Home Stretch to the Philly Marathon

The leaves are finally changing in South Jersey and the weather is cooling down, meaning we're just around the corner from the Philadelphia Marathon. After training throughout the hot summer months, the last few weeks become a welcome relief. Not only because the fall temperatures help to cool you down during runs, but also because the end is finally near. I always find that you know you're ready for a marathon once you get fed up with all the training runs. While I'm not quite at that point with three weeks to go, I'm definitely ready to get going on the Philly streets.

Since the last update, the intensity of the Pfitz 18/55 has picked up with longer weekly mileage and more speed sessions. In the place of lactate threshold runs in the earlier part of training (8-10 miles with about half the miles at a pace about 45-60 seconds faster than marathon pace), there have been more VO2 runs. The first few of these sessions, where you mix in intervals of faster 5k-paces into medium-distance runs, definitely wore me down. But overall with only a few weeks to go I've managed to stay injury-free and, more importantly, I've seen real improvements I haven't encountered in a few years.

In mid-October I ran the Atlantic City Half Marathon as a measuring stick race. In my approach to the race I was tempted to use it as either a marathon-pace or lactate threshold training run. But sure enough, once I got to race day I decided to push myself to see where I was at. I decided I needed to finish a half marathon in the 1:36 or 1:37 range to feel confident in my 3:30 marathon goal.

The Atlantic City Half Marathon course is about half streets and half boardwalk, with a turnaround around mile 11 for the half marathoners while the full marathon runners keep running throughout the neighboring towns. I had run the Atlantic City Marathon in 2023, and I remember envying the half marathon runners as I had to continue along various neighborhood roads for the majority of the second half. This time around I was glad to only push myself for 13.1 miles.

As the race started out I got myself into a quick, yet sustainable pace. Through the first 6 miles I felt strong as I neared the boardwalk portion of the race. However, this day had heavy, consistent headwinds of 10mph that seemed to push back for the next 5 miles. While I certainly don't mind the occasional hill in a race, the constant winds took a toll and slowed me down a bit. However, once I finally reached the turnaround point I took advantage of the now-tailwinds and raced to the finish.

I crossed the finish line at a respectable 1:37:40, which was right in line where I wanted to end up. I'm confident I could've shaved off a bit more time with less wind on the back half, but there's no way to control the weather on race day. According to my fitness watch I finished the half marathon distance in 1:36, a new personal record for me. Based purely on how I felt throughout the race, even in the wind, I feel good about my chances of having a good marathon in Philly.