Notes
This race was great. Considering my current shape, I don't think it could have been much better. The weather was perfect at the start, maybe 46 degrees, and didn't really feel warm until the later stages. The course was scenic and very nice.
My plan was to start at 6:20s and run a 2:45. I actually thought this goal was probably beyond my reach, but surprised myself by running 2 min faster. With no warm up, I started in the 6:30-6:20 range and just gradually cranked the pace faster. By 10k I was feeling good. I was hitting 6:15s and was content to keep it there. I teamed up with this random guy around mile 9 and we ran together until about mile 18 or so. During this stretch the pace dipped a bit faster. I had reservations about this, but I was feeling great and there was no one else running this pace. We were passing people nonstop through the middle of the race... I really don't think ANYONE passed me from mile 2 to mile 24.
Came through the half in 1:21:56. Ballsy indeed after my unimpressive 1:21:11 run 3 weeks ago at the Crystal Lake Half
Despite the apparent slowdown towards the end, I still felt good and was really working my hardest. The course gets challenging from mile 20 to 24 (basically a constant uphill of varying grade) which accounts for the slow splits. The people I passed in this section were really struggling.
I didn't really start to lose it until the last mile, which is probably ideal, all things considered. I was forcing it just to maintain my avg pace. Only regret is not finding the guts for 7 more seconds to crack into the 2:42s.
1 6:27
2 6:20
3 6:31 (uphill)
4 6:13
5 6:13
6 6:14
7 6:15
8 6:14
9 6:10 (started running with random guy)
10 6:10
11 6:06
12 6:11
13 6:11
(half) 1:21:56
14 6:17
15 5:46 (no idea about this. didn't intentionally pick up the pace. maybe downhill?)
16 5:59
17 6:04
18 6:07 (split with random guy)
19 6:02
20 6:01 (2:03:20 for 20mi--very happy with that)
21 6:14 (all uphill)
22 6:31 (all uphill, sometimes steep)
23 6:21 (all uphill)
24 6:14
25 6:30 (the struggle started here)
26 6:16
.2 1:20