Race Report: PF Chang’s Rock and Roll Full Marathon

Last Sunday, I ran the PF Chang’s Rock and Roll event at the full marathon distance.  The Competitor group runs the Rock and Roll series of events, and since PF Chang’s is headquartered here in Phoenix, they’re the title sponsor for the races that occur here every January.  Everyone here just calls the run PF Chang’s, which I’m sure the Competitor group absolutely loves, speaking from a marketing perspective.

Since PF Chang’s is the largest and one of the older half and full marathon distance events in the valley, it’s often considered our hometown race, and most runners in this area have done one or both of the distances at least once or twice.  This was my second running of the full marathon distance,* and Chris and I have each run the half marathon course 2-3 times in the past as well.

For the 2015 race, I was planning for this to be my full marathon distance for the year,** so I signed up for it early in the season; this helped keep me focused as my training season progressed, but it also helped me avoid the costly price increases that go along with the larger events like this one.  While larger, established races like this generally come with the perks of being well organized and giving you a great race experience, they can be much more costly than runs with a smaller field, so it helps to commit early and sign up while the costs are relatively low.

Given the size of the field (2500 finishers for the full marathon this year and 11,000 for the half – holy crapballs, right?), the race organizers make you visit the expo in the days before the event to pick up your packet, including race number, timing chip, and event t-shirt.*** The expo also allows you to funnel through a sea of booths set up by random organizations trying to sell you crap sometimes related to running, albeit a bit tenuously, in some cases.

The expo is open on Friday and Saturday, with the races running on Sunday; although in the past, I’ve tried to hit the expo on Friday, we opted to go early on Saturday morning this year to try to beat the crowds.  To avoid the ridiculous parking fees near the Phoenix Convention Center ($12? Seriously?), we drove downtown to eat at Matt’s Big Breakfast, a great breakfast and lunch spot in downtown Phoenix.****

Noms!

Parking near Matt’s is free if you find a good space, so after shoveling down around a million calories, we opted to stroll the ¾ of a mile to the Convention Center.  We ended up at the expo just before the opening time of 9am.  There was a line of people waiting to get in the door, so we chilled for just a few moments while the line to dissipated, and we were in!

“Nothing new on race day!”

Yell, Go Amy!

After moving out of the expo, we strolled back to our parking space near Matt’s, wandering through the stalls of the Phoenix Public Market on our way.  We headed back home, to spend the rest of the day relaxing and doing laundry.

We are go for the marathon, Flight!

When I signed up for PF Chang’s, my goal was to beat the 4 hour mark, and until the last month of training, I felt reasonably solid with that goal.  As mentioned in an earlier race report (linked here), I hit my expected time at the Gilbert Half Marathon in late November, and through mid-December, things continued to look good, with the exception of a few random aches and pains cropping up here and there.  In mid-December, however, things slid back a bit.  When we traveled to San Francisco for Christmas, my immune system took a hit, and I came back with a decent head cold that lingered for another week before it finally went away.  I ended up taking a two week break from exercise of any kind (save walking around) and started my training plan up again at T-minus two weeks until race day.  The first week back in training was pretty rough; although I finished my runs, they generally weren’t completely on pace, and I could tell that my endurance had really taken a hit.

I talked with Coach and reevaluated my plan for race day just a bit.  While I’d still shoot for a 4 hour finish and be thrilled if I hit that, I also added in a backup goal of beating my previous marathon time and setting a new Personal Record.  Going into this race, my PR was right around 4:13, which I set at the Tucson Marathon in December 2013.  If I was able to do this, I’d be happy.

Race day started early with my alarm going off around 4:30am and Chris attempting to make a sign for use along the course.

Bubble letters are hard.

I planned to get to the venue super early, just in case anything happened.  Thankfully, everything went smoothly including the drive down, parking the car at the Arizona Center, and strolling the last ½ mile to the start line.  Since we were so early, we found the CityScape management building open, and we grabbed a seat in some comfy chairs to relax for a bit.

We chatted with a few other runners for awhile, then I headed out for a short warm-up.  When the day eventually dawned, it was clear as a bell and in the 50s, perfect for marathoning.  Several other folks I knew were running the marathon, including my friend Megan (remember her wedding in Seattle last August?  Click here to see it again!) in her first attempt at the distance.  Although I didn’t see Megan on race day, I was able to get a hug from her wife Kristen, and we were able to catch up later in the week while they were still in town.

Megan and Kristen, ready to go!

There's Megan, all the way on the left, about 2/3 of the way back.

Here goes nuthin!

I asked Chris to meet me a few times during the course, once around mile 9 and once around mile 15, both for moral support and to hand me a new bottle of OSMO, my sports drink of choice.  When I saw him at 9, I was still doing pretty well, cruising along at a decent pace and still on track to meet my 4:00 goal.

Looking good for now!

I was still hitting my goal pace at the half marathon point, but I knew my body wasn’t in the right shape to maintain the effort needed on the back half of the course.  My pace slowed down quite a bit, but I kept plugging along, making headway in the right direction.  By the time Chris saw me at mile 15, near downtown Scottsdale, it was pretty clear I was not going to be hitting my goals for the day.

Slowing down…

Although I wasn’t able to finish as fast as I wanted, overall, my time was a still respectable (for me, at least) 4:21 and change, making me the 388^th women out of the 1126 that completed the full marathon.  Overall, the day was gorgeous, the course was fun, and the crowd support (both my own personal cheer section and the general mass of spectators) was incredible; since the event winds through several neighborhoods, lots of “regular people” come out to cheer on the runners, and getting high-fives from little kids while you’re running always makes me happy.

A massive thank you to Chris for always being my support crew and to Coach Luis for once again training me through this madness.  A huge thank you to Four Peaks Brewery as well, for having delicious food for the after-run feast, including Sirius Black on tap!  What?!  Right?

Even more noms!

Later!

Amy

* The other was in 2009, and I finished with a time of 5:43.

** Well, technically, I was counting this as my “2014 marathon,” since it occurs so close to the end of the previous calendar year.

*** Most importantly, some would say.

**** It’s been on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, so you know it’s a quality establishment.