I told my athletes to welcome bad weather, because EVERYONE at the meet has to compete in it, and if you accept it instead of dreading it you're at an advantage. It's not rain and snow just on you and sunny on everyone else.

Compared to the other competing high schools in those days, our hs ski coach articulated the very same philosophy so we learned to ski on everything from slush to the dreaded ice-cookies so much that we were always unbeatable in foul weather. Luckily for me, it lasted through college and the rest of my life.

Based on shorter races, my marathon pace should be around 9:35 to 9:45, though I have yet to get close to that in an actual marathon. Today I ran at or below that pace for the first 14 miles and finished with 18.7 at 9:48 average.

Even though, heretofore, I've always been able to maintain at least the minimum 23min10sec pace to reach the 50K mark in the annual Carkeek 12-hour Fun Runs, I calculated 27min;20sec pace this time to, at least, ensure a 26.2 mile marathon without any problem.   Unfortunately, I didn't take into account that a conservative early pace can also end up with an even more conservative finishing pace after 20 miles or so. .