Notes
This race went horribly.
Official time: 1:55:42
Distance: The best answer I could get from a race director was 13.35 miles (vs. 13.1). They had to extend the half marathon course beyond a certified distance in order to make the finish line coincide with the full marathon. The 13.35 number came from MapMyRun, though, so it's not accurate and probably high. Garmin said about 13.37 (forgot to stop my watch), but that's also probably high. I'd guess maybe 13.25-13.3.
The weather was perfect.
I got 0 sleep the night before. 0. I just looked at the ceiling all night. Supposedly sleep the night before doesn't matter that much, but it sure felt like it did. I got up at 4:45, tried to eat, and threw up a few times. If this had been a local race, I wouldn't have gone.
I felt OK once my warmup started. I couldn't detect much fatigue. I still planned on going for my target pace of 7:40/mile. That lasted about 3 miles, and I was done, I just didn't know it yet. My HR at that point was what it normally is after 10 miles. If I had looked at it, I would have freaked out and slowed way down, but alas, I did not. I continued for really another two miles at that level of effort, though my pace was slacking. I slowed down on the hill during miles 6 and 7, but not enough. I knew I had blown it by this point and was starting to feel sick. I walked about 45 seconds during mile 8, and from then on I just easy-ran it to the finish.
During the race, I was figuring it must have been the lack of sleep/not much in my stomach that caused me to die so early, but looking at the HR data now, I can see that my HR was just way, way too high at the beginning and I tired myself out in the first 1/3rd of the race. Maybe the lack of sleep/nerves is what caused the high heart rate, but I probably could have overcome that by just going easier for the first few miles. My strategy was to knock out the first 5 miles at target pace, at which point I usually start feeling comfortable, but in this race I was whipped before then.
I got 4 blisters on my feet (which I never get) and my legs are extremely sore the next day, which also isn't normal even after a hard training day or a trial.