I didn't get much more than a mile warmup today on account of traffic. Hoping to repeat for the third year, I got the wind promptly knocked out of my sails early on when the leader took us out in 4:55. In the past years, I'd gained a lead before hitting the bridge around mile 4. Looking at my watch after a 5:09 opening mile and seeing the gap grow in front of me already, I literally turned my head to the runner next to me and said, "What. The. F***." The winner ended up running 49:30-ish, a disgustingly fast time for the course. The race was on for second after mile 1.
Going over the bridge, I foolishly let a couple of runners go, worried that the fast pace in the early miles would put me in the red zone too early on the course's difficult middle miles. That never happened. My conservative plan backfired, as the ground I gave up was too much to make up in the last two miles. I felt stronger here than I have in the last two years. Today it was only good enough for 4th.
I could hear 5th-placer Matt near me for most of the race, but his distance behind me seemed to vary. At 7 miles, our gap wasn't more than 10 seconds. Fortunately, though I didn't catch places 2 and 3, I was able to hold him off. Because the mile markers were wildly inconsistent (my second mile was 4:40, and my fifth mile was around 10:30, for example), I had a tough time judging how fast we were running. I did know that in years past my last "mile" (for whatever that is worth) was just over 6:00. I hit the 9-mile mark in the same place as last year knowing that if I had a strong last mile that I'd be able to get under my goal time (55:00). I finished feeling strong and aerobically laboring to excess: a good sign my marathon work is coming along. Unlike the last two years, I never got the urge to vomit in the final miles, but there were times where I just couldn't make my legs turn over at a faster rate, though I could tell that I was crushing the downhills and making up a lot of time there on other runners. 2007 and 2008 left me feeling sicker than a dog for the rest of the day. That didn't happen this year...the cooler weather, perhaps?
Anyway, today was a good step. I'm bummed I didn't win but happy with the course PR.
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