Notes
Overall for my 1st significant race in 2 years I am pretty happy with this effort. I have not been seriously training for this event and expected to run closer to 2:20 - 2:30 as I have been training based on low HR and haven't really done any speed work to give my body a chance to feel what it was like to run hard for a long distance. I went out at a good pace - 1st mile was approx 9:09 and I thought that was to fast until I got to the 5K at just about the same pace. At mile 5 I really started to feel good and had some real thoughts about breaking 2 Hours which when I started seemed like it was impossible. At Mile 8 I used Gu and it really perked me up through mile 9.5 - About mile 10.5 I really started to feel it. At mile 9 I was planning to pick up the pace between mile 9 and 10 but when i got there I was just going to have to hang on. I checked my watch at the 11 mile mark and realized I had a very good chance to break 2 hours if I could just maintain my pace. I lost track of the last few miles as I was in survival mode and just focusing on finishing the race. At the end there was a significant hill that I was totally not expecting and I had no idea I was so close. Generally I like to attack the hill and pass some people and i did get up it pretty fast but after i ascended the hill I thought I would see the finish line but I didn't. At that point I was a little discouraged and lost my motivation to sprint to the finish. Then when i turned the corner I saw this huge sign and banner and realized the finish was right there! I went as fast as I could and actually had a really good kick at the end. If I had only known that the finish was that close to the top of the hill I would have kept pushing after I got over the hill. i think not knowing the course cost me at least 30 seconds but I'm not to worried about it. I'll know next time when I'm trained and really going for a PR! Bring on the 25K in 2 weeks!!!