I came to this race ultimately wanting a 1:30, I would be pleased if I got a 1:35. I was pleased, but not impressed with myself with my performance today. When I ran across the finish, the clock read 1:33:40, so I am a little confused with the system. I don't know if they went off of gun time or what? 20 seconds is a big deal to me, and take away about 5 seconds for waiting to cross the start line. I wasn't planning to race TOU half until Thursday evening, so I haven't been mentally preparing to race this week. I have had a challenging week... new job, waking up at 5 to run everyday, feeling pretty ill mid-week. The list goes on and on with excuses, but excuses are meant to be left at the door on race day. Drove up to Logan and stayed with friend Sarah that is a runner herself. Slept on a cumfy couch with a loud fan blowing all night. I am planning to stay at the same place for the marathon, so I wanted to get used to it a little. Woke up at 5, got to the race at 5:35 and registered. Start line 1.5 mile warm up. It was fun to see some of the elite runners warming up. The race... I went out WAY too fast!!! When I was running by Allie (from the blog), I knew I needed to slow it down. I was anxious, I wanted to test the waters and feel the flow of the course. Splits: 6:20,6:52, 6:50, 6:27, 6:40, 6:37, 6:37, 7:09, 7:13, 7:52, 7:40, 8:31? (eek!), 7:19. AP:somewhere around 7:10 mm, I forgot. The goal was a 7:00 mm.
I really struggled at the end. ANYONE that has advice for this marathon course, please give it! I ran the TOU marathon last year and I completely ran out of gas by the end due to the turns and uphill miles at the end. I want to PR so dang bad it hurts! I also want to pull between a 3:20-3:25! Is this possible? My goal pace is a 7:40.
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