Chasing the Road Runner

I ran a marathon last week. It only took 128 hours and 12 minutes (5 days, 4 hours, 12 minutes). So at least we know that I can do it, just need to cut my time a little.

We also know that I can run half a marathon, 13.1 miles. I did that at the Philadelphia Rock N Roll Half Marathon a few weeks ago. My time was 2 hours and 27 minutes. In case you’re curious, I was neither first nor last in any category: overall, women, or age group. The winners came in right around an hour. The winner of my age/sex group came in at around 1 hour and 38 minutes. She was a freakishly fit and beautiful 54 year old woman and henceforth will be known as the Road Runner. I came in 259th (out of 473) place for women in my age group and 6257th out of 8843 women overall. Got a little work to do!

It was a perfect fall day, sunny and upper 60’s. There were over 15,000 runners. The race was run around much of the same course that the full marathon will use in November. It was a perfect training opportunity for me. The start and finish areas were at the Philadelphia Art Museum (think Rocky). The beginning of the race went through downtown Philly. After that, there was a long stretch along the Schuykill River where the old boathouses are located and so many elite rowing teams train. All along the route, there were live bands playing and numerous volunteer groups cheering everyone on.  There was one man dressed in a super hero outfit dancing to boom box tunes. Gatorade and Gu (energy gel) stations were positioned about every two miles. Porta-Potties were everywhere! What a relief.

The start was organized in “corrals” so that the runners went in waves. The faster runners went in the first corral, the next fastest in the second and so on. Coach and I were in the 16^th corral. You are assigned a corral according to what you estimate your finish time to be when you register. I think there were about 20 corrals. The race started at 8am but coach and I didn’t actually cross the starting line until about 20 minutes later when our corral was finally up. Each runner has an individual timing chip attached to their shoes so it doesn’t matter that you start late, your time is still accurately tracked. The wave starts also allow runners of the same ability to run together so that there are not as many collisions with faster runners pushing to pass slower runners etc. It was comforting to be surrounded by runners of similar ability. It would have been much more intimidating otherwise.

Coach and I started out slow. I was nervous about my knee holding up and needed to get my confidence. We ran at about an 11:30 minute per mile pace for the first few miles. Lots of other runners were passing us at that stage. As I got warmed up, we started slowly going faster for the mid part of the race. It was around miles 8 through 10 that we noticed other runners around us starting to slow down and drop out. Some were getting medical attention on the side of the road. Once we passed the 10 mile marker, we picked up the pace again. Now we were running at a 10:30 minute per mile pace and passing everyone around us. Each time I tell the story, the number of people we passed increases. At this point in time, I’m sure it was in the hundreds! Our last mile was our fastest at under 10:00 minutes per mile. At no time during the race was I out of breath or struggling. Toward the end, my legs were tired and heavy but I was not in pain.

We came into the finish line holding our arms in the air. It felt like a victory. We were handed a medal and proceeded to get our picture taken. After that, it was on to the “recovery area” where we were handed water, Gatorade, bananas, power bars, and chips. We looked everywhere for the beer tent but never found it.

I did some cyber stalking a few days after the race on the marathon photo web site. That’s where I “met” the Road Runner. She is what I will never be… a true runner. I admire her, respect her, love her, and hate her. I bet she never tripped on a walkway bridge and messed up her pinky finger. I bet she has actually run in Central Park. I bet her coach can’t keep up with her!!!  

Still…it makes no sense to expend energy being envious or jealous. I’ve accomplished so much in my short career as a runner. After all, I survived a half marathon and must have passed a thousand runners in the last 3 miles. Instead of being negative, I’m going to “find the pony”.  It’s time to channel MY inner Road Runner. Look out!

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