P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon Race Report

For much of Sunday's P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon, Phoenix's recognizable Camelback Mountain loomed in the distance on the course. For the 37,000 runners competing in the full and half marathons, the mountain stood as a symbol of reaching the summit of a remarkable athletic achievement For me, the mountain also represented a personal challenge to reach new heights by finishing the 26.2 mile race in 4 hours or less.

A sub 4-hour marathon has been a target of mine for some time, but it wasn't until I ran a personal best time at the Victory Junction Half Marathon in early December that I began to seriously consider going for the four-hour marathon mark in Phoenix. I incorporated some speedwork into my training plan and following a PR in a New Year's Resolution 5K run, I believed 4 hours in Phoenix was a realistic possibility.

To eclipse the 4-hour mark exactly, I needed to run each mile of the marathon in 9 minutes, 9 seconds. For good measure, and to build a cushion for the last few gruelling miles when pace times inevitably slow, my goal was to run at a steady 9-minute per mile pace. I logged my first mile in 9:05 and proceeded to run 14 of the next 17 miles under 9-minute goal pace.

I reached the half marathon mark in 1 hour, 55 minutes, 5 minutes ahead of the projected 4-hour pace. Over the next eight miles (miles 14-21), I increased my time cushion to nearly 6 minutes, but I knew that I would have to tap into those reserves before the race would end.

Then, over the final five miles, it hit -- the wall, and the time came to tap into those reserves. My pace slowed considerably. Mile 22 in 9:35. Mile 23 in 9:43. Mile 24 in 9:45. My legs hurt. My mind wandered and wondered, how much farther to the next mile marker? Prayers were uttered.

The last two miles were the hardest, toughest and longest. Mile 25 in 10:27. Mile 26 in 10:26. My time cushion that was once nearly 6 minutes was down to less than 2 minutes. But only two-tenths of a mile separated me from the sub 4-hour marathon finish. As I rounded the final turn at Arizona State's Sun Devil Stadium, I summoned what little energy and strength I had remaining to cross the finish line in an official time of 3 hours, 58 minutes, 11 seconds.

Following the race, I was too exhausted physically and mentally to appreciate the fact that I had scaled the 4-hour summit. The feelings of accomplishment didn't begin to sink in until the plane ride back to Raleigh yesterday. The P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon was by far my most complete race to date, from the training (adding speedwork), to my race-day strategy (maintaining a steady pace rather than going out too fast) to post-race recovery (walking and icing).

The flat course no doubt helped me reach my goal, as did the unseasonably cool (OK, downright cold) temperatures. The temperature at the start was only 32 degrees -- which I learned later was the coldest temperature on record in Phoenix in 17 years. Despite the cold, the skies were clear and sunny for the race, and temperatures reached a high in the low 50s. It was warmer back home in North Carolina (70s) over the weekend than it was in Phoenix (50s), which made me wonder, isn't this supposed to be the Valley of the Sun?

I guess I should stop trying to plan warm weather destinations for winter marathons, because the same thing happened to me at the Disney World Marathon last January. I was greeted by similar conditions there -- unseasonably cold weather for Orlando in January and a temperatures in the low 30s at the start. Hopefully, I'll get some good springtime weather for the inaugural Georgia Marathon at the end of March, which is my next step on the 50-50-50 Challenge.