Notes
Philadelphia Rock n Roll Half Marathon
Second half marathon in the books, but this is the first one where I really understood and appreciated how difficult a half marathon can be when performed incorrectly.
Going into this when considering my summer training, I had a lot of doubts coming in. I suffered from poorly scheduled workouts and unbearable heat/humidity. Running workouts alone didn't help make these any easier either. Despite a slow start to summer training, I quickly turned things around with top notch workouts in the last few weeks. My fitness was really coming along just before Rock n Roll. Hector told me under ideal conditions, sub 69 was possible, but as the race drew closer, any chances of having ideal weather grew further and further away. Regardless, my goal was to put in a hard effort and race.
Ate with Hector and the team at a pasta restaurant the night before and then had some energy gels the morning of. Warm up felt alright except for some tightness in the glute. Focused on stretching that out a lot before the race started. Miguel and I both agreed to take it out in 5:20's for the first few miles to be conservative.
Gun goes off and I quickly pass through several elite women to get myself in a comfortable position with Miguel. We went through the first mile in about 5:18, a little faster than we were hoping for, but right on pace basically. Saw Jordan Hasay with her lead female group and I chose to stick them for the next mile. Pulled away after that and started to pick up the pace a bit. I'm not gonna lie, I was feeling more uncomfortable than I'm used to, but I just put trust in my fitness and kept moving. Up to mile 5, I was getting to a good groove and passing people as I was trying to catch up to Miguel who surprisingly wasn't that far ahead of me.
There was a solid group of runners I was with leading up to 10k. I was at 33:30 at that point, so slightly off pace. However, I was starting to feel a lot of tightness in the lower area and unfortunately from there, my performance began to suffer. At mile 8, Miguel eventually dropped out temporarily and I was forced to race by myself up to mile 9. I then subsequently got passed by at least 10 runners for the next 2 miles. I went from trying to reach my goal time to desperate survival mode. My legs were continuing to tighten up and the effort was exponentially increasing. I was in a constant mental battle between dropping out and forging on even if it meant extreme discomfort and pain.
I was at my lowest point in mile 12 when my form was deteriorating rapidly and I was but a quick thought or two away from stopping. I'm not sure what I was thinking in my head at the time, but it was enough to get me to cross the finish line. Easily the toughest mental race I've ever ran and honestly, I just felt drained after this. I know that the weather definitely had an impact on it, but as a runner, I need to be able to run well in spite of it, not run poorly because of it.
In retrospect, I definitely started out too fast and just wasn't prepared for what a bad half marathon would feel like. Definitely not considering a marathon anytime soon after this.