Notes
The glutes never freshened up this week but I've been down this road before and my mantra was 'I will not break'.
The race was very convenient - stayed at the Sheraton, expo, bus pickup, and finish across the street. Great course - some downhills but never seemed that downhill. Plenty of rollers to break up the monotony. PERFECT weather - no wind, mid to upper 30s at the start and maybe 50 at the end. Beautiful.
Joe and I separated so he ended up starting ahead of me. I took it REAL easy the first 10 miles or so - felt like I was holding back the entire time - glutes were barking and achy but nothing I haven't felt before - kept focusing on form. Caught up with the 3:10 pace group around mile 11 and saw Joe just ahead of them. Hung with pace group for another mile or so then joined Joe and ended up running together the rest of the race.
Came through the half at 1:35 and still had thoughts of a 3:05. I made a move around mile 15/16 to try to get the pace down. Went well for a few miles, some distraction methods counting down mileage and doing some multiplication tables. I think I paid too much attention to the distraction methods and not the pace and ended up looking back to see Joe and the 3:10 pace group behind me - 7:24 popped up on the watch instead of the 7:0x I expected. Joe and I kept trading leads. He wasn't slowing down and I wasn't sure I could keep the pace. Finally the last 3/4 miles I stopped the distraction methods and just focused on keeping up with Joe (or trying to keep ahead of him). It was hard. Legs were screaming but I kept saying 'I will not break' and tried to keep the pedal down. We probably made 3 pushes to try to keep the lead and I ended up with the last one around mile 24.5 and held it. So much fun. Also passed Robyn the last quarter mile and she was hurting (ended up with a pulled hamstring). She ended up with a 5 min PR but not the sub-3 she was going for.
Gu at mile 7, 13, 17? but skipped a few aid stations at the end to try to keep focused on pace/form.