mumus wrote:

 

. . . Will I see any benefit to doing speed work in the last month before the race? If so, what kind of work do you recommend? . . .

You won't see much, if any, benefit in a month.  You could start now anyway, just don't expect to see much improvement.  Add speedwork carefully, one day a week.  Fartlek is probably the best way to go for now.  Do random pickups during one of your regular runs.  Pick a spot down the road - say, a sign, a power pole, or an intersection.  Run at a faster pace until you reach it, then go easy until you recover.  Repeat as needed.  After your race, check into intervals and tempo runs.  These are much more structured and take a little planning to work them into your training.

I hear over and over that I shouldn't be too focused on time this first race, but sub 2 hours shouldn't be too ambitious.

Only if your training and fitness are at that level.  There are a lot of regular runners who would be very happy to get under 2:15, or 2:30, or 3:00!

Len