my makeup may be flaking

Up at 5am, drove to downtown and got the closest parking spot to the finish line. I couldn't go to the bathroom satisfactorily and I knew this would come back to bite me. It also didn't help that there were 4 starts and I was worried they were going to start without me. When the gun went off, I went immediately to the front. I didn't feel like I was going all that fast and I was confused. I missed the mile split but then had 10:24 at 2 miles. Oh...shoot. It was downhill by a bit, but that was too fast, way too fast. The bigger problem was that I couldn't just coast and let the pack catch up as, somehow, Steve Dekoker was only one step behind me. Then we headed up onto the I-90 express lanes hitting three miles in 15:53 (5:29) then 4 miles in 21:14 (5:21). I was really grinding the pace hoping to get a little gap. We left I-90 and went on to Lake Washington Boulevard and he got a gap and quickly pulled away. I slowed down a little and needed to recover. This was a flat mile and I did it in 5:37 (26:52 at 5 miles). I felt recovered at this point and did mile 6 in 5:30 (32:22 for 6 miles). I thought that I might be able to work back to him for a few moments, but I realized that I really needed to go the bathroom and this made it difficult for me to push it as hard as I possible could. This was made evident by a 5:44 mile 7 (38:07). The next mile had a short steep uphill that slowed me to a 6:10 mile (44:17). The course also starting having some corners in it and I lost sight of the leader. After a nice downhill, the course had a steady uphill. I thought that this would be a good section for me as I felt that it was a grade that I could easily handle. Reached nine miles in 49:56 (5:39). Going up the hill (Interlaken Blvd) people kept telling me that I was about 30seconds back even though I couldn't see him. Reached 10miles in 55:37 (5:40). At this point, I really had to go to the bathroom, but I was concerned that people were coming from behind. I knew I couldn't catch the person in front of me as I just couldn't lift the pace up even though I felt like I wasn't working that hard. It made me at least confident that I could run a full marathon under 2:30. Mile 11 was 5:42 (1:01:19). I had a little uphill left before a screeching downhill finish which I knew I wouldn't be able to take full advantage of. Did mile 12 in 5:40 (1:07:00) then the last 1.1 in 6:08 (5:34 pace).

Basically, I felt that the GI issues hurt me more than the fast start (as the start was downhill). But I kept a pretty even effort in the hill and had some pretty notable accomplishments. Went through 10K in 33:28 (extrapolation), only my second run under 34! Got to 8k in 26:42 which is one of my best times ever. Hit 12k in 41:12, a 1:14 PR from 1 year ago! Hit 15K in 51:38, a 2:16 PR from earlier this year. Hit 10miles in 55:37 (a 15second PR from college). And, of course, the half marathon itself was a 4:50 PR, but that was the first half of Boston.