First off it was a PR by over 11 minutes so I am very happy with the result. The weather was pretty good. It was around 38 at the start but the wind was picking up. The wind turned out to be a factor as a lot of areas were exposed especially going out. I ended up running a very even race. It was the best finish that I have ever had in a marathon. I passed a lot of people coming in and I didn't get passed by anyone after the half way mark. I felt like I started off with a good pace and just tried to stay patient on the first half and especially in the wind. At around 18 miles I was feeling good and thought I might actually be able to increase my pace but those miles ended up being about the same as my earlier miles. Around mile 24 I got a bad cramp in my left calf and I was worried that it might be a big problem. I slowed down some and tired to relax it and it got better. I was able to slowly increase the pace again and got back on pace for miles 25 and 26. This is not a big marathon so it was spaced out very quickly and that made the wind tougher since it was hard to get into a group that could work together. I found one guy that I worked with for a couple of miles but then he dropped back. Deep down I thought that I might be able to go under 3:05 today but with the wind it just wasn't going to happen. I am very happy that I ran under 3:10 because that is the open qualifing standard for Boston so now I don't have to use my age handicap to get in and that is a good feeling. This got me one step closer to the sub 3 goal but I still have some work to do. At least now it is in sight. Here are my splits for the race:
1 - 7:13
2 - 7:04
3 -7:02
4 -7:05
5 - 7:01
6 - 7:06
7, 8 - 14:14
9 - 7:08
10 - 7:07
11 - 6:56
12, 13 - 14:08
14 - 7:14 (very windy)
15 - 7:10 (very windy)
16 - 7:09 (uphill)
17 - 7:08 (uphill)
18 - 6:54 (downhill)
19 - 7:03
20 - 7:10
21 - 7:11
22 - 7:07
23 - 7:12
24 - 7:21 (cramp in calf, thought I was in big trouble but it worked out)
25 - 7:11
26 - 7:07
Now I have to get in the car and drive back to Indy. I'm guessing I will be very stiff by the time I get there.
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