I headed to Huntsville at the early hour of 5 am. I'm glad I had Devra to share this rainy day experience with me. We drove up, got our packets and then waited for the race to start. I had two plans in mind. 1) run hard and see if I can significantly improve on my TOU half time. 2) Run tempo and hope for an easy win. There was a contingent ftom Boulder who came to race prior to Monumental Marathon. One girl, Amanda Lee said she was targeting a 1:18. Ok. Plan A. I decided to use the first three downhill miles to my advantage. To my surprise Amanda didn't come with me. I think she planned on making up time later in the race. The course is tougher than it seems. There are no hugh hills, but lots of rolling. The last few turned into the wind which made it tough. I tried to get in a rhythm and keep sub-six average for as long as possible. According to my Garmin these were my splits: 5:41, 5:47, 5:44, 6:04, 5:56, 5:53, 6:00, 5:52, (turn into wind) 6:11, 6:08, 6:15, 6:14, 6:11, 1:16 for .22. I should have paid more attention to the splits based on the mileage marks. It ended up longer than my Garmin. So, I was bummed not to hit sub 1:19. According to my Garmin I was! :) 5:59 average. But, I need to go off of race measurements. They are not always the same. Gotta be careful of that. Still, lots to be happy with today. It was a complete solo effort. The next girl was almost two minutes behind and the next closest guy was probably about two minutes ahead. That's a problem with a small race. It's hard to keep pushing out of comfortable. I think I have much more to give. Obviously conditions were less than ideal. But, that's great practice. I think the more miserable the training, the nore mentally prepared you are for anything the marathon throws at you. I felt much stronger and more in control today than at TOU Half. I feel, for the first time, that the training is getting me to where I need to be. 10 weeks to go. Monumental Half Marathon will be a good indicator of what I can run in the marathon. I cooled down two waterlogged miles and cheered Devra in. She won in a 2:47. Amazing girl! | 