Notes
I handled today much better than I anticipated. Wednesday was a pretty rough day mentally and physically and I didn't have much recovery so I was nervous that today would be harder than it was, but it felt surprisingly easy. 14 mile long run for a warmup to the start of Archie Post, then a 5 mile race and 2 miles of cool down. Now that I'm writing this my legs feel more like I only did an 11 mile easy run. Strange but nice.
I wanted to practice marathon nutrition so I had a gel around 1 hr in, and 90 minutes right before the start of the race. Stomach handled those just fine.
The race was fun. I felt like I was flying in the beginning. There was a tailwind for the first mile, and I just felt light and fast so I took it out quick. I was 4:48 at the mile. I relaxed a bit and slowed down and was 4:56 for the next mile. The third mile is deceptively tough, but still a net downhill. I ran 5:06 and was most disappointed with that mile. 5:30 for the 4th mile with the steep hill and headwind then about 5:25 for the last mile. I felt alright about the last mile. The first half is uphill and I tried to stay focused for the last half mile of the race, but I found it somewhat tough to go all out so I sort of just glided through the finish.
It was great to be able to combine the long run with a race to do the quality miles at the end. Not cutdowns as planned, but still fun to be in that racing atmosphere.