• Log in

Gregg Gordon

A triathlete’s diary and other stuff

• Home
• About GG and this Site
• Contact Me
• Professional Summary
• Pics
• Race History (through 2015)
• Hawaii Ironman Report
• Ironman Minister
• 2016 Race Calendar

Victory in Philadelphia!

Posted by Admin on May 4, 2009 in Training

I’m feeling like a million bucks.  Yesterday wound up working out so well on so many different levels.  It’s rare that I write a race report with this kind of feeling.  Most times, I’m lamenting some component, either physical or mental… or both!  In this case, I feel fulfilled and elated.

On Saturday, I walked in the Revlon Walk for a Cure with the Henckels clan, then played in two football games.  In the first one, I threw for 4 TDs and helped our team clinch a playoff spot in just our first season together.  What a great feeling for all of us.  In the second game, we came bitterly close to finishing off a season with yet another impressive record, but wound up losing at the end.  I had good personal stats and was sorry that the team didn’t get the victory, but the thoughts and emotions were short-lived as I needed to pick up Elizabeth and immediately drive to Philadelphia.

We made it there fairly quickly with little traffic, had a great halibut wrap dinner with her brother and his girlfriend at her place, then settled down at a reasonable hour on an airbed.  The next morning, we woke up to the predicted rainy weather.  Immediately, it occured to me that I hadn’t brought the right clothing.  I brought only the type of gear I’d wear in a triathlon, but wound up feeling like I should have included a long sleeved shirt, maybe some gloves, etc.  Once the race started however, I wound up feeling like I did have the right gear after all!  I even zipped down my top by the one mile mark!

It was reported that this event was north of 30,000 people but thankfully, they adopted the corral system now used by the NY Road Runners Club.  I provided an expected finish time during the pre-registration process and that put me in one of the closest corrals to the start line which meant far fewer people to have to deal with once the starting gun went off.

Once the race started, it took me about 50 seconds to go over the initial timing mat and off I went.  It was admittedly fun to weave in and out of people and with an immediate downhill, I ended up with a first mile time of 7:09.  My initial goals were to average 7:45 and if possible, get it down to an average pace of 7:30.  That latter mark seemed like a stretch given the 10 mile course.  I’ve run a 7:19 in a 10k, but I’ve not spent a lot of time doing speed-oriented work with this distance in mind.  So, to get a 7:09 right away was a great step towards potentially averaging or besting a 7:30 average time.

I looked at that 21 second margin as “time in the bank”.  At the mile 2 mark, I built it up to 24 seconds.  At the mile 3 mark, I lost 3 seconds and had the margin back down to 21 seconds.  What that meant was that I had 7 miles to go where I could run a 7:33 pace and still hit my mark.  That seemed tight and with the mile 4 mark eating another 12 seconds into it, I had 6 miles to go with only 11 seconds in the bank.  The mile 5 mark got it back up to 22 seconds.

I began to consider that perhaps I wouldn’t make this lofty goal.  A 22 second margin over 5 miles where I knew I’d get progressivly tired seemed like it might be enough, but I just couldn’t be sure… and that sense of being unsure was terribly unsettling.  I began to feel stressed and it manifested itself to wanting to pee, to feeling cranky, to not liking the music on my iPod, etc.

Despite my efforts, I didn’t see the mile 6 mark and that wreaked even more havoc.  I knew that I was generally running between 7:20 and 7:30 per mile so when my watched revealed 7:45, then 7:55, then 8:05… and still no mile marker, I freaked.  Within moments, I settled on the fact that I simply missed it and just focused on the mile 7 marker.  Sure enough, I got the mile 7 marker at a reasonable time and put another 2 seconds in the bank which got it up to 24 seconds.  I lost 3 seconds at the mile 8 marker but gained another at the mile 9 marker, for a net total of 22 seconds.  That meant that I could run a 7:52 final mile and still hit the 7:30 figure I had been pursuing.  I couldn’t be sure though, so I really pushed in that last mile.  While my effort level was harder in that final mile than in that very fast first mile, the fatigue factor was prevalent and I found it tremendously difficult to overcome.  Once my watch revealed that I had only 2 minutes or so left to go, I finally felt a sense of relief.

I wound up doing that final mile at 7:20 which gave me a total margin of 32 seconds.  What did that mean?  It meant that my ultimate goal of a 7:30 pace which equates to a total time of 1:15:00 wound up being 1:14:28 which equals 7:27!  It didn’t immediately hit me, but upon checking the watch one more time to be sure, I verified the numbers and clenched my fist to celebrate a big personal victory!  I didn’t know a soul around me, but I felt amazing and wanted to celebrate with the crowd!

The stress level throughout the race was considerable, all of it self-imposed.  It’s an interesting phenomenon to be at your physical limit but be so focused on offsetting the emotional and psychological turmoil roiling within.  In a sense, it’s even comforting to know that you won’t be focused on leg fatigue, or a heavy chest, but it doesn’t truly translate to the other stress being better.  Naturally, one must ask, why do we do this stuff?  The generic answer is because of how we feel afterwards, because that sense of accomplishment, of having survived, and possibly of having beaten your own expectations, is not easily articulated but is universally understood by people in this realm.  The fact that I’ve taken the time to write this now is a testament to that, and while I’m often reminded of the effort yesterday with the soreness in my quadriceps, I can’t help but crack a smile and think that the soreness is badge of honor.