The Race Itself
Hills on Hills on Hills
While 2:53:50 is certainly not my fastest time nor what I think I am actually capable of, I ran about as fast as I could on that specific day. The rain honestly didn’t phase me too much (see above, it was wild!!), but the hills and overall course elevation were really unlike anything I’ve run before in a marathon. (My friend Louise, who qualified for 2016 Marathon Trials, said this Pittsburgh course is a lot harder than Boston—she is a super experienced marathoner who tells it like it is, and has a good accurate read on courses. She told me this afterwards and it actually made me feel kind of better about the whole race!)
And yes, I know these Pittsburgh roads, but I knew the lay of the land by heart WAY MORE for the first half than the back half, and the back half has to be one of the more challenging back sections of any marathon anywhere (especially in how it is so much hillier than the first, really it feels like a flattish half by comparison up against a rollercoaster half at the back!!). Next year, I am going to be much more ready for the overall elevation gain: my quads were really basically on fire for the ending miles there, so I just smartly ran more conservatively: I knew at that point that I was going to place where I was, so no reason to risk blowing up entirely and not making it to the end!!!
Feeling Not Too Shabby, Lots of Rain, Lots of Family!
One positive thing was that 2:53 here honestly didn’t feel too bad—I’m thinking about the 2:50 that I ran at Grandma’s in 2019 and that race comparatively felt way more awful compared to this one. (I was looking at photos from Grandma’s and afterwards I was in so much pain, my smile is more like a grimace!!) I think that with my marathon experience, even on a not ideal feeling day, I am way better able to gauge the right intensity where I can keep pushing, and to arrive at the end a lot stronger that previous cycles. So, from my marathon experience, I both know 1.) I didn’t quite max my body out that day and that I was fitness-wise capable of more, but ALSO 2.) I know I probably gauged the effort very very smartly and right where I needed it to be to ensure I actually did, in fact, make it to the end! In other words, my marathon experience during this race told me: on a different day, I could have been faster, but on THAT day, I really did an awesome job.
I give a lot of credit to anybody who finished the full in Pittsburgh as there were a lot of DNFs that day—the rain was definitely quite wild as you can see by the photo above here. When I was in approximately miles 13 to 17, we got hit with maybe 4ish separate HUGE deluges of rain, like I basically couldn’t see in front of me for a couple of these, and at one point, I made a right-hand turn onto a street into several inches of water, splish splash! Honestly, I kind of loved the rain in a way—made it feel like I was on a fun possibly ridiculous adventure and distracted me from the fact that I was running up and down hills the whole time and my legs were hurting! One of the wildest parts was when I was running up into Oakland down Forbes and there was just this huge, huge bolt of lightning that came down and was highlighted in the sky, in the space between the buildings, as you looked ahead at where you were to run. For a lot of the rest of the race, the rain was a light drizzle. (The half runners got lucky!! For the first half of our full, I was like “Oh, this rain is so pleasant and refreshing!” and then we got to the back half with the big hills and it was like the whole sky kept opening up!) I also heard from some runners that they even got slightly hailed on!! For as crazy as this weather might seem, I would actually take this any day over anything 60+ with bright blazing sun. Also, anyone who is from Pittsburgh is not at all taken aback by big rain storms, so home advantage for sure there!! I have run in all KINDS of rain in my life! I think any of the West Coast runners at the race were slightly terrified of the forecast!
I loved seeing my family all over the course: my dad kept popping up in all sorts of random spots, and I have actually no idea how he got from point A to point B so fast! My husband Phillip tried to use one of those motorized scooters to spectate, but they have a max speed AND don’t go over the bridges so he had a crazy workout half running, half scootering to get to where he wanted to be on the course. My brother Dan and his girlfriend Stephanie live in the Strip, so they were right near the end and cheering really loud which was a huge boost. My Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Linda live in Friendship, so they were at miles 14ish and 22ish and I swear I saw them more places than that!
In addition to my own family, I was really impressed with how the people of Pittsburgh came out to cheer. (THANK YOU!!!!) My own husband was having to duck under random awnings at times with the rain, and I passed seriously the best, awesomest (I know that isn’t a real word) cheer section in Homewood, and Shadyside and the Strip were also especially enthusiastic. Thank you, thank you to everyone who cheered for us!!!!
I also have to commend the entire organization of the race, which was so seamless and made the whole process so easy for us runners! Especially since the marathon hadn’t been in person since 2019, how effortlessly everything went on was quite impressive!! Pittsburgh knows how to put on a sporting event, that is FOR SURE. I think it is a sign of how well organized this race was that I already am set on coming back for 2023.
During the last 3 miles or so, I basically just cruised it in and tried to enjoy and soak up the whole experience. I was so happy to finally get to that finish line!!! ALLELUIA.
Things to improve upon:
Sleeping!
One thing that was a little rough before this race was that I really didn’t sleep well the two nights before—probably what saved me a bit was that I slept like a rock overall in the days leading up to the race except for the two days before actually! We unfortunately had to switch hotel rooms two nights before because the guy right next to us was smoking weed and watching the TV on full blast—just not ideal at 3:30am to spend 45 min. switching rooms, though the front desk could not have done a more awesome job helping with this. Then the second night, I was 1.) nervous, but 2.) we also heard partiers running up and down the hall and at one point I heard a really loud “let’s goooooooo!” So, you can fake a good half on no sleep, but a full marathon is a little bit different. I 1000% percent was blocking this out and telling myself that it didn’t matter, but I think I’d have had a lot more overall pep if I had slept better right before the race. Got a plan in place next year for this already, so now I know! (Right now I’m signed up for CIM 2022, but I honestly think I am going to bail and switch to a closer-to-home race, because the hotel situation in CA is already crazy and basically sold out…one year at CIM, I stayed at a hotel that was also hosting a big company Christmas party, and this is also one of the only hotels available right now, so maybe my Pgh. experience has just saved me a repeat of the same for the fall! I also promise I am no “princess and the pea” type sleeper—as my husband will tell you, I am very good at sleeping through A LOT noise, haha!) Anyways, moving on!
Putting GU Roctane in all bottles
Probably because of the rain, I missed my first two bottles, which kind of freaked me out a wee bit. Then the third elite fluid table, I just didn’t see my bottle so who knows where it went, whether the rain or a half runner knocked it down, no idea! This was less disastrous than it might have been because I started with a spare GU in my sports bra (which resulted in my only chafing of the day!) and I got a GU from the first on course GU station which was HUGE, just HUGE. I then became slightly paranoid looking for bottles the rest of the race, and got them all, except I think the last one, which I just didn’t feel I needed at that point so close to the end. I also did grab Nuun Endurance from all on the en route fluid stations which was a massive help.
For this race, I had 7 elite bottles, and I alternated GU Roctane Summit Tea (1, 3, 5, 7) and Ultima (2, 4, 6), but next time I’d do all of the GU drink: when I missed my bottles, I got worried that I would miss the upcoming GU drink ones even more because I wanted to drink more calories, and if all bottles had had GU Roctane in them, I wouldn’t have had to think about this. (I had about 775 cal worth of GU in the 4 bottles, but Ultima is just electrolytes.) I did have a GU gel attached to every single bottle, no matter what drink was in it, and I probably had 5 GUs over the course of the whole race, so in general I did a good job here. Note to future self: slightly water down the GU Roctane Summit Tea and spread over all bottles! (I find it a little easier to chug if it is a little watery, not so dense.)
Not Having Run a Marathon in a While…
Having not run a marathon in more than 2 years was also a wee bit of a shock to the legs, even if my experience helped me deal with that a whole lot better. I do remember looking ahead at a mile marker, and with the weather I initially thought it said “19” but as I got closer, I saw the “9” was actually a “7” and I definitely thought a few swearwords and something to the effect of “I HAVE 9 MORE MILES TO RUN, Jesus, help me!” Truly, the marathon distance is a whole different animal from anything else shorter that we run.
In sum, I think I will do a lot better next year simply knowing what I am getting into in terms of the lay of the land, actually sleeping ahead of the race, and just being in a more established marathon training mode. And given all of the things that I might have done better, I am still really happy with how I handled the entire race with what I had in the tank on that course! I stayed tough and don’t think I could have done too much better on that specific day.
