Notes
Perfect weather for the race. I definitely underestimated the hills on the course, otherwise it was a great course to run. Didn't really look at the watch during the race since they had people calling out every mile split.
Started out with the first mile thinking I was going too fast, almost sub 6 pace at least according to the GPS, but when they called the mile split it was 6:20 something. That was when I decided to stop looking at the watch. Tried to pick up the pace the next mile but ended up running about the same time. 3rd mile there was a decent uphill gain and I definitely lost more time. Between 4-7 I tried to regulate the effort to hammer up the hills I could and charge all the downhills. About mile 5 some guy on a bike who said he ran Lake Front Marathon in 2009 with me started asking about training. This maybe lasted 30 seconds but talking was definitely a mistake that I felt later.
Around mile 7 I started to get a stitch in my side, I tried not to slow but it definitely hurt. The worst part was that while my side was hurting, my legs were finally starting to feel like they had some energy again and were recovering from the hills. Those last 3 miles I ran as fast as I could, trying to hit sub 6's and forget about how bad my lungs felt and just focus on what my legs had left.
Overall, I felt like I gave this one 100%, although I'm not sure why my legs and lungs were not in sync in terms of how much they had left. I'm guessing that this is a result of too little high intensity training and more focus on hills and tempo. I still don't know why I started out so slow as I felt like I was working as hard as I could handle that point in the race. I should be happy with this race given what my training focus has been on, but I'm not...
Came in 6th overall and 3rd in AG. Started out with maybe 15 in front of me, a lead pack with maybe 8 and a chase pack with probably 7. I was at the back of the chase pack, not really trying to match anyone's pace. Within the first two miles I dropped about 6 of the chase pack, and by mile 4 I was in 7th. Caught up to 6th place runner at around 5, was on his heels for about half a mile and then gapped him. Haven't seen the official results yet, but no one was within 30 seconds behind me, maybe more.