Was pacing the 4:15 group. The plan was to pick up some time in the easy miles of 9-12, so when we hit the hills, we could keep the level of effort the same, go slower, and not lose people off the group. We had a good amount of people running with us, including half marathoners like BT's ras26 (yeah PR Becky!!). We had some time built in by the time we hit the half marathon mark, but still within our threshold. When we hit the hills this year, we didn't lose the group, like last year. We had a good pack of people that just would not fade from the group. The first hill only lost 1-2 people but they caught up on the backside. The 2nd hill is the challenge of this course, Terra Firma. It's a decently steep climb but short enough to push it. We lost a few people from the group on that one but we still held most of the group without a budge. Very impressive group. The last main hill is around mile 23-24, which the group hung on for. With most of our group intact, we then sent them on to crush their 4:15 goal times. They did go ahead of us, but not by much, which is a good sign that we didn't really hold them back too much during the day. Amazingly, the group pretty much stayed together even when they went ahead of us. A lot of first timers, finishing with their new-found friends. Near the end, we were locked in at looking good for our time, but the last mile marker was off, which was also the case last year. We ended up coming in at 4:15:18, still well within our range. Got a lot of thanks, hugs and shakes from those folks who were just ahead of us, which is pretty satisfying. By then the temps had gotten a little chilly, which made almost no one stick around. But during the race, this was really good weather; a PR day. Only once, at mile 24, did I feel slightly chilled, and I never got overheated. Good day, good race.

nothing, pretty happy