Tag: ray ingaglio

by Ray ingaglio

Date: May 5th 2024

Distance: 26.2

Official Time: 3:10:52

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11339183069

Training

I started my build up for this race the week of Thanksgiving, 2023. I built up coming off the Harrisburg Marathon with weeks of 20, 30, and 40 miles before I started adding 10% each week. I decided to run Jack Daniels 2Q program, as I liked the flexibility of the workouts, which fit in great with my family’s hectic schedule (we now have 2 girls under 2 years-old, and I just started nursing school while working 30 hours / week). At the end of January, I was experiencing some lower tibial pain. I decided to stop running entirely for a week after coming off my then highest volume week ever of 57 miles. This ended up being a great decision. I scaled back up pretty quickly and didn’t miss any other 2Q workouts, and the pain never flared up. I think running on the road/snow in trail shoes after a snowstorm caused it.

I averaged 50-60 miles for the majority of the block which was about 15-20 miles more per week than my Fall buildup.

I had two key workouts that really gave me confidence going into the race. The first was a repeat of a route that I did in my fall prep except I went from 20 miles at a 8:40 pace to 22 miles at a 7:39 pace, including a 6:45 last mile where I pushed because I felt like I had gas in the tank. The second was my last long run before tapering. This was a 19 miler that featured 1350 feet of vertical gain which is substantially more than the entirety of the Pittsburgh Marathon course. Average pace was 8:05, which was a bit slower than I wanted, but the elevation was brutal. At the time, I honestly thought to myself that I am an idiot and I should’ve picked a flatter route because this didn’t really give me confidence going into the taper.

Pre-Race

I said this in last year’s report for Pittsburgh, and it bears repeating: 10/10 organization and race experience. Plenty of bathrooms, quick and easy gear check, easy access to corrals, such a relaxed pre-race experience. The only stressful part of this morning was coordinating a photo with a group of other local runners for a pre-race picture. Ironically, I was the one who suggested the meeting area, and I was the only one who went to the wrong spot.

Race

Race strategy coming into the race was to run at a 7:15 pace and shoot for a final time of 3:10, with as close to even splits as possible.

Miles 1-11

One of my favorite things about the half and full in Pittsburgh is that they set off fireworks right after the gun start and after the start of each subsequent corral. My wife ran the half and this was a major selling point to her. I love how the excitement isn’t reserved for just the first corral. The first 11 miles vary between flat and rolling as you go up and down a few bridges. During this period I clocked miles between 7:07 and 7:15. For all of training and race day, I went with Tailwind powder for my nutrition. I absolutely LOVE it. I was concerned that carrying 2-750 ml soft flasks in my flip belt with 3 scoops (scoop has 25 carbs) would be annoying and cumbersome, but throughout training I found it wasn’t that annoying and I felt super well fueled and hydrated throughout my training runs. I took roughly 1/3 of the flasks every 3.5 miles.

Miles 12-14

The part that everyone talks about and fears in Pittsburgh is Birmingham Bridge and Forbes Ave. Last year I picked a hill nearby that simulated the Birmingham Bridge and strategically placed it at the end of my long runs. This year I went a step further and had hilly routes for 90% of both my easy runs and my 2Q workouts. This paid off BIG. Going into the race I told myself to not burn my candle out in this stretch and be ok with 8min or 8:15min miles. I ended up running 7:26, 7:31, and 7:16 for miles 12,13, and 14 which featured 41,102, and 43 feet of vertical gain. I did moderate the effort on the inclines, but I think this was a spot where the carb loading paid off from a power production standpoint. I also think my final key workout that I deemed “too hilly” paid off. I was feeling really good here. There was a small group of people midway up Forbes Avenue, and I turned to them, made a “eating-with-a-spoon” gesture, and said, “I eat hills for breakfast!”

Miles 15-19

This part of the course was a little bit quieter, but I enjoyed running through parts of the city that I hadn’t previously experienced. At about this time, I started to notice that there was a particular spectator who was showing up solo at various points of the race with a small sauté pan and wooden spoon to cheer people on. I didn’t see any bicycle, so I’m not sure how he was getting from point to point so quickly. My times for these miles ranged between 7:07 and 7:28.

Mile 20

Mile 20 features the highest point on the course–the last substantial incline–after which is a steady decline to the finish. It was around this point that I was starting to feel the effort become more difficult. I had music on the entire race, and I paused it for about 20 seconds. I had forgotten that someone I run with weekly was coincidentally going to be in Pittsburgh visiting a friend. Luckily my music was off because I heard him say my name and cheer me on and that gave me quite a boost when I needed it most. Clocked my slowest mile here (7:39). The “Pan Man” showed up 2 more times in this stretch.

Miles 21-26 (Race #2)

The mental boost from my buddy really helped me reset, and I realized that I actually felt pretty good for being 20+ miles into a marathon. At this point, the wall hits a lot of people, but I never ran into that issue. Shoutout yet again to Featherstone Nutrition on IG. I followed her carb loading calculator as always and I am now 3-for-3 on not bonking nor really hitting a wall in my marathons. The “Pan Man” made another appearance and I said to him, “ You are f****** everywhere!” His last appearance was around mile 25, and he seemed to be with a group of friends at this point, so this time I said, “Hot damn–it’s the man with the pan!” They thought it was funny; I thought it was funny; my wife when I told her did not think it was funny.

I was clocking miles at 7:15 or better at this point. I was slowly running people down, one-by-one, as I was surging at a time when others struggled. This was a mental boost for me, and I ground out my fastest mile at mile 24 (6:57), which had a major elevation drop of -175ft. Mile 25 took 7:21, and Mile 26 was 7:08.

The Finish 26-26.4

I unfortunately did not run a perfect course (who ever does lol) so my finish was .4 miles according to my watch. I clocked a 6:07 pace with a top pace of 5:16. The finishing stretch was super crowded as the half and full marathon course came back together. I had to weave a bit but finished strong and on my feet. I crossed the line with an official time of 3:10:52, which was almost exactly a 10 min PR from the nearly pancake-flat Harrisburg Marathon.

Post- Race

The finish line feeling is what I train for. The feeling of all the hard work paying off. All of the many early morning runs in the dark, the below freezing temperatures (including some in single digits) and lifting 3x a week with a heavy leg day weekly. I steadily climbed from 238^th place to 181^st by the finish, jumping 25 places in the last 10k. I was patient and executed my plan to perfection, all while having the most fun throughout the race that I’ve ever had.

I am constantly driven by me desire to find my true potential because I have already surpassed what I thought my potential was when I started my running journey less than two years ago in August of 2022. Next up for me is the Philly Marathon this November, where the goal is to BQ (sub 3 hrs). Realistically, this won’t actually qualify me a spot in Boston 2026 because of even faster cutoff times.

Pittsburgh has been an absolute joy to run in, so maybe in 2025 I’ll run it again and truly punch my ticket to Boston?

a race report by ray ingaglio

Ray Ingaglio ran the Philadelphia Marathon (26.2 miles) on November 20th, 2022 in 4:02:04, just a couple months after welcoming his first child into the world!

Click HERE to follow Ray on Strava, and HERE to see his splits for the race.

Training

December 16th, 2021: I recommitted myself to health and fitness. In the past 7 years since graduating college, I have been up and down with my weight and my overall fitness. I was 188 pounds, and I committed to losing 25. At the time, I knew that my body couldn’t handle running without injury without losing weight. I got down to 163 by mid-June. At the same time, I started running 2-3 times a week for 6-9 miles total. On July 4th weekend, down in Wildwood, NJ, I ran 6 miles in just over an hour–a max effort at the time and my longest run since 2009. My head started to contemplate checking a marathon off my bucket list. My wife was pregnant with our first child, and I said to myself, “Do it now, or you will find a million BS excuses not to.” I sat down with my wife and explained the time commitment this endeavor would take, especially Sunday mornings which were my long, slow run days. She agreed and training began immediately.

I looked through different training plans and settled on the 16-week Runner’s World sub-4:30 plan. I chose this plan because it called for 4 running days / week. I refused to give up weightlifting, which I enjoyed way more than running at the time (now it is pretty even between running and lifting). Training went pretty smoothly overall. I worked up to peak training weeks of 30-36 miles which included a final long run of 20 miles in Philadelphia on the latter half of the course. Training was overall enjoyable because after the first few weeks, each week’s long run was a new distance PR for me. Before the training block, my longest run ever was 7 miles. I did miss about 2.5 weeks of training during the block. Mid-September my daughter was born, and I lost about 3 runs during that time. Mid-October I got COVID, which knocked me out for two weeks. This was a turning point for me mentally in the block.

I was pretty confident from the start that with proper training, sub-4:30 was doable. I had the Reading Hospital Half Marathon on October 16th. After not running for two weeks, I did a Peloton class that Friday. I was absolutely torched lung-wise. I said to myself, “No way I can do the half marathon.” On Saturday, I woke up, lifted as usual, and that night decided to go run a 5k to see if maybeeeee I could do the half marathon, as I was seeing people post about it and the FOMO was getting heavy. I ended up running a recent 5k near PR albeit with an elevated heart rate. Signups were open until midnight so I signed up. I ran a 1:59:17, which was encouraging, since sub-2 hours was a goal for the block to hit 4:30 in the full. This was a turning point because mentally I started to believe that 4:30 wasn’t a good enough goal for me. I like a goal that is seemingly out of reach, a goal that is something to work towards. I decided that sub 4:15 was my new goal with a dream/stretch goal of sub 4 hours.

I tapered pretty drastically… by accident. I thought it was a good idea to do a low-weight, high-rep leg day the first taper week. After not lifting legs for 10 weeks due to running volume, I didn’t run that entire week due to severe DOMS. 0/10 would not recommend.

I carb-loaded according to the free calculator by Featherstone Nutrition. 600g a day for 3 days leading up to the race (I only did it for 2). I actually gained back about 7 pounds throughout the training block, as I was super-focused on recovering properly and staying injury free. I’m 5’ 6”, and my weight was 171 pounds on race day.

pre-race

Pre-Race was definitely different than I imagined. I figured I was being very conservative and would be sitting around waiting for the race to start–this was not the case. I got in line for security at 6:15. I didn’t get through the fence until 6:45. After a porta-potty stop and gear check, it was already 7:10. (The race was officially supposed to start at 7 a.m.). I realized I didn’t have to stress at all because all corrals started very late. My designated corral started 20 minutes late. I found the warming tent, did my normal warmup, took my first gel, and started the race at 7:32.

THe Race

My race strategy overall was to run my dream-goal pace (9:08) pretty consistently. I did not want to go out too fast nor too slow. I ran my half marathon the same way. I picked my pace and did what I could to hold onto it to hit my desired time

Miles 1-8: It was pretty cold the whole race, but I honestly didn’t notice too much. Other than splashing water on my hand in water stations, I was pretty comfy. I had compression shorts, running shorts, long-sleeve dry fit, regular running hat, and a pair of gloves. Gloves were shed after the first water station. As someone who is 95% a solo runner, I was not expecting to feel so boosted mentally by the crowd atmosphere. It made most of the miles fly by, and I was so calm, happy, and grateful to be there running the race without any major injuries.

I saw some really good signs throughout the race. My favorite one was early on in the city: “Girlfriend: Hey, do you want to run the Philly Marathon with me? Boyfriend: *just literally a picture of Ben Simmons*” 

Miles 9-18: Running the course 2 weeks before felt really helpful here. I knew the elevation changes and tracking to mile 18; I was slightly ahead of goal pace. At this point, I only had one mile that was above 9:10, and it was the mile (9:28) with the Fairmount Park hill. (Worst on the course, but not terrible really). Up until this point, I was listening to the Trilogy Mixtapes by the Weeknd. This was a good choice as it’s slower pace R&B and hip hop.

Mile 19-24: At mile 19, a mini panic set in. I use gels every 3 miles. I packed enough to have 2 extra with the assumption that I was getting a gel at 3 different spots per the race information. At Mile 18, I had used my last gel as I must’ve lost a few on the way. I panic called my brother and had him lookup what mile markers gels were supposed to be given out. I missed them entirely at mile 12. (Maybe because of my late start?) I asked my brother, who was meeting me at mile 22, to find a running shop in Manayunk with gels or as a last resort something carb heavy. About 5 minutes later, I hit the first gel stop. I was able to grab a total of 2 which eased my mind.

I feel like I never really hit the wall. Don’t get me wrong, the race got much harder at this point. I saved a 90 minute David Goggins Youtube video that I frequently listen to for the end of the race. That helped me push through as my legs were feeling very tired. My brother ended up finding a banana and other food, but at the last gel stop, I grabbed three so I was fully stocked for the finish. My splits for this section were between 9:12 and 9:31. I realized around these miles that I was about .2-.3 miles off on my watch compared to the course. I was committed to finishing as strong as possible

Mile 25-Finish: With about 2 miles to go, I was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I felt that I could finish strong. My mantra throughout the end of the race, when it started to get tough, was stolen from David Goggins. “What if”… “What if I push through here”… “What if I can hit sub 4 after running a 1:59:17 half”…

Since I hadn’t run the perfect course, I knew that an official sub 4 was out of the question. My brain was too tired to do the math on where I stood pace-wise on my watch distance. I ran 9:06, and for the last half mile I had a strong “sprint” at 8:00 pace. On my watch, I had hit 26.2 just under 4 hours, although my official race time was 4:02:04.

post-race

Over. The. Fucking. Moon. Extremely. Satisfied.

Crushed my initial goal I set out for and trained for. Hit my dream goal (on my watch). Couldn’t have been happier with my effort and result. 

I couldn’t really do a cooldown; I think the fast finish did more damage to my legs than the entire race beforehand. I walked (hobbled) for about 30 minutes to the car which was the first time all day I experienced a side stitch ironically. I had a buddy locally who let me use his shower and then enjoyed a nice lunch at Maggiano’s in KOP.

My legs are still not 100% recovered. On Sunday and Monday, I was having pain and tightness all over including not being able to bend my left leg fully. After those 2 days, all of my joint/ligament/tendon issues went away, but still, my quads aren’t back to normal. I ran/walked 2 miles yesterday, and I was still recovering. Luckily muscle damage recovers much quicker than other tissue. I attribute this to my weightlifting background. I run heavy, but my muscles are able to absorb impacts putting less stress elsewhere.

As someone who always strives when working towards a goal, I was already thinking about what my next goal was going to be. I don’t have anything scheduled, but it’s going to be another marathon with a sub-3:30 goal. I feel as if I have so much more to give and more to grow as a runner. Personally, I enjoy the length of the marathon as a metaphor for life. The cheesy saying “It’s a marathon, not a sprint” is so true in my eyes. 

Hard work consistently over time breeds results, not only in running, but in life in general!