The quick stats:

Goal Time: sub 3:00
Actual Time: 3:04:30
Avg HR: 153 (87% of max HR)


As you'll hear from everybody that posts their Grandma's report, the weather was brutal. Warm and sunny. I'd been shooting for sub-3 for a long time and this was to be the race. Saturday morning it was clear I'd have to be in better than 3:00 shape to hit the goal. I hoped that was the case and decided to go out as planned and see how long I could hang on.

All went well through the half when I came through in just under 1:29. Felt great, was surprised at how easy the pace felt. This was about the point where people started commenting on the weather and how they were starting to become uncomfortable. Shortly after I started having the same feelings. I knew the slow erosion was coming and hoped to hold it off as long as possible. Many people hit the wall hard somewhere in the 20M neighborhood after holding their pace until that point. Mine was more like a slow erosion that started at about 14M. The first few miles I was able to hold pace but it took greater effort than I wanted to be expending at that point. Then I realized that this pace couldn't continue and the 3:00 goal was not going to happen.

The realization point was at 21M. Thanks to my trusty Garmin 305, I had "avg lap time" programmed in and always knew exactly what my average mile time was. When I hit the lap button at 21M the average lap screen went over 6:51 and I knew with over 5M left the goal had to change. I knew it would still be a PR but the question was by how much? I was able to string together 5 miles of 7:40's to finish at 3:04:30, a PR of 5:00.

A 5:00 PR is always great, but the 3:00 mark has been a goal for so long that it seems like that is my PR. Anything above that is less than satisfying. With that said, I'm 100% confident that I started that race in sub-3 shape given better weather conditions. I'm also very satisfied with the effort. I dug very deep the last 8-10 miles even after the sub-3 was unattainable. For those reasons I grade the race as a complete success. The sub-3 will come another day.

And my Grandma's RR would not be complete without a note regarding the post-Grandma's party. Wow. Nothing like dehydrating during the race, rehydrating after the race, and then intentionally dehydrating yourself again. I met some great new friends and look forward to going back.

For my fellow data geeks, here it is:

Mile Time avg hr
1 0:06:33 144
2 0:06:52 147
3 0:06:41 149
4 0:06:51 150
5 0:06:49 149
6 0:06:46 153
7 0:06:51 150
8 0:06:52 153
9 0:06:50 152
10 0:06:38 151
11 0:06:54 153
12 0:06:42 154
13 0:06:47 154
14 0:06:47 155
15 0:06:49 155
16 0:06:52 156
17 0:07:08 155
18 0:07:04 155
19 0:06:44 159
20 0:07:38 154
21 0:07:22 156
22 0:07:38 151
23 0:07:33 156
24 0:07:44 155
25 0:07:41 159
26 0:07:41 162
26.22 0:01:30 165
TOTAL: 153avg (87% of max)


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