Mr. Seebode, one of Oratory Prep’s teachers, ran the Philadelphia Marathon on November 19. He finished the race with a blazing 3 hours 2 minutes and 58 seconds, a massive PR. This time was over 36 minutes faster than his previous record of 3 hours 39 minutes and 20 seconds achieved at the Atlantic City Marathon in 2021.
Going into this race, Mr. Seebode had a couple of goals. One of his goals was to run the whole marathon without stopping and his other goal was to break 3 hours and 15 minutes. For Mr. Seebode to obtain these goals he had to prepare for months before the race day. He began training for the race in July but was already running the entire year, racking up around 2,000 miles in 2023. During these months of training, Mr. Seebode was hitting a total of about 60 miles each week including two 20-mile runs.
On November 19, Mr. Seebode arrived in Philadelphia and he was ready to run. Before the marathon started he experienced some stress due to the crowded environment and the rush to get to the line. Once the race began, all Mr. Seebode could do was rely on his rigorous training and run fast. He made sure he was hydrated throughout the race, using a salt solution to replace the salt he was losing from sweat. At one point during the race, however, the salt solution got in his eye, breaking his focus. Besides this one incident, he had no other significant problems. After crossing the finish line, he was happy it was over but was also proud of himself for his good time.
As Mr. Seebode reflects on this great race, he has noticed some areas that he can improve on. One of these areas that he could improve on next time is to run farther distances as he builds up for the race. He realized that during the marathon, miles 20 to miles 26 were the most difficult due to never running that far during training. He hopes to implement 20+ mile runs into the next workout schedule to make it easier to hold his pace.
Mr. Seebode is planning on running a marathon in the foreseeable future and hopes he can use what he learned from this race to break 3 hours next time. This has been a goal of Mr. Seebode for a while because he will qualify for the Boston Marathon if accomplishes it. The Omega staff wishes Mr. Seebode the best of luck in accomplishing this goal and congratulates him on his race this November.
