Pretty good weather for this one - 60 degrees, almost no wind and overcast. It was pretty humid and drizzling a bit but no impact to my race.
I lined up in the middle of my designated colored group - they did a good job keeping everyone with their own bib colors. There were about 8,000 in the timed division, and the announcer said 20,000 runners/walkers overall which seemed unreal but maybe so. My wife used the Garmin and I don't have a memory on my watch but the splits were mostly all easy to remember.
Mile 1 - 7:15. The first 2.5 miles were very hilly, and generally uphill. Bigger hills than I'm used to. I thought I was taking it easy here but thought that was a pretty realistic pace.
Mile 2 - 6:45. Whoops. Another uphill mile and I was wondering why I was gassed already. I couldn't believe I had 4 more miles based on the pain. Then I saw the mile 2 marker and I was at 14:00 exactly - now it makes sense. Garmin would've helped there, but I'm obviously WAY too dependent on it for pacing
Mile 3 - 7:45. My worst mile, and the first part of it had a horrific uphill climb. It barely felt like I was moving and people were passing me like crazy. At this point I thought I had porked the whole race again and even thought of how I'd word this failure on the blog. Still, when I hit the mile 3 marker at 21:45, I knew I was near the highest point on the course and was still on a great pace so I got kind of a second wind.
Mile 4 - 7:15. Mostly a gentle downhill. Started feeling good again, and hit the mile 4 marker at 29:00 exactly - see, easy to remember splits.
Mile 5 - 7:23. Started to push too early because I knew I had a shot at 45. Nope, not today. I started really dying aerobically in the middle of this mile.
Mile 6 - 7:30-ish. Making weird noises now. It felt like when I was on the 7th grade swim team and it was Water Polo Friday and the 8th graders spent the whole game trying to dunk/drown us instead of scoring goals. I was gasping for air just like that. My brain was scrambled enough that I thought I just ran an 8:30 mile instead of 7:30.
Last bit - 1:30-ish. I really really tried to sprint here but I felt like an old lady in the fast lane as people were whizzing by me on both sides. My limbs were flailing, probably in a hilarous way to everyone but me.
Anyway, 45:25 is a great time for me. Could I have run smarter? Yeah, but I really can't argue with the results. I'm really looking forward to this half marathon where we won't have the kids. I love 'em but it'll be nice to be able to relax and get some good sleep and enjoy the time with my wife. She was reduced to walking for a bit this time, after that big hill in mile 3 so no PR for her today but she's still in good spirits about the half. It'll be the first for both of us - guaranteed PRs! | 
