Notes
Almanac says it started off around 68 degrees and ended around 78, and I saw displays showing 80+ degrees at mile 20 so who really knows. I decided to go for 2:55 instead of 2:53 because of the predicted temps. Heat wasn't bad because humidity was low (70% at start and 40% at the end), so I took the first miles faster than 6:40 pace and figured I'd slow down when I needed to. Unfortunately, I had to take a dump 5 minutes before they started the race and I ran the first 6 miles holding it. Finally hit a portajohn around 6 miles. Felt really good the first 8 or so miles which was shaded and cool, then started to get a little fatigue/hot. I decided to push through and the miles flew by. I really enjoyed the first 16 or so miles, strangely enough I was really enjoying just clocking some fast miles. Around 18 fatigue started to fit in and I was wondering if I would blow up by mile 20 in the race.
By 20 miles my lungs started to feel the congestion from the lingering sinus infection and ears were ringing off and on (thank you double ear infection). Around 22 I felt like I got a second wind (wasn't looking at the watch) but just pushed it as hard as I could, through the rest. Based on my mile splits I was slowing down the last few miles, but I kept passing people. In a weird way, it was very demotivating to be passing what seemed like so many people even though I was slowly losing pace. Normally when I'm slowing down I get pissed if people are passing me and it forces me to speed up, but there was no one trying to pass me and it seemed like everyone was slowing down. Overall, pretty happy with the race, a PR maybe not exactly what I wanted, but pretty good. Calf and hammies cramped up 10 steps after the finish line. Literally stopped dead in my tracks for about 2 minutes.
Splits from the watch were every mile marker not per GPS.
5K Splits from BA:
Split Time of day Time Diff Min/mile Miles/h
05K 07:50:40AM 00:20:22 20:22 06:34 9.16
10K 08:11:32AM 00:41:14 20:52 06:43 8.94
15K 08:31:58AM 01:01:40 20:26 06:35 9.12
20K 08:52:41AM 01:22:23 20:43 06:40 9.00
HALF 08:57:12AM 01:26:55 04:32 06:39 9.03
25K 09:13:11AM 01:42:53 15:58 06:36 9.11
30K 09:33:57AM 02:03:39 20:46 06:41 8.98
35K 09:54:31AM 02:24:13 20:34 06:37 9.07
40K 10:15:43AM 02:45:25 21:12 06:50 8.79
Finish 10:25:04AM 02:54:46 09:21 06:52 8.76