Temp/humidity - 68F, 80% humidity start, 65F, 94% humidity finish. Weather - overcast + some rain. Wind - many different directions and speeds, but surprisingly not much of a factor.
The short version of the story is I did not get sub-3, did not PR, but feel pretty good about the race. I had a really up-and-down journey today, where usually I'm pretty even keel and my performance just goes in one direction. I don't ever do well over 60 degrees, no matter what I try, so to get close to my 3:01 Houston PR, which was on a much easier course and under much easier conditions, I think this was definitely a higher-quality performance. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Pre-race - got to talk to Preston (IJR) at the expo and again at the starting line. It was great to finally meet him in person. No big surprises leading up to the gun. I just got up near the front since this is not a super fast race and took off feeling fine.
Miles 1-5 - 6:41, 6:42, 6:39, 6:30, 6:47. By mile 1 I was pouring sweat. Dammit. I made up my mind early on that I was going to pretend it wasn't hot and humid, and just go for it. I had nothing to lose. I may, may, may have gotten a little carried away in the early miles but under ideal conditions I would venture to say it would have been the correct pace. I made sure to grab water and gatorade at every aid station and I think that saved me from a more significant bonk in the long run.
Miles 6-10 - 6:36, 6:52, 6:33, 6:59, 6:52. Still going under the who-cares-if-it's-too-fast plan through mile 8 (mile 7 was "gorilla hill"). Miles 9 and 10 are two of the toughest on the course, climbing about 100' between the two. I'd remembered that from last year but man, it REALLY felt like it killed me this year. I got passed by 3 or 4 people in this stretch and felt completely slammed (already).
Miles 11-15 - 7:05, 7:03, 7:09, 7:02, 6:55. Struggle, struggle, struggle. Unlike last year I did not bounce back on this stretch. Mile 11 my legs were already tightening up and getting heavy. This is the sensation I usually get in a marathon 10 miles later! I was ready to mentally give up and could already picture myself running 8:30 pace the rest of the way. Now that I look at the splits it doesn't seem quite so bad, but the pain and discomfort were definitely there. This is the flattest section, so it was what it was. Crossed the half in 1:29:33. Hmm, perfect time, but too bad I felt so terrible. Then, sometime after mile 14, it started raining. It felt awesome and my pace instantly got better. I think I had unwittingly recovered a bit and the rain cooled me off enough to start pushing a bit more.
Miles 16-20 - 6:51, 6:59, 7:07, 7:12, 6:48. So I decided I would get up to sub-3 pace again to see what happened. It became clear that it was exceeding my speed limit. Every time I pushed it to sub-7 my legs would turn into bricks. Oh well, I tried. I think the damage was done in the first 10k, and so I went back to survival pace. Don't get too excited about mile 20, it was a 70 foot drop.
Mile 21-finish - 7:06, 7:30, 7:16, 7:22, 6:57, 7:13, 2:16 for 0.36 (6:18 pace). Damaged goods for the last 10k. I hate this strech on this race anyway. Uphill, and the course joins with the half-marathon course for most of it. I always add a tenth of a mile of bonus running to my race on this part due to weaving around the HM folks. Still, believe it or not, I passed 3 full marathoners in the last 10k and did not get passed myself. I think it was a hard day for everyone. I did manage to put on a pretty nice sprint at the end, having noticed I had a chance to break 3:03. Almost ashamed that it was that much faster than the miles before it. I guess I was guilty of cruising a little when my dreams got crushed.
It took Danielle and I forever to find each other after the race, so I missed IJR's finish. I guzzled a bunch of liquids and we made our way back home. Nice that it was only an hour's drive for me this year.
So, like I said, I will deem the race a success. I am pretty sure that I'm faster than the guy who just ran 3:01 at Houston a few months ago. I can only hope that 3:01 will still get me into Boston since there were a bunch of deferments this year.
Fall marathon - Either Wichita KS in October or Tulsa in November. Either way, there is no way...absolutely no way at all...that there will be a 3 in front of my time in that race. I will go ahead and declare that now! Plan for this summer is to drop back to 65-70 mpw and work on speed more. I am already disappointed that racing season is over, but I made some great improvements and don't plan to let up too much this summer. Sorry the report is so long; if you made it to the end, congrats to you as well! | 
