Notes
Great day for racing. About 55 degrees at the start and around 60 by the finish. A bit of a stiff wind from the north, but being a multi loop course, the time spend going into the wind would be spread out at least. Started out with a group of about 6 guys. The pace felt a bit strained, but I figured I'd re-evaluate after the mile split. 5:25 for the first mile... a bit fast, but I wasn't sure I wanted to drop into no-man's land. We were heading north into the wind for miles 2-4, so I thought latching onto the back of the pack and drafting would be the best tactic. When we went through the next mile in 5:23, with the effort level still seeming too high for this point in the race, I decided to drop back and try to run my own race. The next couple miles were a bit slow, but into the wind with some climbing. After turning back south, I closed the gap on another guys that had fallen off the initial pack, and ran with him for the next 4-5 miles. Unfortunately he was doing a good job of holding the inside position... I wasn't so pleased about running in "lane 2", but I tried to not to dwell on it. As we heading north again, I could feel the pace slipping, so I pushed ahead solo. At the 15k mark, I could see that I'd fallen behind pace, but I focused on maintaining the appropriate effort into the wind/hills, telling myself that I could make up some time with the tailwind heading south. Sure effort I was able to push the pace after the turn south and rattled off some 5:27's. Struggled a bit with the hills on the south end of Harriet, but then put everything I had left into the final 1.5mi, hoping that I could make up the time needed to get my 5:30/mi goal. When I came around the final curve and saw the clock in the low 1:25's, I almost couldn't believe it. Absolutely crushed my old PR of 1:27:06. Time to end the marathon PR drought.
Took a gel this year at about the 7.5mi mark. I think that really helped in the late miles.
mile 1 - 5:25
mile 2 - 5:23
mile 3 - 5:35
mile 4 - 5:31
mile 5 - 5:27
mile 6 - 5:29
mile 7 - 5:34
mile 8 - 5:32
mile 9 - 5:36
mile 10 - 5:41
mile 11 - 5:27
mile 12 - 5:27
mile 13 - 5:27
mile 14 - 5:32
mile 15 - 5:20
mile 15.5 - 5:11