November 17th, 2009
Thanks to fellow blogger Joe who kindly alerted me to a thread on LetsRun, it appears that the finish for the Philadelphia marathon is going to be an honest to goodness clusterfuck. Here’s the image the original poster supplied.
Green – half marathon, Red – marathon at half way, Blue – marathon finish
As you can see, it appears that the marathon finishers will be forced to actually cross through the slower marathoners reaching their halfway point! I can’t. believe. this. But then, it’s Philly, so yes I can.
I’m hanging in there, though not without a quadruple dose of taper angst. My run today was 7 w/2x(10min@HP, 2min rec) and my HR was just too damned high at 90 and 92% max on the Half pace portions. I’m hoping it’s just overall anxiety, which I truly have in excess now, but it’s really putting a fear into me that I wish I didn’t have.
The rest of the week is 6 tomorrow, rest day, 5 and 4, then race. The weather looks good at this point, so that’s a wonderful bonus.
Beyond my worried mood, I am so excited for this weekend because I’m finally going to meet several of the ladies I’ve been “talking to” for over a year in the Women’s BQ thread. A bunch of gals are coming in for the race, both the Full and Half, as well as cheering section, and to actually meet these gals in the flesh (we know so much about each other by now) is going to be incredible.
Plus, Audra and Kat (I ran Steamtown with Audra and the Lehigh Half with Kat) are going to be staying with me, not racing but will be cheer support so I’ll have my own personal pit crew the night before. Pre-race pillow fights!! Woohoo!! So there’s a lot to be excited about, if I can just take my mind off my stupid heart for a while.
Thanks everyone for such cool comments to my little mishap on Sunday. You guys and gals are stupendously great. One good thing I got out of that run was that it was my gel dress rehearsal because my most favorite shorts only have a key pocket (Race Ready shorts are dumpy on me, so no one even suggest that, please).
My original plan was to do the pinning thing (for the uninformed, you pin the gels to the outer waistband of your shorts then tuck them inside your shorts so they don’t bounce, then you rip them off when you need one) but because I’ll have a bottle in one hand, that makes ripping the gels off too difficult. Then I remembered I had that detachable pocket I bought for Steamtown and didn’t end up using. It works a treat!! Weighs an ounce, you can put it where you want and it’s very easy to take a gel out while on the run. I put 3 in there and 2 in my handheld and didn’t even notice it was there. Though maybe that’s because I was in pain from my weeping open wound.
Anyway, that’s one less thing on my mind. Now if I could only unload the other 2 tons of mental garbage…
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I’ve heard of worse multi-race finish set-ups. Try and get across early or you might end up doing another lap of the marathon. Just sharpen up the elbows and pretend you’re in a game of soccer
Seriously though, it mightn’t be too bad – you’re only looking at 30 seconds lost at most.
Glad you’ve got the gel thing sorted. Don’t stress about the HR. You’re in great shape, so enjoy the pillow fights.
Why in the world would they do that? Is that what happens when nonrunners plan a race? I can’t wait to see how you do!!!! I’ll be stalking you…
That’s different than the finish last year (which was also screwed up).
My heart rate has been all over the place too – kind of glad to hear you say that, it ain’t just me…
I am so excited for you! I know that you are going to have a great run! Keep up the good work!
yes, only in philly would they come up with that finish plan.
And race ready shorts dont look good on anyone, I wear them anyway!
PUT YOUR HRM AWAY FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK!
Really, dont worry about it.
See you sat!
Omg that looks insane. Thanks for the heads up!
Btw I’m going with a 3:30 pace group. I have plantar fasciitis, so I’ll be a speedy limper
Doggie, ok…done. HR strap is gone till after the race. It’s been too much of a negative distraction.
Progman, I’m glad to hear you have that too, lol. Misery loves company. Hope it’s not getting you down as it was me. If so, put ‘er away.
Runforlife, so sorry to hear it! Sucks to have that now, but that’s still be a fast time, so woohooo!!
Hiya to the rest of you peeps.
Good luck Flo! I can’t tell from the photo how many lanes wide that traffic circle is, but I hope there is a divider that starts at the spot where the blue line merges. There’s one Turkey Trot event here that has annoyed me like that in the past; in the final half mile of a 10K course, I ram right into the back of a huge pack of 5K walkers.
It’ll be OK Flo, Maybe cost a second or two. And Good Luck!!! Good move on shelving the HRM. 3:16 (or better) here we come!
Flo, I wish I could run the half and then plan to be your course-clearer at the finish (“Make way for GIM!”) – wouldn’t that be a hoot! I hope it doesn’t turn out as bad as it looks like it could.
Good idea putting away the HRM strap – ditch anything that attract anything but positive, speedy thoughts.
I’ll be sending my speediest vibes to you and the whole BQ Women’s crew on Sunday! Can I say again how envious I am of your FE? No? too late.
BTW, I hope your knee isn’t bothering you.
I’m willing to take down a few slower marathoners to clear your path. Just say the word.
Kat and Barb, you are appointed my hit women for the day (lol, “take down”, that just cracks me up). Barb, get on a plane this instant, I want to see you in a mini skirted cop outfit with mirrored aviators, blowing a whistle in a video-nasty way, looking fierce. Kat, you’ll be in a mini-trench coat with 4″ heels, a hat dipped over one eye, black sunglasses and an Uzi.
Don’t worry about the HR. I did that same workout, as you know, and my HMP portions were 87% and 91% – it’s just nerves. Deep, calming breaths!
Ilana, thanks so much for saying that, it really helps to hear others deal with it, too. BK on the sub 3:20 thread said he always sees a higher HR as well as the race nears. That said, I’m beginning to put a couple things together…it seems my HR started being different after I quit pot and from what I’m reading right now, chronic users have a decreased HR, so perhaps what I’m seeing is my “normal” HR returning. That, and no outlet for stress. Might have to blog about this.
Last year, the end of the half was really confusing. You’d think they would have tried to make it better this year, but it actually looks worst. I still just don’t understand why they have to have the half the same day and same time. So annoying.
The gel pinning sounds interesting. I’d never heard of that. My last two marathons, I’ve just carried one in each hand. It sounds dumb, but having them there gives me something to look forward to (getting rid of them) and really helps break up the distance into smaller chunks.
Good luck with the rest of the taper and relaxing before race day. Maybe try turning off the HR monitor a couple days. It sounds like it’s stressing you out as much as the impending race.
OK – I agree that that looks like a crazy finish for the Marathon. Here’s hoping that people are aware of their surroundings and make way for the speedies like you. ;-)
What is a heart rate monitor, I only got a Garmin this year LOL. OKAY you are gonna do awesome. I looked at the Philly website, looks like no live tracking