Notes
Wow. Its Tuesday and I still can't really believe how well this went. Was nervous, training had kinda fallen off and I wasn't feeling super excellent going into it. That, along with a negative weather forecast had me a little curious as to how it would go. Warmed up, got to the line to find the weather not so bad. Got out well, a little too well, and decided to tuck in with the second group. Very good idea, as the first group went out sub five for the first mile, and I hung a 5:12 with the second group. My sense of pace blows in races. Tucked in, especially whenever the wind (out of the north) hit us, and used the group to pull me along.
Kept splitting 5:12-5:15s through 10k (32:28! new pr! after a 26:00 8k, another pr) and felt pretty good. Started falling off around the split in the course (marathon went straight, we went left for the half) at 7 miles. I think this is the one thing I'd change, I'd fight to make it back to the group once again. I'd fallen a few steps back around 4 miles and fought back, it'd have been good to try to fight for a few more miles. We made the turn back out of the wind around 7, and I was running mid 5:20s I think at that point.
Stomach began to hurt around 9, and I didn't panic! Just kept holding steady, lost a few seconds per mile but held in and kept fighting. Passed a Kenyan around here, and got passed a mile or so later by a different guy. Other than that, was alone for much of the back half. I like the course here, lots of long stretches so I could at least keep the people ahead of me in sight for much of the race.
Going into the finish, felt kinda gassed, the cold made my legs numb so I just felt tired. Kinda just felt for the finish, really didn't gauge my kick properly. Got passed by a guy with about 800 to go, went with him into the finish. Guess that's the second thing i'd change, but that's just a matter of knowing the course a little better and knowing when I'm about to be done.
All in all though, really can't complain. Huge PR (2:30) and really a big step forward. Really excited now to keep training for the next cycles.