Notes
I felt soooooo good! This race is definitely up there as one of my best post-collegiate races so far!
I don't really have too much to say about the race because I don't actually remember very much of it. I was patient at the start and hung out at the back of the pack while trying to run as relaxed and easy as possible. I decided not to wear a watch, which I think was a crucial decision to my race plan. Not wearing a watch allowed me to entirely concentrate on how I was feeling with minimal quantitative feedback and distraction. The only splits that I have are where there were clocks on the course. I saw something like 4:57 through the mile and 25:08 through 5 miles.
Most of the first few miles were a melded blur and when I got to 5 miles it was the best case scenario. That is absolutely the best I have ever felt in a 10+ mile race at the 5 mile point. I was relaxed and controlled and just sitting behind a couple other runners. I kept telling myself to wait and not get to antsy. I decided to wait until about 7 miles before I would consider making a move. Then probably just before mile 7, a guy came rolling up from behind us and passed us. One of the guys I was running with and I immediately hopped on that train and we were moving very quickly. The other guy that was running next to me stayed back for a bit (at least I couldn't hear him) and he eventually caught back up to us in probably a more controlled fashion. Around mile 8 our group of 4 broke up. I fell off the front two guys and the other guy strung out behind me and that's about where we finished. With a mile to go I could very much taste the finish line and I rolled through the last mile like I have never done before in these longer races.
I am very happy with my race, all my friends that came out to support me and everyone else in the 10 mile, and I had a blast sitting at Mile 25 to cheer on all my friends in the marathon as well.
Magnificent day!