Plus, I've been training for this one with my Running Room clinic. We toughed out a very difficult winter.
I'd have to rate my training as average. I did concede some quality to the clinic and the elements. Still, in the midst of marathon training, I felt good.
My biggest problem is setting new goals that are not always PB related. I'm coming around though. I played around with a couple of different approaches, but in the end, I just decided to let the legs go however they wanted to, and let the chips fall where they may.
The morning was lovely and sunny, but cool and WINDY! Now this was going to help in some parts of the course, but be miserable in others. I took the dog for a walk to dropped off my bag and check in with my posse at the RR. Then back home to watch the marathoners go by from my perch on the 21st floor. Very cool perspective!
Then it was time for one more bathroom visit , then off to the start.
Being so windy, it was one time to be glad to be short. I was nicely sheltered!
. But why was the 2:15 pacer ahead of the 1:50 pacer? Grrrrrr. There was some unnecessary bobbing and weaving for the first bit because the pacer had a big group. The wind carried us down yonge street, but we still got some gusts. I reached the halfway point at a decent 54:00. Still PB territory, and I was feeling OK.
Eventually we had to face that head wind though, and it was brutal. Eventually I had to concede that the PB wasn't going to happen, and I just bared down to the finish. I had to have a chuckle when I looked at my garmin and saw a time 2 seconds faster than last year!
Time was 1:50:33. Good for 9/141 in my age group! Cool.
Overall a good day.
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