At the start line the race director advised that it was likely that lightning would make them call the race and come out and drag us off the course. Out and back course on red clay roads... yep, rainy slippery sloppy red clay - big fun. There were a couple thunderclaps before the 15K turnaround, but we kept at it. Plan going in was to go out at 8 flat pace and then try to finish coming in closer to 7:45 pace. Conditions and hills tweaked that a bit, but I made the 30K turnaround with an 8:07 average pace. Rain lessened but a headwind kicked up for a couple miles headed back in, but was able to press a few closing miles down to 7:45 and better, with last 0.6 at 7:33 pace. Garmin actually had me at 18.78 miles in 8:02 average what with all the weaving around to find good footing. All in all I couldn't be more pleased given hills and conditions. Three weeks out from the marathon and a nearly marathon pace tough 19 miler without digging too deep at all.
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