Notes
What can I say, I can blame it on the weather, I can blame it on being cautious about the hamstring, or just blame it on a bad race. I just had a tough time holding the 6:40 pace. What doesn't make sense to me is that out of 26 miles, only 9 were over 6:45, and 6:51 was my slowest mile. The last mile I ran in 6:08 and finished the last 800 or so at <5:00 pace.
I felt like I was pushing the whole time just at the limit. When I look back, if I was able to run the last 1.2 miles in the time I did, maybe I didn't push enough, but every time I tried to push it, my body almost immediately told me to back off. Not really sure what to make of this one.
Houston, the day of race was reporting for high of 72 with thunderstorms and 100% chance of rain. Luckily, no thunderstorms, but it did rain off and on most of the race which was really a good thing. It was about 68F at the start of the race. Within about 4 miles I could tell that I was not going to be able to hold the 6:40 pace I needed to run a sub <2:55. After that, I just concentrated on running at <6:46 per mile. Mostly I was able to do this, but there were a few miles it felt too hard. I've trashed myself enough marathons that I'd rather run the first half conservative then die at mile 20.
I was really worried about my hamstring from the start, since my easy run the day before was pretty stiff. At mile 3 it started to tighten up, and I was really worried I was going to have an early DNF. The tightness eased off until about mile 10, and I mostly just ran. I kept telling myself, make it to 13.1 and take it from there. Mile 13.1 came and went and still no catastrophic pain. I relaxed and tied to keep pace and count each mile until mile 20 but the hamstring did tighten up periodically and then loosed again. At mile 20 my goal was to finish with my fastest 10K of the race. As soon as I pushed it, my hamstring pushed back.
From then on, I ran based on how my hamstring felt, not really paying attention to much else other than keeping it under 6:50. It wasn't until near the end, where I knew I could break 3:00 even with an 8:00 pace where I felt I had nothing to lose. I pushed the last 1.2 based on what I thought I had left in the tank. I didn't realize I was running under a 6:10 pace the last mile and under a 5:00 pace for the last 800M. At the end of the race, the temp was 65F.
I don't know if the weather was really a factor or not, I tried to convince quite a few runners to hang in for a <2:55 even at the halfway point or just to keep the pace up, but everyone was talking about the heat, or just struggling to run. I personally felt the heat was a factor, but then after seeing the course record was broken, now am scratching my head. At the end of the day, I have to conclude it just wasn't my best race, but I am happy with a sub 3, either way...