Pittsburgh Marathon (a belated report)

The background
My memories of the Pittsburgh marathon start as a kid, watching it on TV because my dad would always have it on—it was a big deal to the city so it was always televised. In college, I volunteered at a water stop around mile 23 for a couple years--in my hazy state early on a Sunday morning, I was impressed with those runners, and no doubt wondered who these crazies were who would choose to run that far. Sadly, not long after I started running marathons, the Pittsburgh marathon lost its sponsor and went away. I always said I’d run it if they brought it back.

The training
I found out the race was coming back not long after finding out I was pregnant. I was due in November- I wondered if I could get ready for it in May? I didn’t put any pressure on myself but always had it in the back of my head during the many preggo miles that I ran in 2008. I knew that I’d be able to do it only if I was able to run or exercise through a lot of my pregnancy and come back quickly. I kept up “long” runs through September, even running the Parks Half, but stopped running by early October. I kept up with walking and cross-training and picked up the running again in January, when Erik was about 5 weeks old. By this time, my sister Robyn had also decided to run Pittsburgh and kept asking me when I was going to register. I was still a bit worried whether I could get ready but she finally convinced me I should go ahead and sign up, and we became virtual training partners- keeping tabs on each other through the cold months of training.

I joined the Speed Development Program and actually did almost every track workout. I moved up through the pace groups as I got some fitness back. I ran a few races- the RRCA 10 miler (predicted a 4:11 marathon) and the Country Road Run 5 miler (predicted a 4:15 marathon). I got in two 20-mile training runs and many miles pushing the stroller, but overall was fairly light on the mileage compared with previous marathon training cycles. Special thanks to Paul for enabling me to get those runs in, and to Michelle for joining me on most of my long runs.

The plan
Leading up to the race, I thought a lot about what my strategy should be. I thought I'd love to run 10s (for ~4:20 finish) but my long runs were 10:30+ pace and I doubted I could really go too much faster than that. I thought the more realistic goal was 4:30. Despite that, I decided I would run the first 6 miles at 10:00 pace and decide from there how I felt. Robyn said she’d run with me since she didn’t have a particular goal (but wanted to beat her 4:25 first marathon from a few years ago).

The race - May 3
We barely made it through the port-a-potty line before the start, but made it back to line up between the 4:20 and 4:30 pace groups. Thanks to the crowds, we held back to a 10:06 in the first mile, then started to click off 9:40s, 9:45s. I said to Robyn at mile 5, ‘Remind me later when I blow up that this is all my fault for going out too fast.’ We made a half-hearted attempt to slow down (ran a 9:54 probably due to a bridge uphill) then it was back to consistent 9:45s. We were both feeling good, chatting away, and the miles went by quickly. My dad and Robyn's husband were spectating by bike and were able to get around the course to cheer and take pictures. They were a great boost! We got a nice pick-up at mile 10 where Paul, Erik, and my mom had trekked over to spectate. It had started raining a bit at this point but quite honestly the weather was PERFECT- overcast and 50s, with just a bit of rain to keep us nice and cool. We held our pace through the half, slowed a bit over the approximate 1 mile hill at mile 14 (really, the only real hill in the race), and then motored on to mile 20. We couldn’t believe how good we felt, and both agreed we were running the right pace. We hit a screamin’ downhill at mile 24ish, which we hammered in 8:20 (my quads would pay for a week) then to the homestretch. It was mile 25 when I realized I really hadn’t taken in enough calories but knew I could hold on for another mile.

About a tenth mile from the end, I saw Paul, Erik and my mom again- Paul offered me Erik to carry to the finish, but after a few steps of running with him, I realized that was NOT going to work (it was too far to run with a baby!) so I had backtrack a bit to flag down my mom and pass him back. Then Robyn suggested we sprint it in (I think she must have been holding back some- that was quite a kick she had!) so I did my best to stay with her and we crossed together in 4:16!!! I was ecstatic about our time, and how GOOD I felt the whole race. I only started to flag in mile 25 and that was energy/food related, and my body felt surprisingly good throughout the race. Despite my initial ambivalence on what pace to run, this was probably one of my most perfectly paced races.

Conclusion
This is a great marathon though I admit to being biased since it’s my hometown (and we also got super lucky with the weather—it can be warm this time of year). The course is fast— small rolling hills (mostly bridges) in the first half, one real hill towards the middle, and a downhill/flat finish. It takes you through many diverse neighborhoods in the ‘Burgh and people really come out to support the race. I definitely will have this on my calendar again in the future!