Time for PR update!

Today was the Portland Marathon. Had a weird trip out. I always plan my marathon travel bag down to the last detail and check it 6 times before leaving. So how do I end up here with no phone and no underwear? And I left the hotel information on the plane. Anyway, I managed to get the race essentials packed in my carry on bag so I had what I needed to race. I will admit now that I knew I was prepared for this race. In fact, my concern was that I would get greedy and go for that shimmering 3 hour mirage that shows up in my dreams. In fact, as I left the room this morning, I had to force myself to leave the 3 hour pace band that I grabbed at the race expo on the room desk. I'm glad I did. I wrote the 10 mile and 20 mile splits for 3:10:00 on my arm and reminded myself of the 3:10:00 pace of 7:15/mile. The start was confusing to say the least. I was 3 feet behind the tape with maybe 200 runners. The Portland Mayor did his countdown and yelled GO and off went the elites. I was leaning into my start when they yelled at us to wait our turn. WTF? They gave the elites a 1 minute head start then let us go. I don't know how many "waves" they staggered but I heard it was the same thing for Ruth Anne at the 4 hour pace group. I stuck to my plan and ran BEHIND the 3:10:00 group through 2 miles where we were already 30 seconds ahead of pace. When the pace group leader slowed WAY down to get back on pace I ditched him and tried to get on my own "steady" pace. Anyone who has followed my blos for any time will laugh when I use steady and pace in the same sentence and you would be right again today. On the first big hill at mile 4 I clocked a 7:06 and wondered if I had just cooked my goose. I saw Erik and Jacob in 5 and 6 place on the out and back. Then Steve and Tim. Steve scolded me to run smooth. Are you kidding me? I was in the groove today and yelling at everyone I saw. I made the turn around and saw nearly everyone from Rogue go by. By mile 10 I had 2 minutes in the bank but instead of feeling scared, I felt like it was going to be my day. I made up my mind to run as steady as I could to the center of the big bridge and see what I had left. That was the 17.5 mile point of the race and I looked at the guy next to me and litterally said "see ya" and took off. From mile 17.5 to the finish line I did not let one person pass me. A few managed to pass me but I caught every one of them. I was hamming it up for the crowds when they went quiet and fed off of the cheers I could solicit. I guess I passed 80 runners in the final 8 miles. I noticed my breathing became labored at about 23 but I knew it was my day and I just kept pushing. At mile 25.something they had a water stop set up under an overpass. The tables were only 10 feet apart and with peaple handing out water it was very narrow. I was in full kick mode and the idiot in front of me took a water and stopped dead in the center of the gap maybe 6 feet in front of me. No time to think, I brought up my arm and shoved him out of the way. I heard a table crash and 800 water cups hit the ground but I never looked back. In the final 1/2 mile I passed at least 20 runners like they were standing still. I was hoping for a 3:05 at that point but heard 3:05 flat announced as I hit the 26 mile mark. 1:05 for the .2 miles and I was done. Cooked. Hungry. Thirsty. And getting cold. I had promised Ruth Anne I would wait no matter how long it took her to finish so I found my drop bag and headed out to the course. She was behind the 4:30 group and really looking bad when I found her but Julia and John (THANKS GUYS) where holding her hand and passed her off to me. I ran the final mile in with her and held her up through the medal/pin/drink/food/flower line and got her back to the room. Here are my splits. You can look up the course profile if you want to correlate them to ups and downs.

1 7:03
2 6:55
3 7:19
4 7:06
5 7:04
6 6:52
7 7:02
8 7:01
9 7:33 missed the marker so not accurate
10 6:54 short because of previous remark
11 6:54
12 7:14
13 6:59
14 7:00
15 6:58
16 7:12
17 7:47
18 7:00
19 7:04
20 6:58
21 7:05
22 7:01
23 7:13
24 7:02
25 7:21 No idea why this was slow, I felt like I had picked up the pace
26.2 8:14 Didn't split at 26.