"Well look down yonder ,Gabriel put your feet on the land and the sea but Gabriel don't you blow your trumpet ,till you hear it from me there ain't no grave can hold my body down"
Ain't No Grave Johnny Cash
It isn't Easter yet so biblical tales of " being risen from the dead" might be a tad premature but for those penning my running obituary......hold the front page and shut the front door......still life in the auld dog yet!!
For the fifth time since 2018 I ran the Love Run half marathon it's become a big race on the calendar, I'd say in Philly but according to the pre race announcer 13,000 runners{ that may include the recently added 7k} 20 countries and 37 states toed the line yesterday morning at 7.30am,I can see the appeal after a long Winter runners are eager to get out and race and have something to show for weeks and months of hard grind, Spring Marathons are just around the corner too so what better way to gauge your level of training than a half marathon?
It's been well documented in my blog that this race chewed me up and spat me out last year and began a domino effect that lasted the whole year, was this redemption? was this me looking to even the score? maybe a little of both.....or it could be race #2 of my season and the start of The Triple Crown {Love Run 1/2 Marathon, Hot Chocolate 15k, Broad Street Run} over the next five weeks either way I was "all in" maybe a little undertrained w/ only one 10 mile run to my credit four weeks ago but last year I had four 12 milers, four 14 milers and three 16 milers under my belt coming into the race and proceeded to "shit the bed" so taking a leaf out of my former coach's playbook" sometimes it's better to be a little underprepared than overcooked" I came in a little on the back foot, being gung ho last year believing a sub 1.30 time was there for the taking blew up in my face and I wasn't looking for a repeat of that thank you very much......
Up at Silly O Clock to be dressed and out the door by 6am and down to Eakins Oval by 6.35am,why so early for a 7.30am gun time? have you ever seen the lines for the Portajohns at these races....13,000 runners all need that last prerace dump the lines at 6.35am compared to 7am are night and day and trust me there's nothing worse waiting in line to shed those pre race nerves when the line isn't moving but the contents of your bowels are dancing a feckin' rumba in your lower stomach.....ergo why I get to my races and hour b4 start time.....
45 degrees and overcast pretty good race conditions, I remember one year, maybe 2019 when it was frigid as feck and the start got delayed by 15 minutes.....fuckin feet felt like two blocks of ice by the time the gun went off.....no such worries today as I took my place in the third corral aptly the Green Corral.....so I blended right in!!!!, the Lebanon flag was just behind me and the Irish Tricolour albeit wrapped around it's flagpole was on the other side of the Ben Franklin Parkway sadly NO PALESTINE FLAG.........but I made sure to wear my Palestine bracelet and give the Israel flag the finger b4 turning onto 16th St, I could be wrong but I thought I was asked if I wanted to put a message on my running bib when I submitted my entry and I chose RUN4GAZA.....it didn't make it to said running bib....now it could've been for Saturdays Hot Choc 15k,Broad Street Run or August's Philly 10k but I saw a lot of other runners w/ "Vanity Plate Running Bibs" so I tend to think I got fucked over.....fine you find my RUN4GAZA bib offensive.....I'll just wear my Paddystinian t shirt after the race.....don't get mad, get even...........
8.40 for the opening mile, I was aiming for 8 min miles so I was a little off pace however the start of the opening mile is always crowded as the corral sorts its self out so I didn't feel the need to press the panic button and mile 2 yielded a 7.55 split so it was give or take where I wanted to be, while my target time was 1.45 off 8 min mile pace I was more focused on running a complete race both of my half marathons last year were stop/start, walk/run affairs and I didn't want a repeat of that, slow and steady it was, however w/ the cloud cover it was clear my Garmin aka Hal The Little Bollix was acting up each mile registered on the garmin b4 I reached the mile marker flag.....annoying as that is I'm plenty used to it w/ Hal and I continued to check my overall time at each mile marker, I'm citing the actual time on Hal for my splits.....
8.18 at mile 3 and 8.04 at mile 4 as I made my way back up the Parkway, as I say a lot these days" this ain't my first Rodeo" { next year will be my Golden Jubilee of running 50 years} so I knew not to over project just take each mile on face value, add 8 mins to it for the next one and repeat, 8.14 at mile 5 and a slightly slower 8.50 for mile 6.....which has the long twisty uphill of Brewery Hill b4 crossing the Schuylkill via Girard Ave bridge
I had elected to " run my own race" and not worry about the pacers, they do a fine job pacing runners but today was about " running on feel" another gem from my former coach so when I passed the 1.55 group on West River Drive around mile 7 I knew I was a little below the 1.45 I had thought I could run.....that said last year I thought I was gonna crush a sub 1.30 and had to settle for a 1.39 so at this point a sub 1.50 might be doable, w/ last year in mind I got blindsided by the hill on Black Road after mile 10 so I was keeping something in reserve this year...plus I only had one 10 mile run under my belt for my long run so this was a case of playing the long game
Last year caught me off guard, due to a hip injury in 22 and a knee injury in 23 I hadn't ran the Love Run since 21 and back then the hill on Black Road wasn't part of the course so a bad day and an unexpected hill resulted in the wheels coming off, maybe running at a slower pace this year and being prepared for it meant that hill while still a bastard wasn't as bad as last year, it would result in my slowest split at 9.12 but a hill at mile 10 of a half marathon will do that to ya...... but unlike last year it didn't brake me
Now for shades of my 1/2 marathon debut in Leicester in 84 when I'd never gone beyond 10 miles b4 the final 3 miles were The Twilight Zone that day and now some 42 years later here I was again.....back then I was 20 now I'm rockin up on 62.....there is an older wiser head on these shoulders.... sadly I have the knees of a 61 year old who's been doing this for 49 years......
I recovered from the Black Road hill w/ a 8.33 split for mile 12 as I reached the foot of Brewery Hill and trusty Kelly Drive just over a mile to go last year trying to negotiate the slight uphill towards the Art Museum was hard work and I remember some arse clown in front of me talking on his phone which boiled my piss but I didn't have it to get passed him, more insult to injury...... in my final race of last year I got beat by someone in my age group I routinely defeat 8/9 times out of 10 hey every dog has its day and I had no business being on the course that day but I wasn't going to "cop a plea" and undermine his victory by saying I hadn't ran a lick in three weeks I let him have his victory but today w/ just under 1/2 a mile to go his wheels were coming off and I took great pleasure passing him and digging a little deeper to get to the finishline b4 him off an 8.27 final mile
1.51.56 off 8.25 mile pace, by the numbers this is slow, it's my second slowest ever 1/2 marathon and 11 mins slower than last year but sometimes ye need to look beyond the xs and os....after a couple of bad races last year this one included today I went gun to tape w/out stopping....sure maybe small potatos in the general scheme of things but when your confidence, moral and self belief have gone in the crapper and were as low as whale shit to run a smart albeit slow race is a great way to rebuild that confidence, moral and self belief 1.51.56 equates to a 3.43.12 marathon, after a 4.36 marathon in Dublin last year I'd willingly take a 3.43.12 marathon....the good news is I have 34 more weeks to get quicker and faster, like I said reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.....don't send flowers, don't throw dirt on my grave, my last rodeo is a ways away yet........