We will chalk this one up as inexperience on my part. My goal was to get a 2:45, which should have been attainable based on my training runs. I had a plan to go out fairly fast 5:40's for the first mile or so and then settle into an even 6:00 pace as long as I could hold it. I started up towards the front right behind BJ, Jeff, and Fritz, which was a honor in it self to run with these guys, for 100 meters or so :). Minus BJ who just took off, I was glad to find out he was doing the relay. I started out following the plan pretty close, it went something like this for the first 1/2 Mile 1 5:45 Mile 2 6:06 Mile 3 6:03 Mile 4 5:59 Mile 5 6:06 Mile 6 6:12 Mile 7 6:04 Mile 8 6:12 Mile 9 6:26 Mile 10 6:21 Mile 11 6:38 Mile 12 6:33 Mile 13 6:41 It slowed down after 8 due to the course flattening out. I was actually quite happy when I hit the 1/2 Marathon start line at 1:21. I wasn't looking forward to the upcoming hills but knew that after that was all downhill. I made it through the hills pretty easlily and feeling good, I even did mile 17 in 6:46, which I was very pleased with, since it was the big hill. At about mile 18 I started feeling some tightening in the legs and decided to stop for a quick leg stretch at the next aid station. This is when it all went down hill (not in a good way), I stopped and did a quad stretch and immediatly my hamstring cramped up in a huge ball of muscle. After that the entire race quickly went down hill and all my goals slipped away quickly. I couldn't get back into any rythm again and could hardly go 1/4 miles without stopping to stretch again. I ended up with a 3:04:44, which is by far my PR, but very disapointing since I was so close and on track to meet my goal up until about mile 20. Well lesson learned, I'll try and redeem myself this fall in Logan. In DC for 2 weeks now and I think I'll take it easy for a while, maybe some short (non-Garmin) runs to get my mind back on track.
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