Ok, my race report now!
First, I didn't expect to do so well. I'm the first surprised. More than 4 minutes faster than my PB. I can't believe it. I knew that I was strong, my recent PBs in my last 10k and half were there to prove it. But those PBs were a matter of seconds and not minutes, so I figured that a sub 3:20 was possible, but barely.

The weather was just perfect, cloudy and 12 degrees, light wind. I arrived about 20 minutes before the start, I was cold, and went directly to my corral. Dividing runners into corrals was a great idea, because when we started, we didn't have to slalom between slower runners and trying to catch up the terrible pace we normally have after the first km.

Anyway, that first km was not easy, I was short of breath, we were going uphill and thought that I was going way too fast. But finally that pace was 4:30, just 45 sec. faster my marathon pace of 4:45 that I had planned. Actually, I needed 4:43 to be under 3:20. On the second km, I felt more confortable, but I was still running at my half pace (4:30), trying to slow down, but it is hard in the first few kms. I managed more or less to adjust my pace, then, at km 7, came that 3:20 bunny passing by along with about 30 runners. What? If I was too fast, he was too fast too and I had no intention trying to catch him up. But 2 minutes later, he said to his group we have to stop. AND THEY STOPPED! Maybe they were practicing the Galloway method. Anyway, I lost them.

So I was on my own in Hull, a new part of the course with many little hills. I was on time when I was going up, a bit too fast while going down, but I didn't try to go faster downhill, I didn't not want to pay later.

OK, I'm a bit obsessed with pacing and I've spent the whole race calculating If I was on cue or not. For me, it's important to be constant. I like even split times. But Jerome the metronome was a bit carried away on the first half and crossed the half mark at 1:37 (pace of 4:37), too fast, yes, but not way too fast. But I knew as well that I held myself back and still felt great.

So my resolution for the second half was to try to keep my marathon pace until the end, and I knew that I would be under 3:20. I kept running right on pace for the next 10 kms, saw my family a couple of time and waiving at the crowd, still feeling strong. I drank gatorade and water, ate the GU they were offering me, I took all energy that I could, I didn't want to get a cramp like the last time. Then came the infamous overpass hill at km 32. This is were I was beginning to struggle in all my 3 previous NCM. But this time, I kept my pace! Some people were beginning to walk. But I had no need to walk. I had no problem to keep my pace at all. I was so happy. I was beginning to pass a lot of runners. Actually we were two, me and a girl, we kept our pace and we were passing the others. At km 36, she said: "I guess we will finish it together" I said, we never know. And I was right.

At km 37, we were joined by the half runners. When I saw them, I thought, I'll go along and I'll be able to keep my pace. But they were so many of them that I lost the pace girl and all the other marathoners. We were actually drowned in a crowd of halfers. And they were slower than me. Actually, I was with the halfers who did it in 1:45. So I had to slalom between them. It didn't bothered me really, but they were so many!

At km 39, I struggled a little bit, but when I saw the km 40 mark, I said hey, just 2km to go and that's it. So I was able to keep my pace (pace of 4:42 for the second half, Jerome was back), slaloming between the halfers and finish with a sprint and a big smile. I was and I am still so happy. It was a perfect race, better than I have ever dreamed of.