Here are some facts about what happened today leading to a new PR

Had an overall good lead up to the race and had no significant downtime or injuries during training. The last few days before the race I loaded up with ultra-fuel though it tastes like something else. I've grown to tolerate it. Race morning all I had was little more ultra-fuel a couple of hours before and some keebler peanut butter crackers, so I was living it up.

It was friggin windy and chilly at the start, and I hoped that wouldn't be the conditions throughout the race. Thankfully it wasn't. Race started while it was still dark, and it was a bit of a cluster f- at the beginning. I thought I could go thru the half in about 1:40+ or so. The first six miles went by like nothing. I decided to let myself go with what the course was giving me as opposed to trying to stick to exact mile paces. I also knew I would epically blow up if I just ran all out. I never felt like I was redlining it during the first half, but I was pushing the pace more than I had planned to. I did get to the half in about 1:39.

Miles 13 thru 20 have always been important for me in a marathon as the doldrums can start to set in where you can lose it, and that great first half will mean nothing. The miles clipped by thankfully. I knew at this point a PR was possible and likely if I didn't run stupid and/or blow up. I was using my pre-planned paces more at this point as I felt I had extracted all I could from the course and just wanted to finish well. At around this time the course started to bite back a bit as the (down)hills were feeling like punch to my right quad with every stride. It wasn't causing any great slowdown, so I just dealt with it and pressed on. By mile 22 I was doing that weird marathon mental math and trying to at least stay on an 8 minute pace til the end. Here are my splits for the last few miles:

Mile 22- 7:33

Mile 23 - 7:39

Mile 24 - 7:22

Mile 25 - 7:38

Mile 26 - 7:40

last .31 miles - 7:01

Turns out my final time was 3:16, so it was a minor negative split. I came in to the race thinking sub 3:20 was possible. The course itself (especially the first half in the mountains and canyons) is just beautiful if you can even take a moment to soak it in. Well -organized etc.. And along with the standard post-marathon goodies, there are a number of ice cream choices too which was great. Went back to Vegas post-race and jumped into the pool with my son which acted as part of my recovery too. Here is shot of me at the finish. Would definitely want to do this race again.

Congrats on the PR, Ric.

Smart race, and way to manage the quad vs. hills.

Congratulations, Ric-G! You need to change your sig line to show that fantastic new PR! 

Congrats on the PR, looks like you run a smart race.

Pushed the pace a bit more than planned on the first half, ended with a negative split?  Nicely done!

I really like your splits at the end.  They show a slight fade but certainly no big slow down.  Your best race will always be run with an even or possibly +/- 60 second positive or negative split.  Excellent racing.

Congratulations on your new PR! Great job running a smart and strong race. Thanks for sharing the RR.

Great race and awesome PR.