North side - 3.5 miles, averaged 7:46. One restrained stride at the end. Weather still looks good for Sunday. I may need to bring my hat and gloves for the warmup. Things are getting warmer here. Not so much in Northern Maine.
I looked at race times from previous years. I saw a handful of sub 2:30s and even a 2:23 (winners obviously). Mostly the winner runs uncontested. Last year sub-2:55 would have taken third. Hard to say year to year.
A-goal is to beat Coach Bam's prediction by enough that his comment on my report begins "Jakers . . . " (I think that's the term he used in my last breakthrough. Second to last I guess.)
I will, however, predict his prediction to be 2:56:24. I think I'm good for 2:55, which would put me in the 10-minute window for Boston, but I've yet to run a good marathon (good meaning very hard at the end but not have my legs completely shut down). My real goal, then, is to run well. | 