Believe in yourself, and you just never know...

Super easy warm up before the race.

I just tried to be sensible going down the hills (with the first 3 miles at 7:42, 7:38 & 7:25) but mile 4 was a 7:07 and even that took a lot of self control. The next couple of miles were both around 7:19. I was then a bit of Muppet and forgot to press "lap" at mile 7 so the rest is all from memory. I then settled into something like a 7:25 pace. I just could generate the leg speed for my goal pace of 7:15. However, goal #2 of PRing was still possible. I went through the half around 1:38.20. My quads were already feeling the strain at this point although the rest of my legs felt good. A couple of miles later we hit the trails, which helped out a great deal. I think there were nearly 2 1/2 miles of trails split into 2 or 3 sections. 

Once the trail sections were over it was mile 19, and we'd driven the rest of the course on Saturday so I knew what was to come. We’d go through one small town after another. There was certainly a great deal of crowd support. The other good news was that the water stops were more frequent. That would be one of my few grips is that the water stops were very spread out (on average 2-2 !/2 mile apart) & then the cups were only 1/3rd full. At around mile 22, I was in a bit of no man’s land in that I was about 100 yards in either direction from the nearest running. There was a veteran in a wheelchair on the side of the course. He looked at me, and said “when you get tired think of these legs”…now please note that he said this with a smile on his face, but it certainly was a reminder as to how lucky we all are to be able to run, and even just to walk. At mile 23 I encountered the first of the hills. However, it was good to move my legs in a different way. The hill was steep, but short. There was a brief downhill before a second hill. However, at the top of the hill were kids from center that benefits from the proceeds of the marathon. They were going crazy, giving so much support it took away the pain. The next mile all I could think about was the final hill, which was around ½ mile long. The first 200 yards were steeper than the rest….but it seemed to drag on. I put my head down and worked as hard as I could. When I crested the hill, I could see the finish. I was pretty relieved, and just went with everything that I go with. I was very tired when I crossed the line…I think I forgot to raise my arms or do anything like that. I crossed the line in 3:17.56…which is a PR by around 90 seconds. While I didn’t quite manage a negative split..the positive split was only around 80 seconds, which is much better than I would have expected at the half way point. 

First run since the marathon.  I felt very "light", but also a bit "flimsy".  I hope to do 5 miles on Tuesday.

1 easy mile, then 2 at MGP, and then 4 slower miles.

2 mile warm up, 4 x mile repeats (7:17, 7:33, 6:54, 6:53), and a 2 mile cool down.

Back in double digits…just!  I didn’t feel great out there this morning, but managed to hold onto something like an 8:15 pace.  The rust is starting to be shaken off!