Race Report: Inaugural Love Run half in Philly
sarahz5
Posts: 1,363 Member
Hello, dry people. I am finally feeling less like a waterlogged sponge and more like a person who ran 13.1 - or excuse me, 13.3 - this morning. This morning was the first Love Run in Philly, and it left a little to be desired, though I really loved some aspects of it.
I expected it to feel a lot like the Philly Marathon half, but due to a few differences in the course, it actually felt like a much different race. First of all it rained, drizzle then driving rain from about 45 minutes in. So the spectators were sparse and subdued compared to the much larger fall race, but I give them major props for being out there at all! Instead of mostly going through downtown, residential areas, and college college neighborhoods, this half focused on Fairmount Park, so it was a very scenic race, beautiful but not much distraction, other than faster runners going by on the other side.
I was captaining my tri club's team so I had to lug this huge tent from the car, set it up, and take it down. I have to apologize to the racing gods because we waited about an hour after we finished the race to take the tent down and leave, and I know there were still some club members out there, but it was bitter cold, still raining, and breezy. My friend lost her bib between Expo yesterday and getting home last night, but the race staff were very accommodating, and had tons of extra bibs at the ready.
Rain prep: we had ponchos (and happily, the tent). I ditched the poncho at mile 2 because it was just too much, but it was nice at the start. Visor, of course. I put my iPod in a ziploc with a little hole for my earbud wire. Yurbuds turn out to be water resistant (who knew?) and they were fine throughout the race. When we got to the finish I took off my top layer and I had a windbreaker stashed in my gear check, so I put that on. I brought extra socks but couldn't find a convenient place to change into them. My shoes were a disaster anyway - the worst of that was at the finish, where muds and puddles were unavoidable.
Complaints about the race: only two - (1) the aforementioned distance mistake. I confirmed with a bunch of people, and we all got distances between 13.27 and 13.35 on our GPS. I was right on track with the race signs until about mile 8. Somebody messed up. I wouldn't care except that it seriously messes with your head when you are used to training with your watch, and when you carefully plan your splits.
Of course, my race did not go according to plan, so that's okay. I had not really trained as I would have liked. I fit in only two runs of 11.5 miles and only got my mileage up to 18-20 in the last few weeks before the race, then had a pretty big taper in the last week. Before those last few weeks I had been more in the 10-12 mile range. Ugh. Based on how my training was feeling, I expected to be lucky if I hit a 9:20 pace, and thought 9:30 was more likely. My last half (which was my first) had been at 9:08, so I thought no way was I going to PR, which had been my goal months ago. At that race, I had down pretty steep cut downs, with each mile a little faster than the last.
I meant to do that today, but my adrenaline interfered. I started out at 9:45 as intended, but shocked myself with some crazy second mile, like 8:45. Then an 8:25 popped up. I was still feeling very good but I tamed myself a little after mile 4. Then I forced myself to really slow down around mile 8, back to around 9-9:10. That was a good thing, because around mile 10 or 11, the rain started to really get into my bones, and I suddenly could not move. My pace dropped down to 9:25, but I felt totally okay about it given my surprisingly faster miles early on. Those last few miles were brutal. I ended up having just about even splits, around a hour for each half.
According to my watch I PRed! My pace was a few seconds faster than my pace in November. According to the race results, it was a few seconds slower. (I am curious to see if they will acknowledge the error and do any kind of correction - I assume not for the correction piece.) I continue to be floored by my results. It is exciting, because if I could do this without too much pain with that half-assed training, I am very optimistic about what I can do in the fall when I give myself the time to properly train.
Oh second complaint - they talked up their hot chocolate bar constantly, including at the end of the race, but no one I saw had hot chocolate and I could not find that bar for the life of me. No hot drink at the end. :sad: I really could have used that!
tl;dr: I will never run a long race in sub-50 degree rain again!
I expected it to feel a lot like the Philly Marathon half, but due to a few differences in the course, it actually felt like a much different race. First of all it rained, drizzle then driving rain from about 45 minutes in. So the spectators were sparse and subdued compared to the much larger fall race, but I give them major props for being out there at all! Instead of mostly going through downtown, residential areas, and college college neighborhoods, this half focused on Fairmount Park, so it was a very scenic race, beautiful but not much distraction, other than faster runners going by on the other side.
I was captaining my tri club's team so I had to lug this huge tent from the car, set it up, and take it down. I have to apologize to the racing gods because we waited about an hour after we finished the race to take the tent down and leave, and I know there were still some club members out there, but it was bitter cold, still raining, and breezy. My friend lost her bib between Expo yesterday and getting home last night, but the race staff were very accommodating, and had tons of extra bibs at the ready.
Rain prep: we had ponchos (and happily, the tent). I ditched the poncho at mile 2 because it was just too much, but it was nice at the start. Visor, of course. I put my iPod in a ziploc with a little hole for my earbud wire. Yurbuds turn out to be water resistant (who knew?) and they were fine throughout the race. When we got to the finish I took off my top layer and I had a windbreaker stashed in my gear check, so I put that on. I brought extra socks but couldn't find a convenient place to change into them. My shoes were a disaster anyway - the worst of that was at the finish, where muds and puddles were unavoidable.
Complaints about the race: only two - (1) the aforementioned distance mistake. I confirmed with a bunch of people, and we all got distances between 13.27 and 13.35 on our GPS. I was right on track with the race signs until about mile 8. Somebody messed up. I wouldn't care except that it seriously messes with your head when you are used to training with your watch, and when you carefully plan your splits.
Of course, my race did not go according to plan, so that's okay. I had not really trained as I would have liked. I fit in only two runs of 11.5 miles and only got my mileage up to 18-20 in the last few weeks before the race, then had a pretty big taper in the last week. Before those last few weeks I had been more in the 10-12 mile range. Ugh. Based on how my training was feeling, I expected to be lucky if I hit a 9:20 pace, and thought 9:30 was more likely. My last half (which was my first) had been at 9:08, so I thought no way was I going to PR, which had been my goal months ago. At that race, I had down pretty steep cut downs, with each mile a little faster than the last.
I meant to do that today, but my adrenaline interfered. I started out at 9:45 as intended, but shocked myself with some crazy second mile, like 8:45. Then an 8:25 popped up. I was still feeling very good but I tamed myself a little after mile 4. Then I forced myself to really slow down around mile 8, back to around 9-9:10. That was a good thing, because around mile 10 or 11, the rain started to really get into my bones, and I suddenly could not move. My pace dropped down to 9:25, but I felt totally okay about it given my surprisingly faster miles early on. Those last few miles were brutal. I ended up having just about even splits, around a hour for each half.
According to my watch I PRed! My pace was a few seconds faster than my pace in November. According to the race results, it was a few seconds slower. (I am curious to see if they will acknowledge the error and do any kind of correction - I assume not for the correction piece.) I continue to be floored by my results. It is exciting, because if I could do this without too much pain with that half-assed training, I am very optimistic about what I can do in the fall when I give myself the time to properly train.
Oh second complaint - they talked up their hot chocolate bar constantly, including at the end of the race, but no one I saw had hot chocolate and I could not find that bar for the life of me. No hot drink at the end. :sad: I really could have used that!
tl;dr: I will never run a long race in sub-50 degree rain again!
0
Replies
-
Ran today too... 13.24 on the Garmin and honestly I expect that with every race, the angles that you take into turns add up very quickly and this race had plenty of places to run more than necessary. MLK drive coming back to the finish everyone was on the low slow near the gate - they should have been high near the curb - that's a straight line to the finish not the middle of the street. I looked at average pace one time today and wish I had not this is exactly why I use only current pace when running a race the distances are never perfect. Your watch isn't perfect - that said my wife pointed out if you look at the elevation chart it says the distance is ...... 13.22
Didn't get hot chocolate just wanted to be dry - course was ok with me I think we are finally getting a couple options for races here in Philly and if they are all the same they won't get people to come out for all of them, big race for their first one and CGI does a good job with their races bet that things get better next year - hope the weather is0 -
I agree, I'm glad it was different! I like that the races have their own character, I had been worried that it would feel like a repeat.
Funny that they acknowledge it is longer than 13.1 - good to know. I will have to check that next time. It seems like it would be so easy to just move that turn-around up to make it accurate.
I know some of my extra distance is due to excessive dodging. I need to start in a faster corral next time. I really like to start slow so I don't want to go ahead with the 9:00s, but I am going to have to find something in between.0 -
It's not uncommon for any USTAF certified course to measure long. When they are measured, they do so along the shortest possible distance one could run the course and they also add in a bit each mile as a margin of error. They are also measured with special device on the wheel of a bicycle that is calibrated and confirmed to be accurate, more so than any GPS device. So, in a race, the distance is the distance.
That being said, thanks for the report on this race. It was on my radar but I decided to forgo a HM prior to my marathon this spring. I was curious how this would compare to The Race Formerly Known as the Philadelphia Distance Festival. It sounds like they put on a pretty good even for their first go at it.0 -
I confirmed with a bunch of people, and we all got distances between 13.27 and 13.35 on our GPS. I was right on track with the race signs until about mile 8. Somebody messed up. I wouldn't care except that it seriously messes with your head when you are used to training with your watch, and when you carefully plan your splits.
The GPS signal from the spacecraft is in the microwave range, so water absorbs it. Heavy rain, and vegetation will interfere enough with the signal that it becomes unreliable at a high attenuation. The more spacecraft that the receiver can see, the more accurate it has the potential to be, but there is an upper limit given the size and distribution of the constellation.0 -
I also ran the course and as of 10:am my running shoes still soaking wet...lol... I'm glad you brought up the distance I ran with run keeper and though I think these gadgets aren't always accurate from what I read there was a discrepancy my run keeper had it at 13.47 miles ????? and yea didn't see any hot chocolate but then again it was pouring, windy and we were freezing are *kitten* off so just booked out of there but, had a hell of a time.0
-
I also ran the course and as of 10:am my running shoes still soaking wet...
Stuff them with wadded up newspaper. They will be completely dry in 24 hours or less.0
