PR on a windy day. very pleased with the results. Home now, so a full race report. I had planned to run Cow Town Marathon the previous week, but work got in the way. We had already told friends we were coming to the area so I decided run the A2A marathon this weekend instead. The race is a very small race, but I found several favorable comments. Training over the winter has gone pretty well. I was able to get most of the miles I had planned in even with a lot of travel and busy work schedule. The best part was no injuries and no aches or pains. I wanted to do a race about 6 or 8 weeks before Boston. A2A fit the bill. I decided to try for a PR. I always seem to settle on the same strategy. Take off at goal pace (7:50). See how long I can keep it up. Try to run by feel and don't get too worried if I get ahead of schedule. The start was quite cool and the wind was already picking up. The director had trouble getting anyone to move up to the starting line. Modest group. First 3 miles was a small climb followed by the only real downhill on the coarse. The uphill felt just fine @ 7:50. Went a little quicker on the downhill, miles 3-6. Miles 6 and 7 headed out onto the long flat straight shot. Still moved along a little under goal pace. The wind was blowing but not a real problem. Miles 8-11 were a flat out and back. Wind was not a problem. Continued on a little under goal pace. We got back to the highway at mile 11. At this point I was in 10th place. This is when I really started to notice the wind. From here to mile 20 was a long gradual climb straight into the wind. I managed to catch 3 or 4 runners on this stretch. It was hard to tell because we were running with a lot of half marathoners. Ran a couple of miles alongside a fella that ran the Cow Town 50K the week before. The climb and the wind made mile 19 tough and the pace was starting to suffer but was still close to goal pace. At mile 20 we headed out on the second out and back into the regional park while the half marathon coarse took a left for their last mile into the stadium. The next 5 miles were a series of small rollers that were really getting tough. I was now just trying to stay comfortable. I started doing the math in my head to see if I could get in under 3:25. It was going to be close, but there I didn't have a lot left. At mile 23 I was now feeling fatigued. I kind of wanted to push the pace, but couldn't. Struggled over the last few rollers. The pace fell off to 8:30. Made it into the stadium for the last 1/4 mile. Overall I am very pleased with my performance. New PR is always good although I feel like I let the 3:25 slip away at the very end. My final thoughts are that I really enjoyed running in this small race. I had a good day, a good time, and it felt like a race. I clearly had no shot and never had any expectation of winning, but to hear encouragement from the volunteers and fans tell you tell you how many runner were ahead of you (single digits, not hundreds or thousands) and how many minutes back from the next guy was fun and motivating.
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