Notes
Conditions/weather near perfect. Fast course. Very difficult to stay on the brakes. Felt strong at 21, then things started tightening up. Miles 24 - 26 were tough.
Tried to go off perceived effort and wore and occasionally glanced at my heart rate monitor- I figured I could go the distance at 165bpm, and got an idea of the pace based on that. Decided to try to maintain 6:40. I would often be around 6:40-6:45 pace for most of each mile and then try to sink each mile by picking it up a little as I got close to the end of them.
Usual left knee pain (patella?) started about an hour afterward, and some left hip (IT band) an hour later, too. Other than that, good to go.
The buildup for this began in January after having not run much since Boston in April 2011. I was pretty inconsistent sometimes because of pains developing (knee, left plantar, right metatarsals), whiny mind, crappy weather, job, girlfriend and kids' activities. I put quite a lot of time on the treadmill and tried to get as many doubles in as possible. Most of my workouts were moderate to high effort. Was definitely missing and needed more long runs.
During the race I thought a lot about using the first 20 miles to manage the last 6. I carried a little 12oz bottle with a mixture of 2 gu's, some gu electrolyte powder, and water. I took a shot of it about every half hour and got a little more than half of it down before I pitched what was left at mile 16.5. Had eaten a big meal of pasta 2 days before and the day before. I also took a gu 15 minutes before the start (and had a small bit of instant oats mixed with rice and a banana an hour before). At 17, I had a 16oz bottle of straight water waiting. I picked it up and carried it to about mile 20. I tried to skip the aid station waters, but did take water at a couple. I took an Endurolyte salt tab before the race, 1 hour in, and another about 1.5 hours in.