

Third - I've said it before, but you are a gutsy, tough competitor. The calf thing sounds like an ugly thing to try and run through - hope you heal up well. Now you get to relax and enjoy Thanksgiving, eating too much without having to worry about running!

What a fantastic finish to a race - great job Seth!!!!! Totally impressed.

Seth, great race and report. Not so great picture. Oh right, it is still great as it shows you were well spent.

I'm so happy for you Seth. You are really tough to have battled the calf cramp for so many miles and finish strongly and with a BQ in hand. Most people would have given up. Congratulations on the BQ and looking forward to seeing you in Boston 2013 for redemption.

Way to go old guy!

Woohoo! Congrats, Seth. I was following along the best that I could, and you did have me a bit worried with the 30K split. I was so glad to see that you more than pulled it together for a strong finish.

Sorry about the calf - not sure what to tell you on that one other than I've been there, and you handled it better than most of us would. Rest up, recover well, and I'll plan on seeing you in Beantown in 2013! (I'm hoping my daughter is at school in the Boston area so more incentive for me to go, and I secured the BQ in NYC).

Congratulations on a gutty performance out there, Seth. You dealt with an unexpected mid-race disaster as well as anybody could have and managed to pick up the pace in the last mile to salvage your C goal. That's not easy to do when you're hurting.

Enjoy your redemption and BQ and recover well! You've earned it.

I've run with calf cramps like that, and it sure makes it tough to finish - you really gutted it out, and I can feel your pain! Congrats again!

Great job, Seth! Great work pulling it together at the end despite the intense pain! What a great finish! Congrats on BQ and get that calf and knee all healed before your next race.

You look beat in that pic. Your splits look really good and the fade was not that bad. Awesome job! It was great seeing you 2x during the race!

Congrats on your BQ, Seth. From looking at your splits, it sure looks like you fought through your pain very, very well.

Gratz on the painful BQ! Any idea about why the calf decided to be a pain?

Great job Seth...very consistent splits and the fade wasn't that bad! You still nailed your BQ goal and now you can get your revenge on Beantown in 2013!

Way to go getting back to a BQ level. Nice report and strong effort to make it under 3:30 at the end, congrats!

Great job Seth -- especially bringing it home with a strong finish! I've learned that stopping to stretch mid-marathon never works to solve the problem anyway.

Seth, congrats again. That was one hell of a last mile considering all the pain your were in. Really gutsy. Congrats on the BQ and I look forward to seeing you in Boston 2013. Enjoy being really really sore. It doesn't last long.

Congrats on a well run race and a well deserved BQ. Looking at your splits one would never know that you were battling the calf as you were. You held it together really well and for that you should be proud. They are all a battle and this one you won for sure.

This was like one of those college courses you take pass/fail. No matter what we would say to you post-race about a great effort etc etc, you were going to be crushed if you didn't nail the BQ. But you did! PASS! Great job digging deep when you knew it was going to be close and every ounce of effort would be needed. It sure paid off and you did it! Does the finishing time reflect your fitness? Nah, you've got even faster in you on a different day. The chest cold the week of the race and the mysterious cramping late cost you minutes. But way to handle things beautifully on a day when everything was not going perfectly. REDEMPTION INDEED! Take that, Boston. You earned your shot at revenge on the course. Rest up and congrats on a great end to 2011.

Two Phillys, two BQs. Well done on the race Seth. Love my hometown marathon and am always glad to hear about success in my city. Well earned!

Seth, congrats on the BQ and fabulous race. Not knowing when or how severe that next cramp may be is quite unnerving. You handled it well. I hope you figure out a way to get that knee fixed.

Thanks everyone for reading my report and for all the good wishes.
The calf, along with the quads, are still making going downstairs a pretty miserable experience, but it's all good.
I have no idea what caused the calf to seize up on me at that point in the marathon. My pre-race fueling and hydration was about the same as I've always done, and I hydrated well and consumed enough calories (5 gels) during the race. I'm sure it happened for a reason, but heck if I know.
Chris, you're exactly right, it was kind of a like pass/fail exam. Get the BQ, and nothing else matters...don't get it, and the day is a pretty much a total failure. As a result of those fourteen seconds, I'm sitting here two days later relishing the soreness and feeling pretty good about the last four months of hard work.
Tonight I see the orthopedist for the first of three weekly injections of Euflexa, which can best be described as a joint lubricant. I've never done it before, but my orthopedist at the Hospital for Special Surgery (who is a multi-Ironman finisher and veteran of many Boston Marathons), feels strongly that it will make a big difference.

Seth I am glad that you found a way to get through the cramping as that can be devastating especially late in the race. Maybe since your knee had been acting up, perhaps it altered your gait to some degree. Or maybe not. Bottom line was that you reached down inside of you and succeeded in your BQ quest and that made it worthwhile and memorable.

Again, congratulations!

I noticed while you spoke of the pain in your calf, you didn't mention the knee. That makes me think you're going to be good for your next 26.2.

Congrats Seth!

Great job Seth. Congrats on the BQ. Way to overcome everything you've dealt with.

Congrats on the BQ. Impressed by your ability to deal with the set back during training AND a tough race day!