Philadelphia Marathon Race Report

Philadelphia Marathon Race Report
3:01:32 personal best

Did I qualify for Boston Marathon 2015? YES
Did I break my personal best of 3:08:35? YES
Did I beat my friend / rival Ross Snyder's PR of 3:04:37? YES
Did I have a negative split? NO
Did I break 3:00 hour? NO
Start: I felt confident as I got in my corral waiting for the start. I had done everything I thought possible to set myself up for my fastest marathon yet. I was excited to see my Breakaway teammates Keith Fitzgerald, Tony Salvi and Professor Craig Green as we inched up to the start line. Tony & Keith planned to run together at 6:40 pace (faster than my target pace of 6:50). I asked the professor if he wanted to run with me but he said he wasn't going all-out.

Mile 3: I felt great! I was about 10 seconds ahead of my pace. I tried my best to keep my speed in check.

Mile 6: Sucked down my first gel pack. I was about 15 seconds ahead of my pace. I was excited to see Coach Todd Lippin cheering for me in front of Breakaway shop. I had been a regular at Todd's weekly track workout. Todd was the singular person who helped me to get fast this year! He made me aware of my bad running form. He helped me to control my pace.

Mile 9: I had to pee! I was about 30 seconds ahead of my pace so I decided to go to a portable toilet.

Mile 10: this was the climb to the Please Touch Museum. I trained on this hill and I was ready. I kept my heart rate in check and still flew by many runners.

Mile 11: This was the first turnaround point on MLK Drive. I saw Keith & Tony still running together, looking fast & sexy in their Breakaway tops.  Then I saw the 3:00 pace group balloons. They were a lot further ahead of me than I expected. This realization gave me a pause. Checked my Garmin to reassure myself that I was on pace. I repeated out loud one of Todd's sayings:  "Never panic. Keep moving forward."

Halfway: I was happy to cross the midway mark right on pace 1:30:04. However, the push to stay on pace took a little air out of me. Mile by mile, it was becoming increasingly difficult for me to hold the 6:50 pace. I was closer to 6:55. I was well aware of my slowing pace and there was nothing I could do. I kept moving forward knowing that I was still on pace to be under 3:03 which was faster than my friend Ross Snyder's current personal best.



Mile 17: Falls Bridge messed up my Garmin signal & played with my head. My pace per mile for current mile went from under 7:00 to over 8:00. I kept moving forward, waving & hifiving triathlon friends from both Breakaway & T3.

Miles 19-21 in Manayunk: I kept picking my pace up when my feet started to slow down. It was a constant battle. Saw Keith coming back without Tony. 3:00 pace group went by. Tony was moving but not at the fast pace that I was used to seeing.

Finally, I reached the turnaround point in Manayunk. Mile 20. I was about 1/4 mile behind the 3:00 pace grimy at this point and decided to start a chase. I needed to run 6:40 pace for the next 6 miles to cross the finish line under 3:00 hours.

I saw Hayley Germack. Hayley was my training buddy for many long runs. Hayley had had a breakthrough year, running sub 3:30 at Ironman Lake Placid & winning a bunch of AG awards at various races.

Hayley was between the 3:05 & 3:10 pace groups and looked strong. As a motivation for myself, I told myself "That bitch better not pass me this time!"

Last 6 miles.
I didn't quite run 6:40 pace but I manage to stay under 7:00 on the way back to the Art Museum. I was steady as I passed a few runners including Tony. I struggled a little bit during mile 25, averaging 7:13. I rebounded in mile 26, averaging 6:54.

I definitely sprinted toward the finish line one I saw it. I did not puke this time. I got my finisher's medal, and a few minutes later, a hug from teammate Keith, who ran a personal best of 2:56:37.



Damn, my legs hurt. Despite my efforts to move around & stretch, my legs especially my quads started to tighten up. I got my warmup clothes & lined up to receive a complementary massage by Philly Massages. It aw a miracle! I started to be able to walk again.

I found my partner Dan, who took photos at Mile 26. He was waiting for my friend Ian Harding. Once I saw online that Ian already crossed the finish line, started to walk back. We met up with Ian & his girlfriend to go out for a post-race brunch.

Final words: it was a good race for me but not a perfect race. I already started discussing with Ross Snyder of what we could do to break 3 hours.

Philadelphia Marathon 2012 Race Report

Wow, could this be real? I qualified for the 2014 Boston Marathon with a time of 3:08:35 at the Philly Marathon this year. I was pumping my fist and tearing up as I crossed the finish line while the race clock time was showing 3:09. In the Male 35-39 age group, a marathon time of 3:09:59 or less qualifies a runner for the Boston Marathon.



How did this happen?

Prior to this race, my personal best was 3:15:27 at the Steamtown Marathon last year. I trained hard for the Poconos Run for the Red Marathon this spring but sadly, I failed to qualify by over 30 minutes. I shifted my focus to triathlon in the summer; got used to a very rigorous training regimen and achieved some personal bests.

Coming off my triathlon season, I ran the Rock N Roll Philadelphia Half for charity on Sep 16. I did not train for it. Did not expect much. I did apply some lessons learned from my recent triathlon races, and finished the half marathon in a surprisingly fast time (for me) at 1:32:54.

Around Sep 20, two separate events happened. First, my college friend Ross Snyder @beamrider9 contacted me to ask about my experience at Steamtown Marathon last year. Ross was planning to run Steamtown under 3:10 to qualify. Ross took up running around the same time I did. Five years ago, his running times were slightly slower than mine, but recently he had surpassed me at every distance. His focus on Boston qualification got me thinking maybe I could do it too. Second, around the same time, I somehow found Adam Heiser @sellrunrest on Twitter. I read Adam's blog and realized that I briefly ran with him at the beginning of the Poconos marathon. He went on to qualify for Boston, while I couldn't hold my pace. Adam shared some very personal details on his blog, and someday I hope to meet him to share my prison stories. After reading Adam's blog, I kept thinking about his visual reminder of his BQ goal. He wrote it down and posted his goal on this door.

Between my surprising half marathon success and my interactions with Adam and Ross, I decided that I was going to attempt a BQ at the Philly marathon, and I was bringing a new attitude to this training process.

In past marathon training, I gave myself a target time of within 30 minute range. This time, I was not shy about attempting for a BQ. I wrote it down. I trained with this goal in mind. I executed my plan on race day.








I was able to execute my plan because I trained well. I followed a good program, and pretty much put the rest of my life on hold for 2 months during this training process. I documented some of my training experiences here and here.

I walked to the start line with confidence. I believed that I was ready to have a Boston qualifying race. I banked 2 minutes in the first half, despite a pee break. I was slightly behind pace miles 20-25 but I never doubted that I was on my way to a BQ. Here are my splits that got sent to my Twitter feed:

Marathon: Anh Dang - 10K in 43:24. Pace 6:59. Est: 3:03:05. ETA: 10:06:47.
Marathon: Anh Dang - Half in 1:32:37. Pace 7:04. Est: 3:05:13. ETA: 10:08:55. 
Marathon: Anh Dang - 30K in 2:12:25. Pace 7:06. Est: 3:06:14.
Marathon: Anh Dang - Finish in 3:08:36. Pace 7:12.

Here is my technical race data for running geeks.



This race is getter bigger every year. The crowd support was amazing. Many of my friends were out cheering. My partner Dan was out all day taking photos, some are shown below.











Celebrating with friends at Taboo after the marathon



Overall: 642nd out of 11624 total finishers.
Males 35-39 age group: 107 out of 1010 finishers

Philly Marathon One Week Away

It has been a fantastic training season. I followed an aggressive high-mileage plan with lots of intense intervals and tempo runs. I had hill repeats each week. I stuck with my training schedule when I traveled. I used my Garmin 910xt on all my runs, including those on treadmills. I tracked my heart rate, my pace, as well as my cadence.

My training plan was set up for me to run a 3:09 marathon. I am ready!

Training for Philly Marathon 2012

I have ran the Philadelphia Marathon every year for the past 8 years. My best Philly marathon result was 3:28:42 in 2010, and worst result was 4:56:53 in my marathon debut (2004). Due to the timing of this race so far in the fall, it usually has not been my focus race.

This year, it's a different story. It is my focus running race. I am training not only to break my personal best (3:15:13 Steamtown Marathon 2011) but also to quality for Boston Marathon. I am aiming to run 3:09 to meet the current BQ standard for my age group. It will not be easy but I am willing to train hard.

I am scheduling my life around my training schedule. I have trained for marathons before but never with this kind of intensity. As the Philly marathon is 7 weeks away, this is what I've done this week:

Monday: Hill repeats in the morning; weightlifting in the evening

Tuesday: 11 miles medium pace in the evening

Wednesday: Fins swim practice (4000 yards long distance freestyle / no pull bouy)

Thursday: 1-hour Spinning class followed by a 6-mile tempo run

Friday: rest

Saturday: 10 miles at race pace & 2 miles during warm-up / cool-down; Fins swim practice (3500 yards; mostly freestyle with pull bouy)

Sunday: 17 miles slow distance run

I am using a heart rate monitor to help with my pacing and training effort. It's a good tool to make sure I don't go out too fast or get lazy and slow down in a middle of a run.

Philadelphia Marathon 2011

It was my 7th Philly marathon in 7 years, and I'm happy to extend this long term relationship. Otherwise, it was not very memorable. It was a nice day to run, and it seemed that this race was getting bigger every year.

I was aiming for 3:45 and I finished at 3:45:59. I knew my second half would be slower and my body would start to break down. True. True. I was ok until around mile 11, keeping pace with the 3:30 group. I reached the half point at 1:41 but the way to Manuyunk seemed so far and my pace gradually slowed down. I started to walk at each fluid station. The 3:40 pace group passed by as I barely kept a 10 minute pace for the last 3 miles.

I was very happy to see the Boat House row and the Art Museum!

The nice thing about finishing this race is that for the first year ever, all my marathon times are under 4 hours.

Personal Record at Philadelphia Marathon 2010

Well, kids, training does make a huge difference. I trained well for the Philadelphia Marathon this year, and I had my most amazing marathon race ever. I set a personal record. I went under 3:30 for the first time. I had my first negative split. It was the race that I had always wanted to run since I started running 6 years ago.

I started out with the 3:30 group and hung in with them for the first 9 miles. I broke away after mile 9. By mile 15, I was between the 3:30 and the 3:20 groups. I slowed down a little bit the last 5 miles but never too far out of my pace. Half way through, I knew I was in a position to break my personal best, and that reason gave me a huge motivation to push through.

So, now I can put aside my under-performance at the Philly marathon. I always had one reason or another to run poorly at this race. I beat my time last year by 1:21. Here are all my Philly times:

2010 3:28:42

2009 4:49:57

2008 4:32:22

2007 4:14:14

2006 4:12:05

2005 4:25:29

2004 4:56:53

Philly marathon training, week 7

From Picasa File Photo

November 8-14 (one week until the Philadelphia marathon
Monday: swim
Tuesday: swim
Wednesday: chest, run
Thursday: swim
Friday: biceps and triceps, run
Saturday: swim, run
Sunday: rest

Total for the week: 9 miles swim and 22 miles run

Training is over! It's race time!

Philly Marathon training, week 6

November 1 to 7 (2 more weeks until the Philly Marathon)

Monday: swim
Tuesday: chest & triceps, run
Wednesday: run
Thursday: swim
Friday: rest
Saturday: swim
Sunday: Ben Franklin Bridge Challenge 10k (43:56 chip time)

Total for the week: 6 miles swim and 21 miles run

Philly Marathon training, week 5

Oct 25 to 31 (3 more weeks until the Philly Marathon)

Monday: rest
Tuesday: run
Wednesday: chest & triceps, run
Thursday: swim (J's circuit workout)
Friday: biceps, run
Saturday: swim (Fins mini-meet)
Sunday: long run - Fruit Loop twice plus 3 miles.

Total for the week: 2 miles swim & 45 miles run.

Running has been my No. 1 focus for the past month. I ran 180 miles in October, which is about 6 miles average a day. I'm feeling good easing into a slow-down period before the marathon 3 weeks from now.

Philly Marathon training, week 4

Oct 18 to 24 (4 more weeks until the Philly Marathon)

Monday: swim (highlight was 6x100 set at 1:50 interval when everyone in my lane came in under 1:30 every 100).
Tuesday: swim
Wednesday: sick
Thursday: sick
Friday: sick
Saturday: long run
Sunday: Fruit Loop @ 1:05, ahead of Kevin by about 2 minutes.

Total for the week: 4 miles swim & 26 miles run.

It was a tough week for me, battling a cold and waking up on Saturday morning with zero miles running for the week. The sunny and warm weather helped to bring me out of bed and logged 16 miles on Saturday and 10 miles on Sunday.

Philly Marathon training, week 3

Oct 11 to 17

Monday: run
Tuesday: swim
Wednesday: chest, run
Thursday: swim
Friday: run in the morning, biceps / back in the evening
Saturday: 5k race - Southwest Center City 5k http://www.swccrun.org/ 20:53; 12th place overall.
Sunday: long run

Total for the week: 4 miles swim & 47 miles run.

From Gay Sex and Advanced Calculus

Philly marathon training, week 2

Oct 4 to Oct 10
Monday: swim
Tuesday: run
Wednesday: run
Thursday: run, swim at the JW Marriott pool
Friday: rest day
Saturday: run
Sunday: run

Total for the week: 2 miles swim & 45 miles run.

Philly Marathon training, week 1

I have 8 weeks to train for the Philly Marathon while maintaining my swim and weight training routine.



Sep 28 to Oct 3
Monday: chest & triceps, run
Tuesday: swim
Wednesday: back, run
Thursday: swim
Friday: biceps, run
Saturday: swim
Sunday: run

Total for the week: 6 miles swim & 25 miles run. It was not easy to get back to train mode, and I hope I can stay focused to reach my goal.

Fall 2009 Races

RiverFest 5-mile trail run “Run for Change” – September 12, 2009
37:44
18th out of 111 overall finishers
This race was on easy soft trail through the woods of Valley Forge National Historical Park. I started out fast and hung on to finish strong. Dan and Casey waited for me at the finish line.

Philadelphia Distance Run – September 20, 2009
I set a personal record for a half marathon, so this was my best run this year.
http://reflexblue.blogspot.com/2009/09/dewey-beach-triathlon-and-philly.html


Blues Cruise 50k Ultra Trail Race – October 4, 2009
Official time hasn’t been posted yet, but my clock time was 6 hours and 10 minutes.
Blues Cruise 2009 had 173 registered runners and 140 finishers. The trail was tough and hilly at times, but mostly soft. This was my second longest run. I ran too fast the first half and paid dearly on the way back. I had a great supporting team (Dan and Casey).

Des Moines Marathon – October 18, 2009
4:02:33
595th out of 1,375 finishers
445th out of 824 male finishers
Perfect day for running. Course had rolling hills the first 8 miles then flat for the rest. I felt great the first 20 miles, then had some tough spots but still finished strong.

Ben Franklin Bridge 10k – November 1, 2009
48:14
354th out of 2285 finishers
294th out of 1140th male finishers
My first race wearing full drag! I started out running with Dan, but broke away after the first mile. I raised my purse and fixed my wig as I passed runners on my way to a strong finish. Not quite my personal course best of 45:11 in 2007 but I definitely had more fun.

Philadelphia Marathon – November 22, 2009
4:49:57
5906th out of 7485 finishers
3702nd out of 4370 male finishers
Half way mark was 2:24:01; not quite negative split but close enough
I was still recovering from the swine flu so crossing the finish line was my personal goal. I better not run any slower for the next 10 years!

Philadelphia Marathon 2008

Philadelphia Marathon
Originally uploaded by reflexblue

I have been in a long term relationship with the Philadelphila Marathon, having completed this 26.2 mile race for the past five years. It was a below freezing start, and some water stops were icy. I ran without music or GPS watch. It took about 2 hours for me to complete the first half, which was not so bad. However, my lack of training showed in the second half as I had to walk intermittently to deal with my cramps. My finish time was about 4:25.
The post-race recovery was a lot easier this time. After I got my clothes, I walked over to Trader Joe's to do some grocery shopping, walked to Dan's house to do more painting, and ended the day at an early Thanksgiving dinner and Chris'.
I already ran twice five days after the marathon. First was a short run to Rite Aid to buy masking tapes, and yesterday's run was 5 mile run on the treadmill in 40 minutes.
I am looking to sign up for a spring 2009 marathon.

Philadelphia Marathon two weeks away

Six miles into my long run today, I became alive! My strides became even, my footsteps were light, my posture was upright, and my head was clear. I was planning on walking across the Falls Bridge, but there was no reason to slow down. Kelly Drive never seemed prettier. Before I knew it, I reached the famed Boathouse Row and felt ready for the Philadelphia marathon.

Support for those running on empty

Thank you -- organizers, volunteers, and spectators!




In the long run, a little encouragement helps marathoners go the distance.

By Melissa Dribben
Inquirer Staff Writer

There's a point along the 26-mile route of the Philadelphia Marathon - give or take a few thousand yards - where runners typically begin to question their own sanity.

Sweet Sixteen

I'll remember this marathon. It was the race that changed the course at the last minute. It was the rain that never really came, and the wind that never really left. It was race that I almost didn't make to the start line. It was 26.2 mile race that was 13.1 miles more than I could handle. It was the finish line that I had never been happier to see. It was the finisher's medal that I will keep.

The clock time was about 4 hours 16 minutes when I completed.