My goal was to gradually ease into about a 7:20 pace over the first 5-6 miles and then hold onto that as long as possible. If all went well, I would get a BQ with a couple minutes to spare.

I let the crowds keep my early energy in check and didn't get concerned about getting past people who were running 'too slowly' in front of me (even with the new 'corral' system this year, there are still people that are oddly way too far up front for the pace they are running). The temps were quite cold, but I didn't feel too uncomfortable even over the first few miles (the crowds probably helped). My pace was largely as I had planned (a bit behind BQ pacing).

Once we got back into Center City, the crowds were really great and here I did have to hold myself back a few times as I would let their adrenaline feed into my own, but I began to settle into my rhythm and pace. I felt good, but reminded myself that's exactly how I should feel since all I had basically done so far was to warm-up. The first few hills start up near University City and the zoo and I tried to take these easy and not worry about my pace over those miles, figuring I would get much of that back on the downhills and flats (which I did at this stage still).

On MLK Drive, had to watch my footing at an aid station as the spillage was quickly turning to ice. It was slippery, but wasn't much of a problem as long as you were careful--and I always go easy though the aid stations anyway (usually walk a few strides to get my drink down more easily). Through the half-way point, I felt good and was right about on pace with what I expected.

There is a new hill in mile 14 versus when I ran this a few years ago, but again I just tried to take it easy. Felt fine once I was through it and back down to Kelly Drive. My confidence was building, but I didn't want to get carried away since there was still a long way to go. There were a few miles out of the sun along the Drive (and another icy aid station or two) and for the first time since before the start, I felt cold at times (this would hit me again on the return miles through this section--it was an odd feeling this late into a race).

At about mile 18 as we were approaching Manayunk, I began to have to work a little harder to hold pace. There is some modest climbing into the mile 20 turnaround and I hoped that once I made the turn, I could take advanatge of the return descents to get a little rest and still keep pace. But by the turn I knew it was going to be more challenging than that. While generally downhill, there are still a couple modest inclines and I had to work on any of those. Just as another measure of how I felt, I considered taking a swig of beer that they were offering at mile 19 on the way up Main St. in Manayunk. At mile 21 on the way out, I considered puking on them when they offered the beer. :-)

With about 4.5 miles to go, I began to slow more and had to take a couple brief walking breaks to collect myself and then restart--hoping that I could regain and hold the pace I needed for a little longer. But those short breaks, plus gradual slowing after I would restart, began to knock my pace (which had slowed to closer to 7:30ish already) to 8:00 or so. And my "margin for error" (never expected to be very big) began to quickly erode.

I kept thinking if I could just hold on a little longer, maybe I could find some extra life over the final mile or two. Even after I slowed, all I needed was to get down the low-mid 7s again. But there was just nothing left in the tank to call upon. Once I got to mile 26, I knew the ghost was up and walked a bit before deciding I should run to the finish (and encouraged by thousands of screaming spectators). So I ran the best I could at that point and focused on nothing else but the finish line (couldn't even try to look for my family cheering in the stands).

I was done...and completely spent.

Run 55 seconds faster. :-)

Really, I felt I left pretty much everything I had out there today. I paced the race pretty much as I had planned and just didn't have enough left in the tank to bring it home.

Walked around looking for my family and quickly moving to freezing. I was literally shivering for about 2 hours after I finished--even when I got to someplace warm.


Endurance.

Solution: keep running. :-)


Race seemed better organized than last year (when I ran the half) and the post-race food has made some modest strides forward (though still not the greatest). But even on a cold day the crowd support was great, the course is not dead flat but not overly difficult and it's local for me. It's my only marathon experience, but a good one.