Notes
Va Beach Marathon...Temps were cool and runnable, cloudy, and windy...Mission was to get Nicole Burt to the finish in a PR time of 3:55, ran with four hour group for protection from the wind and they did their job, course is not difficult with the only real hill at the 3 and 10ish on a bridge...The pacer was keeping the group under the 9:09 needed to get the group there...Nicole and I wanted to run with them to the 20 and then drop down to around an 8:30 pace...This seemed reasonable to me, she had run 7:41 pace for a 5K, so this was in her wheelhouse...We got to 16 and Nicole was antsy and wanted to go, but I told her let's wait just a bit more, at 18 couldn't hold her back anymore so we rolled under 9 for the next mile and then dropped the hammer at 19 and started running along at 8:30 pace...We had a substantial headwind from about 19.5 to after 22, Nicole tucked in behind and ran in the rocking chair...The race was now going backwards to us as tired runners were being dropped in our wake, no one passed us from that point in...Maintained a 9 min pace to 18 and then dropped to an 8:28 pace from 18 to finish, Mission accomplished...We Sham-Rocked Va Beach!