The new route when right past the end of my street at about mile 3, still too early for the family to be out cheering, but convenient for ditching my long sleeve shirt which was no longer needed.
The plan was to head out easy for the first 4 miles where the course reaches its highest elevation, see how I felt and then pick it up if I could. I was feeling really good at this point and was motivated to pick up the pace in order to move away from "ear bud cord flapping loudly against her race nubmer" girl and "breathing much to loudly for my comfort" dude.
I grabbed water at every station (every 2 miles), walking to make sure I got enough in. My plan was to eat about half a GU just before the station at mile 6. Unfortunately, I'd zipped the GU wrapper into the pocket zipper and could not get it open on the run. They had HammerGel at the station, so I grabbed Vanilla hoping it would be ok. This gel was so cold it was more like a chewy caramel than gel and I could only manage a small mouthful before hitting the water station. Oh, well - just keep running.
Every once in awhile I'd find myself settling in behind people, running their pace, only to realize I didn't feel like I was working very hard and would then pass.
Miles 7 to 11 are my favorite part of this course, along the waterfront and thorugh Boulevard Park. There is a train crossing heading into the park and I arrived just after a train went though. Many people had to stop and wait (I was one of the first not getting 'credit' for time spent waiting). This was good and bad. Good in that I now had obviously faster people to pace me to the finish. Bad in that there were now a large number of people vying for space on a paved path through the park. This "restart" thinned quickly and was pretty much a non-issue.
The most difficult portion of the race for me came at mile 11 where the course turns back toward downtown. After a short, steep hill, the course is back on street and is very, very steeply banked. At this point I was feeling it from not being able to access the GU I had brought and had two things going through my head. 1 - My race report where I was saying this was where I had to dig deep and was proud that I pushed through to the finish and 2- John telling me to "run my ass off" - so I had that going for me.

There was an aid station at mile 9.x and 12.x that had a lot of volunteers that I knew, so it was very motivating having my own cheering section twice late in the race.

Not zip my GU into the zipper. Pay more attention to my own pace and not get distracted following others.

Grabbed some water, a banana and a small PB bagel and then went straight to sign up for a massage. Met up with the family - my daughter thought I was a little too 'sticky' to hang out with. The massage was definitely phoned in, but I guess you get what you pay for. Continued to walk around, grabbed some pizza, and waited for my SIL to finish. She finished in 2:26 and ran the entire distance for her first half.


Tendonitis in my foot early in the month causing me to miss two tempo/speed runs and two long runs.


The post-race fare was less than last year, but I imagine sponsors are harder to come by this year.