I would say things went well coming off my biggest running month ever. I put more miles in running in the last month than I did leading up to the marathon. And most of the miles put in were speedwork. So leading up to the race, my legs were pretty toasted. Luckily the race fell on a recovery week, but still had lots of speedwork during the week.

I woke up with a kink in my neck and hip. Must have slept wrong. I tried to work them out before starting, but I was just sore all over still. I kept about a 8:45 pace through mile 3, decided that even though the soreness wasnt really going away, that it didnt hurt enough to make me slow down. I thought if I can keep this pace sore, I can probably push enough to come close to a 1:50 finish. I picked it up to about 8:25 for mile 4, and thought I better not try under 8:30's until the turn around. I didnt do any racing after November, so about 6 months of no racing, and a whole new workout plan, so I really wasnt too sure what to push that early in the race.

I think my plan to get me to 1:50 would have worked, until I looked at my watch at the turn around, and saw that it was already 7+ miles into the race! so I ended up running 8:40's for a little longer then I would have liked. I was able to pick up the pace to 8:30 and a little under the last 5 miles, but I think it was just a little too late. Then I started doing calculations in my head (or trying) with 3 to go. I thought ok, 1:51 it is looking like. Then I realized that my garmin had me about .15 farther than the mile markers were showing. So Id have to kick it up another notch now to make it to 1:51 even. I held 8:30 until the last mile, I think I did that in about 7:45, but 23 sec over getting to the 1:51.

Well, this will be my first year starting to strategize a little bit. I used to run most of my races with no real goal in mind. Im starting to get a bug in my head on times/paces Id like to keep, but I need to plan that a little better!