15:38 and a PR today. Completely went for it and it paid off. A lot of pain but no fear. Kilometer splits of 3:05, 3:05, 3:12, 3:10, 3:04. 3 weeks to Boston!
We are here with the kids and my wife's parents so my wife and I got to warm up together which was nice. We ran about 3 miles and made it to the start area with about 15 minutes to go. Plenty of time for some drills and strides. They have individual races for under 29, 30-39, masters, and the elite races which are unbelievable to watch. My wife and I were in the 30-39 race. The race atmosphere is lively and competitive. I was excited. When the horn went off my goal was simply to stick with the lead group as long as I could. The group wasn't a tight pack but I was up towards the front. I went through the first mile in about 4:52. It already hurt but I didn't care. I continued to push and went by some guys. I was probably in about 10th place around at the first mile. The harder part of the course is the second mile. It has a gradual hill and was into the wind which wasn't much today. I passed a couple of more guys during mile 2 and I continued to push as hard as I could. Even though I was hurting I was overcome with confidence. I came through two mile in around 9:52. It was exciting to see that there were only a handful of guys ahead of me. I contined to put the pedal down as hard as I could. I was able to have a decent finish and ended up in 6th place. Obviuously I'm really pleased with this result. I am proud of the way I competed today and once again I had a good race when I didn't pay much attentiion to my watch. I'm not going to read too much into this for my marathon training other than that I am pretty fit right now. Using this same strategy in Boston will result in a quick death. No thanks! This is a great race and a highly recommend it.
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