Rock n Roll Philly Half 2013

Race strategy: even pace at 6:40-6:45 minutes per mile to finish at 1 hour 28 minutes.

Race preparation: 6 weeks of solid training; hitting target paces for most of my training runs.

Night before: Stayed out too late at the Frontrunners Philly 30th Anniversary party & Breakaway Racing party for an Ironman 70.3 world champion. No alcohol but lots of standing on my feet.

Race morning: uneventful walk to the start. Stretched & relaxed in my Coral #1.



Mile 1: went out fast at 6:20
Miles 2 - 4: held back to 6:35-6:40 pace. Saw Todd & Rita!
Miles 5-9: ran with random runners Tom & Maggie at 6:30 pace. Feeling great!

Miles 10-13.1: increased my pace to 6:20-6:25 range. Fast & steady all the way to the finish line.

Post-race: got a powerbar from Adam Furlong & jogged / walked home. Cheers for runners / walkers who were still between miles 3 & 4.

Result: 1:25:37 chip time.
5k = 20:30
10k = 41:00 (personal best?)
10mi = 1:05:42 (personal best)
13.1mi = 1:25:37 (vs. previous personal best of 1:32 at this race last year)

The difference: training! This was my focus race so I structured 6 weeks of training leading up to this race. Speed work with Breakaway at Temple track certainly helped. My weekly runs at race pace gave me the confidence. The cool weather was ideal.

Pretzel City Sports Dirty Bird 15k Race Report

Well, well, I wasn't the only want who came back for a second Turkey Trot. I met Grant Farrell at the Millersville Turkey Trot 5k. I lined up next to him. He finished the 5k about a minute ahead of me, and we chatted briefly afterward. It was cool to meet another Hempfield High School alum who is still racing. This dude was at the Dirty Bird 15k trail race 3 days later, and collected 2nd place for Male 30-39. He was so fast that he was already dressed up in warm clothes when I came in. #WERQ




So how was my race? I definitely ran better than I did at my first Dirty Bird 5 years ago. I still started out fast and struggled a little bit going up hill from mile 0.5 to mile 1.5. Many guys and and a few gals passed me during this long incline. I started working my way up after mile 1.5. No one else passed me from mile 1.5 to the finish. I ran very well downhill, flats, and even up some small hills and finish in 1 hour and 22 minutes. I was about 13 minutes slower than that dude Grant but I was 6 minutes faster than my previous Dirty Bird run.

Every time I run a trail race, I wonder why I don't run trail races more often. Trail running puts me in a good mood but I don't have easy access to trails living in center city. I do enjoy all the Pretzel City Sports trail runs and hope to do one or two each year.

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

Rock N Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon

Wow ... an unexpected PR is always nice! This race was not part of my racing program. I had a terrible run the previous weekend at the Delaware Diamondman Triathlon.

I signed up for this race to be part of the William Way LGBT Community Center's new fundraising running team. I figured 1:45 would be my realistic time, and actual wore a 1:45 pacing bracelet. One thing that I did differently for this race was to depend on my heart rate monitor to pace myself. This was a new toy. Based on limited data from the DDT run the previous weekend, I decided that I should be able to stay at a heart rate range of 160-165 bpm.




The morning of the race, I met up with a fellow Philly Fins swimmer and walked to the start of the race. Met up with members of the Philly Frontrunners and Team WayGay RunWay for photo ops. I think I was too distracted by all these activities that I checked my gear that contained a water bottle I needed. As national anthem went on, I picked up a discarded water bottle so I could take my salt pills and pre-run gel.

I started in Coral 4, by the way, along with my Fins buddy. I was assigned to be in Coral 1 based on my seeded time of 1:29. Coral 4 seemed to be my realistic pace group.

As the race run started, I felt good. I started to surge through the crowd. I was very aware of my heart rate so I knew I wasn't going out too fast. There was a problem, though! After the first 1/2 mile, I realized that my GPS wasn't turned on. I was getting my heart rate but not my pace and mile count! Luckily, I was able to keep running at the same pace while turning on the GPS function. My device started to receive my location around the Mile 1 marker. My first mile pace was around 7:15.

I studied the course map the night before, so I knew the course very well. It has changed slightly since its hey day of the Philadelphia Distance Run. I helped that I had trained on a large portion of this course for the past 8 years. I felt great turning back to the Art Museum area. I gained confidence as my device was finally functional. I adjusted my pace based on my heart rate while being aware of my pace.

Once I reached Kelly Drive, I stuck to the river side of the road so I covered the minimal distance of the course. Everything was working out so well. I passed one runner after another. My triathlete buddy/rival Vinny in his usual Spiderman costume. Shirtless Kevin of the FRP. Many nice female runners actually cheered me on as I passed them!

I executed my nutrition plan perfectly: Gu every 30 minutes, water every station!

I felt strong crossing Falls Bridge onto the Martin Luther King Dr, or West River Dr as most of us still called it. Four miles to go. I was running sub 7:00 pace. At this point, I figured I should be able to go under 1 hour 40 minutes, even if I slowed down a little. But I never slowed down. My heart rate started to inch north of 165 and I decided that I could take it.

One mile to go, I saw my partner taking photos of me! At this time, I started to feel the intensity of the race. I didn't even smile for the photos. I pushed on, and ran a 6:45 for the last mile!



All I could say as I crossed the finish line was ... 'oh, my god ... oh, my god...' After I stepped on the electronic timing mat, I felt onto my knees. I crawled to the right side and stayed on four for a minute. A concerned volunteer came over to ask me if I was ok. I said yes, and I only needed water. I found a bottle of water and started making my way through the exit chute. Picked up some more fluid bottles and some food. I drank and ate everything in sight, and slowly came back to life.

My official time of 1:32:54 was a personal best for a half marathon. Unofficially, I ran a faster half marathon split at Steamtown Marathon last year in the downhill first half.

I still can't believe I ran this well without much training. This run gives me confidence as I decided to train hard for the Philly marathon this year.