Notes
Drove from Tallahassee to Albany with Carolyn (85 miles) Fri. afternoon & stayed at Merry Acres Quality Inn (2.5 mile from the start).
Went to the "expo" the nite before to pick up my race packet and visit the booths. It was disappointing - the "Expo" was in 2 small to medium sized rooms: one room to pick up packets, and the other room that had chip pick up, Snickers food giveaways, a Galloway table, photog table, and a table selling energy food, etc. Nothing else, except one other table where 4 ladies were attaching ribbons to the race medals to hand out to finishers the next day. Walked past Jeff Galloway who was carrying a box of books - was easy to recognize - he looks just like his pictures, duh! (he was giving a training class later). BTW, he was 5/12 in my HM AG - 7 min. ahead, but I didn't realize it till I was reviewing the race results later. I'm guessing he may have been run/walking with a group. A walk in the park for him, no doubt.
Got up at 5 AM Sat. morning, got some cereal and fruit (at the continental breakfast the motel opened an hour earlier than usual for the runners staying there), bathed, dressed, and got to the parking area near the start line by 6:15. I only slept from 8:30-10:30 and from 3:00-5:00 (4 hrs. total), but had made sure I got plenty of sleep the night before. Warmed up and the race began at 7 AM. Our bibs had our names on them, so periodically a bystander or volunteer would call out "Go Bill" or something similar. At about mile 1 or more I saw a girl running towards us; apparently a marathon runner (with yellow bib instead of white) who missed the obvious signs for the marathon right turn - she could end up doing a coulpe of extra miles!! I remembered to "run the tangents" during the race, and there were a lot of them. I noticed everyone near me stopped or slowed at the mile 12 water station, which was 30-40 feet to the left of where everyone had been running. Since I felt well fueled and hydrated, I continued on, passing and leaving a dozen or so others that had been ahead of me behind for good.
Nobody passed me in the last 1 or 2 miles (a couple tried, but I heard their footsteps fading behind me). At around mile 13 we ran through an old train depot, turned right, and headed for the finish line. "Sprinted" the last 100 yards thru the finish line to the sounds of "Good job Bill" on the PA system and some great "on location" rock music from a radio station. Someone immediately put a mylar space blanket on me, put the finisher's medal around my neck, offered water, asked if I was okay, and pointed me toward the snacks tent. Good TLC. Got a banana, Pepsi, Gatorade, and an energy bar for later, then walked around to cool down. There was free beer at the tent next door, but that was the last thing I wanted at this point! Picked up my red warm-up jacket I'd left at the start - I was starting to get really cold after not running, then walked 1/4 mile to the car and drove back to the motel. Soaked my legs in cold water, took a warm bath after a while, packed up, and we drove back to Tallahassee.
This was one of my best overall races so far. I beat my goal time by 10 minutes - 2:14:xx vs 2:24:xx, and my pace was 96 seconds/min. faster than the Tallahassee HM a month ago - 10:15 vs 11:51 minutes per mile. Was 21 total minutes faster than Tallahassee - 2:14 vs 2:35 - although admittedly Talla. was a progressive jog to "test the waters". So yeah, I was very happy and extremely pleased with the results today. Plus, I'm not quite as stiff/sore as the last HM, but definitely feeli' it! My 8:55 mile split after 12 miles was a great suprise! These results tell me I should be able to break 2 hours by October's HM.
Gun time = 2:14:50; Chip time = 2:14:06 (Don't know why my split times or "Intervals" total only shows 2:12:52)