frederick marathon

The picture tells a lot of the the story. I was running from 7:30am to a little before 11am. Here's some additional whining:

• The wind was from the NNE and the course is basically a skinny loop oriented NNE.
• The weather history also shows gusts from 25-30mph from 8:20am on.
• The course is also probably 90% on open roads -- no shelter.
• The course is not exactly flat either, but it's fair. +810/-876ft on my watch. MCM was +579/-459 on my watch.
• It was just insane the last 4 miles having to run much of it straight into the wind (and often uphill).

With the whining out of the way, I actually had a very good result. 3:24:16, which beats my old PR by an even 19 minutes. Not bad. The wind was demoralizing at the end and I felt like I lacked both the physical and mental strength to counter it. I should have expected some fade though as I kept good on my plan to go out at boston qualifying pace (first three miles average 7:20 min/mi), but it soon became clear to me that I wasn't going to make it. I did manage to set a PR at the half though. Chip says 1:38:54.5 (7:33 min/mi). My PR was 1:39:12. At 20 miles I was at 2:32:14 (7:37 min/mi). The I "scorched" the last 10K at an average of 8:22 min/mi. Despite slow down, I actually moved up 5 positions from 17.4 miles (they had a mat there) to the finish. I was 23rd at 6.4, 20th at the half, 19th at 17.4, and 14th (out of 87) at the finish.

Overall a good race for me and I feel like I'm within striking distance of a BQ.