Race Recap: the Philadelphia Marathon

Standing in the corral at the start of the Philadelphia Marathon, I went over my race plan in my head: take it easy the first two miles, then pick it up to my planned race pace of 8:20 per mile. If I could hold that pace, I should finish in around 3 hours and 40 minutes, comfortably qualifying for Boston by 10 minutes.

I signed up for this race because a bunch of friends were doing it, but also because of where it lands on the calendar. I’m 58 years old, but this race counts as a qualifier for the 2027 Boston Marathon, when I’ll be 60, and 60-year-olds get an extra 20 minutes of qualifying time compared to the 55-59 age group. 

It was a crisp fall morning, about 35 degrees. I was wearing an old sweatshirt over my running gear, planning to discard it before the race started (the race will donate these discards to Salvation Army). 

Just me and 12,000+ friends, getting ready to run...

The time passed quickly, and soon we were on our way! There was plenty of room to run on the wide Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and everyone around me was running a similar, comfortable pace. 

The first couple miles took us through downtown Philadelphia, which made me worry about whether the pace my Garmin displayed was accurate. GPS watches are notoriously inaccurate among tall buildings, and we were running through a sea of them. I would only know my true pace when I passed a mile marker. My watch was showing a pace of 8:00 per mile, too fast for my plan. But I felt very comfortable and was breathing easily, so I just decided to maintain this pace. My watch recorded 8:02 for Mile 1 and, surprisingly, I passed the mile marker just a few seconds later. If this was too fast, it sure felt good! I decided to continue running by feel and ran the next mile at 7:56 by my watch. This time the mile marker came 12 seconds later. It seemed that I was losing about 6 seconds per mile compared to what my watch was telling me, and this pattern continued for the next several miles. But I also continued to feel like this was an easy pace, so I clicked off mile after mile right around 8:00 by my watch (more like 8:06 by the course markers). 

I knew my wife Greta and running buddies Natalie, Lori, and Elizabeth were planning to cheer the runners around Mile 6, so I started looking for them at Mile 5. The spectators were lined up 2-deep along both sides of the road, so it was tough to try to pick them out of the crowd. Mile 6 went by, and Mile 7, with no sign of them. As it turned out they saw me near the Mile 7 marker and were screaming my name, I just somehow missed them! Here’s a video Natalie took as I passed by, seemingly oblivious!

Mile 8 included the first hill of the race, a gradual incline of maybe 70 feet. I gave myself permission to slow down but I didn’t slow by much, running an 8:08. Mile 10 had a bigger hill, and this was our first chance to see the runners ahead of us because the course looped back on itself. The runners we were seeing running the opposite direction were about 2 miles ahead of us. I thought I might see one of the two Lindsays, who were trying to run in the 3:05-3:15 range, but they weren’t quite that far ahead of me. 

For Mile 10 I ran my slowest mile yet, an 8:15—still faster than my planned pace, even adjusting for the course, which was stubbornly 6 seconds longer on every mile compared to my watch. I didn’t know exactly much faster I was running than my plan, but I knew I would have an easy way to tell when I got to the halfway point of the race. My goal pace would put me there in 1:50, so I made a mental note to check it when I arrived. 

The course looped around the Centennial Arboretum, then went back down the big hill at Mile 12, and I continued to run 10-20 seconds faster than goal pace. 

My fueling strategy for this race was aggressive—consume a total of 13 gels, about one every two miles. I had downloaded the course map to my watch and that map indicated there were 13 aid stations, so I decided to consume a gel right before each aid station, then grab a cup of water to wash it down. This was working well, but it seemed that the aid stations were coming faster than once every two miles. I was worried I would run out of gels. I decided to skip a gel at the next aid station.

Now on Mile 13, we were running up what I believed to be the last big hill of the race. As with the previous two, it wasn’t too steep, and again I didn’t slow down much. Once again here I ran right past Natalie, Lori, and Elizabeth as they screamed my name and I didn’t notice! Once again Natalie recorded my oblivious, steady run directly in front of them!

 

At the top of the hill I passed the Mile 13 marker, and then an unmarked timing mat which had to have been the halfway point. This is the first marathon I’ve ever done without at least a sign at the halfway point. Often there’s a big banner or something to run through, but it was clear enough I’d made it halfway. Time: 1:46:44—more than 3 minutes faster than my goal pace! I did some quick math in my head and determined that I could run an 8:45 pace from here on out and still meet my goal.

I was starting to feel the effect of so many miles under my feet but decided to press on at the pace I’d been running. If I crashed later on I’d have an even bigger cushion. Once again at the top of this hill we ran around a loop and then doubled back past the rest of the field before heading down a hill to the Schuylkill River at about Mile 16. From here it was basically one long out-and-back along the river to the finish. I held on to my 8:00-8:10 pace through Mile 17, eating a gel before every aid station but still worried that I was going to run out before the end of the race. I decided to keep consuming gels every time, then just deal with it after that. Worst-case scenario I could use the Nuun provided on the race course or grab a "fruit bar," offered at a few of the aid stations. I passed the overall race leader and then the women's leader heading back towards the finish, their day nearly done. They were absolutely flying!

At the aid station around Mile 17.7, some guy cut me off and I had to move quickly around him. Then a woman crossed behind me and passed me on the left, tripping me as she went by. Fortunately I was able to stay on my feet, but I felt a cramp in my left hamstring as I regained my balance. I told the woman to be more careful next time, and she said it was my fault for cutting her off. Whatever. I tried to shake off the cramp and kept running, distracting myself from my discomfort by looking for the Lindsays among the runners headed back towards the finish line.

I knew my watch wasn't accurate, but I'd have another chance to check my progress when I reached the 20-mile marker, now less than 2 miles away. After a few quiet miles along the river, the crowds along the course began to grow again, providing a much-needed boost! I ran through Mile 19 in 8:21 by my watch—my slowest mile yet, and slower than my goal pace. But I knew I had a lot of time in the bank; I just didn't know exactly how much. 

I slowed even more as I approached Mile 20, finally clicking through that barrier (on my watch) at an 8:23 pace. Still a little slower but probably not a problem. When would I see the official marker? The flags were barely higher than the heads of the runners ahead of me on the course; often I would see the clock below the flag before I spotted the mile marker. Finally it came into view, and I looked at the total time on my watch: 2:44:00. I had 56 minutes to run 6.2 miles. I could run a 9-minute pace and still beat my goal time. Shortly after this, I reached the turnaround. I was headed back toward the finish line, with less than 6 miles to go!

At the aid station at Mile 21.5, I consumed my last gel. With less than 5 miles to go, I hoped this wouldn't be a problem. I had consumed, I believed, 13 gels over the course of the race, plus one right before the start, more than I'd ever taken during a marathon. Surely this would be enough. (As it turned out, when I got back to my room I saw there was one more gel in my running vest, so I'd actually only consumed 12 during the race!) I ran Mile 22 in 8:39 by my watch, my slowest mile yet, but still faster than what I needed. I decided to let myself walk just a bit at each aid station, to make sure I got plenty of water (and a little break). 

Now I was getting text notifications on my watch. My training group was congratulating Lindsay on her finish. Text after text proclaimed that she had run a 3:08, a huge PR! This was great but I needed to see my stats! Despite this, I maintained my pace: 8:28 for Mile 23. Just over 2 miles left! Now the other Lindsay finished, with another PR: 3:14! More texts followed, filling up my watch with notifications and blocking the all-important pace field. I did manage to see my 8:38 time for Mile 24. I was going to make it. Just keep running, Munger!

When I reached the Mile 25 marker, people in the crowd started yelling "one mile to go!" In my head I corrected them: 1.2 miles. Do not neglect that last 0.2 miles! I also told myself I could run faster. I passed the official "1 mile to go" sign. Keep pushing! Would there be a 1K to go sign? 800 meters? No. The mile seemed to take an eternity, but I did manage to keep my pace up. My watch clicked Mile 26 in 8:34. Maybe a half-mile left? Finally I passed the Mile 26 marker. Where was the finish line?

At last I did see the finish arch, with its big clock, away in the distance. How could that tiny arch be less than two tenths of a mile away? Greta was here in the bleachers, cheering me on, but once again, I failed to see her. I was focused on the finish. I crossed the line. I could stop running. I stopped my watch. The time was 3:37:28 (officially 3:37:25). I had beaten my goal by 2:35. I had qualified for Boston by more than 12 minutes! My 18th marathon, at age 58, was my second fastest. 

I stumbled through the finisher area, collected my medal and Mylar blanket, and made my way to the family meetup area, where for the first time all day, I found my wife Greta waiting for me. It was a great day.

Glad to be done!

As I mentioned before, my running buddies also did well: The Lindsays, and Lon and Chris ahead of me, and Jenny behind me, with a Boston qualifier! Michele had a good race too, and Marc struggled but still managed to finish. It was a great day for all of us.

If you haven't have enough stats, head on over to Strava for the details on my race.

Race Recap: Around the Crown 10k

The Around the Crown 10k has become the premier running event in Charlotte. Yet despite the fact that it takes place just 20 miles down the road from where I live, somehow I managed to miss the first 6 runnings of the event. This year I decided I'd just sign up months in advance, so I'd have to run it!

Fast-forward to 6 days ago, when I was just getting back from a massive 6-week road trip. I wasn't feeling great, and I feared I may be picking up some sort of illness. Sure enough, the next morning, I barely managed to get out of bed, let alone join my running buddies for my first group run in nearly two months. I ended up missing three days of running, finally getting going on an easy 5-miler on Thursday. My race was on Sunday. Each day I felt just a little better, and by Saturday I felt like I could at least give the race a go. My watch tells the story with this graph of my HRV over the past week. 

This graph roughly correlates to how I felt this week

Even though I felt a lot better as I got up this morning, today's HRV of 44ms was still considerably lower than my healthy average of ~55ms. I had a bite to eat, collected my gear, and headed out the door at 6:15, in plenty of time to make the 30-minute drive to Charlotte and warm up for the 7:30 start. I was driving down I-77, jamming to some Talking Heads, when suddenly I noticed that a critical bit of my race kit was missing: My bib number! I knew there was probably some way to retrieve the number at the race start, but it would involve waiting in a bunch of lines and also some embarrassment. I did a quick calculation and figured I could turn around, get the number, and still make it to the race on time. I made a quick exit and headed home. By the time I was back on the road my ETA at the race start was 7:20. I'd have to park and make it to my corral in less than 10 minutes. Fortunately this was downtown Charlotte and there were parking lots everywhere, so I was pretty sure I could make it. And I did make it, but not in time for any sort of warm-up. Instead I just stood nervously in the start corral with 7,600 of my best friends.

The vibe was definitely a little tense at this point

I wasn't positioned quite at the front of my corral, but I figured that since I hadn't had a chance to warm up, this would probably end up being a good thing. I could run my way into race pace. It's a hilly race, and between that and coming off an illness, I doubted I'd be anywhere close to a PR anyways, so no worries about any of that. On the other hand, I hate doing races when I'm not going all-out, so once I got through the first mile, I planned to go as hard as I could to the finish.

The first mile of the race was basically flat as we made our way through city streets towards I-277, a short section of interstate that circles downtown Charlotte. I tried to keep my pace relatively easy while staying with the runners around me. If I was perfectly healthy I think I could run this race in under 7-minute mile pace, but today I'd be happy if I ended up with something around 7:30/mile. Mile 1: 7:28.

Next we headed down an onramp and then made a 180-degree turn to head east on I-277. Here I could see hundreds of runners stretched out ahead, as well as the runners "behind" me who were now above me on the overpass:

It was pretty cool to run on an Interstate that I've driven a lot!

The next two miles would trend downhill on I-277 as we ran along the south side of downtown Charlotte, then turned north and ran along the east side of the city center. I picked up the pace and began passing folks right and left. Every time we went under an overpass, there would be dozens of fans cheering us on with the usual "Worst Parade Ever" and "Hey Random Stranger -- You Got This" signs. I still chuckle when I see the same signs I've seen dozens of times before, so they do work! Mile 2: 7:09. Mile 3: 7:13.

I was prepared for Mile 4, which featured the biggest climb of the race, about 100 vertical feet in a half-mile. It was just after we started to head back west on the north side of the city. The mile marker to start the mile, everyone around me agreed, was out of place, around 3.2 miles in to the race. The hill didn't care. I told myself it was okay to go as slow as 8:00 per mile on the hill as long as I picked the pace back up at the top. The hill would end about 0.7 miles into Mile 4, and we'd have a third of a mile to recover. I passed quite a few people on the hill, thanks to a lot of hill training this summer in Santa Fe at 7,300 feet elevation. I did pick up the pace as I crested the hill, and had a 7:46 split for Mile 4.

Mile 5 gave us another chance to recover from the big hill, as it was mostly downhill. Here we exited the freeway and headed back onto city streets. 7:11. I knew there was one more hill, but I couldn't remember exactly where it was. That said, we were running out of real estate. It came at Mile 5.2. It wasn't as steep as the hill in Mile 4, but it was just as long, and I was more tired for this one. I reminded myself there was less than a mile to go, and willed myself on. I did manage to run Mile 6 a little faster than Mile 4, at 7:39. Now there was just one last corner, and one last straightaway to the finish. I put everything I had into it, then crossed the line.

My watch had the course a little short, at 6.12 miles. By my watch, my average pace was 7:28 / mile, which was under my revised post-illness goal. I'll take it. Officially my pace was 7:18 and my time was 45:20, 13th out of 130 in my age group. I'll use this as my baseline as I start to train for the Philadelphia Marathon, November 23. 

Afterward I met up with several of my running buddies. Everyone had a great time and everyone agreed that that Mile 3 marker was WAY long!

Planning to do a lot more running with these great folks in the coming months!

If you'd like more data, check out my Strava record of the race.

Duathlon Nationals, Omaha 2025

I’ve run the Sprint Duathlon National Championships a few times, and qualified for the world championships by finishing near the top of my age group. But due to COVID and other factors, I’ve never managed to get to the actual world championship event. So this year I decided to try to make a world team and then actually go to the championship! The race this year is in Omaha, and for some reason I wasn’t able to convince my wife or anyone else to join me here, so there are not really any photos of the event. But being here by myself does mean I have time to write a post about the race, so if you like to read, you’re in luck!

I grew up watching Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom on TV, so I was actually kind of excited to go to Omaha to race, which was actually sponsored by…you guessed it, Mutual of Omaha! They have a building in Omaha and everything!

[I was going to add a photo of the building but it turns out Blogger won’t let me do that on my phone. Just imagine a medium-sized building with a Mutual of Omaha sign on the top]

Anyways, I got to the race start this morning and set up my bike in the transition area. After a quick warm-up run we were soon lining up in the start area. The race has 3 legs: a 5k run, a 20k ride, and a 2.5k run. My plan was to run about a 6:45 pace on the first run. I wasn’t feeling great this morning but I hoped race-day adrenaline would carry me through. After I settled in to what felt like a good pace, I looked at my watch and saw I was running about 6:35 pace. Not bad. I wasn’t feeling great also passing quite a few runners who clearly had started off too fast, which is always a good feeling. Then my watch beeped and I glanced down at it: “Performance Condition: 11”. Eleven? I thought. Usually it doesn’t go any higher than three or four! Clearly something is wrong! I think the high performance condition was supposed to give me confidence but since I had never seen it this high, it was doing the opposite. I ended up running a 6:46 for the mile, but then things started to get tough. The same effort was showing up on my watch as a 7:00 pace. I did everything I could to bring the pace back down, but I didn’t want to blow up. I was still passing runners so I wasn’t exactly choking. Mile 2: 6:55. Now I just needed to hang on until I got to the bike. I was settled in behind a couple guys and I figured if I stayed with them we could team up on the ride, which was draft-legal. We cruised through Mile 3 in 6:59. Finally we were on the grass running towards transition. I stumbled and nearly fell on the uneven grass. My Hoka “supershoes” were not made for this! 

My plan for the bike was to not change shoes. I had put flat pedals on the bike so I could save time in transition—critical in this short race. I quickly snapped on my helmet and ran with my bike to the start of the course. Then I heard a spectator yelling “number 639, your helmet’s on backwards!” Really? Me? It was a new helmet and I hadn’t used it much, so I guess it was a possibility. I stopped and took it off, and sure enough, I had put the *@$& thing on backwards. I probably lost 30 seconds fixing it, losing any advantage I had gained by riding in my running shoes. Finally I got on the bike and got to riding. There were a couple guys near me so I decided to try to stick with them and see if we could work together. Unfortunately when we got to the first climb, both of them slowed way down, so I had to pass them, and they couldn’t keep up. I decided to ride on my own. At least there wasn’t any wind so it wasn’t terrible keeping up a decent pace. I was hoping for at least 20 mph on the ride and I was pretty close to that. The course features three U-turns, and you have to do three loops, which means you navigate these turns nine times. When I reached the second U-turn, a group of riders caught me so I decided to try to run with them. I could stay with them fairly easily until we reached any corner. Then the group would break apart and I would really have to work hard to get back with them. But I decided the trade-off in easier riding when we were together was worth it. 

Eventually the group broke up again and we lost two riders off the back, but there was still a solid trio that I was able to stay with for the entire ride. I finished the ride with a 20.7 mph average on a fairly hilly course, with 430 feet of climbing over the 20k. I definitely don’t think I could have done that riding solo, so I was glad for the assist. 

The nice thing about cyclists who catch you from behind is that you can probably beat them on the run—after all, you were ahead of them on Run 1! Also, my strategy of no shoe changes meant that I was first in our trio through transition. Run 2 was another out-and-back, and I went out at about a 7:00 pace. Once again, 6:45 pace wasn’t in the cards, but at least no one passed me on the run. I saw my two riding buddies at the turnaround and determined not to let them catch me in the final half of the run. I was able to pick up the pace slightly and pushed as hard as I could through the finish. I ended up averaging a 7:12 pace for the run, which was better than my last duathlon, so I was fairly satisfied with that. 

Overall, I ended up in fifth place out of 17 in my age group. I was over a minute behind the guy ahead of me, so I don’t think my helmet gaffe cost me a place, but it was still pretty ridiculous! 

This placement is good enough to qualify for worlds next year, is in Abu Dhabi, so that’s pretty cool! I’m definitely planning on going, so I’d better start practicing that all-important helmet mount! 

Here are links to my Strava records of the event

Run 1

Ride

Run 2

Race recap: Little Sugar Creek Parkrun #7

For the last several years, I've been making an effort (between my various other running endeavors) to run a sub-20-minute 5k. I've run sub-20 many times before, but the last time I did was in 2016 at the Runway 5K in Charlotte, at the age of 49. I haven't done it once since I turned 50.

For the last several months, in support of that effort, I've been making an effort to shed some weight. I gained quite a bit of weight last summer as we traveled in the Northwest for 6 weeks with relatively little opportunity for me to exercise. I've managed to shed 15 pounds since then and am currently the lightest I have been since 2016 (I don't really keep records of my weight so that's a bit of a guess). But I did use an app to help with the weight loss effort this time so I have tracked my weight pretty consistently for the last six months. Here's a graph of my progress:

I ran a 5k on February 1 and got a 20:39. Having lost 5 pounds since then and feeling pretty good about my training, I figured today would be a good day to try another one: my favorite road race for fast 5ks in the area, the Little Sugar Creek Parkrun. It's free, nearly pancake-flat and is an honest 5k distance. 

My friend Chas also wanted to do the race today, so we met at the course this morning 40 minutes before the event. After a 2-mile warmup together, it was time to change into my race shoes, do a few strides, and get ready to race.

After a quick intro from the race director, we were started with a "3-2-1-Go!" and off we went.

I had chatted with some online friends before the race to decide whether to run conservatively or start right out at sub-20 pace. The consensus: GO FOR IT!

As I started out I began to regret this decision. I was thinking "this is insane. There is no way I'm going to come anywhere close to my sub-20." Then around 800 meters in I looked at my watch. I was running 6:07 pace -- I only need a 6:26 for sub-20. There were three runners ahead of me: Chas, the legendary local runner Chuck Engle (who has run over 500 marathons, typically sub-3 hours), and another guy who I'm calling "Da-Da" because he ran past his son at the start, who cheerfully yelled "GO DA-DA." Chas and Chuck were quickly vanishing into the distance but I was maintaining a bit of contact with Da-Da. 

I decided to back off a little bit and let Da-Da increase his lead on me. Da-Da must have also felt he went out too fast because he wasn't gaining much ground. I got through Mile 1 in 6:21.

I managed to keep the pace right around 6:26 per mile until we reached the bridge halfway through the race. The course turns sharply right, crosses the bridge, then does a 180 turn and crosses back and does a sharp left to head back to the start. This slowed me down; I was now running about a 6:30 pace. Da-Da was stubbornly about 30 meters ahead of me. I finished Mile 2 in 6:30. So if I was going to get my sub-20 I was going to need to pick the pace back up to 6:26 for the remainder of the race.

Unfortunately my body didn't seem to want to go that fast. I was gasping for every breath, and Da-Da gradually increased his gap on me. I negotiated with myself and settled on a 6:40 pace. Somehow I held this through the end of Mile 3. Just 0.1 to go! I turned the final corner toward the finish and gave it everything I had. I think that was roughly the 6:26 I should have been running for the last mile. I held on through the finish line and stopped my watch at 20:14. 

While this wasn't sub-20, as it turns out this was my best 5k since I turned 50. I think I just might be able to crack that sub-20 this season. The only challenge is that my next big event is an epic trail run in the Grand Canyon. On March 21 I'm planning to do a 30+ mile run from the South Rim, across the river, up to Ribbon Falls halfway up the North side of the canyon, and back. So my next 5k likely won't be until April, and who knows what the Grand Canyon run will take out of me! I will do what I can to recover as quickly as possible from the Grand Canyon, and I should have time to do a couple more 5ks in late spring. So it won't be easy, but it will definitely be a good experience no matter what. What's the point of running if you don't try epic things?