Toronto Goodlife Marathon Lessons

I came up to the starting line early enough to get a good position. I asked a guy next to me what time he was trying for. He said 3:20. When he said that, the first thing that came to mind was the thought that I may not be close enough to the start. My goal for this race was 2:56. This time was based on the 8k result from a race in June after the May marathon. The time was without any training for short races. I used that to determine my training paces and trained as best as I could to Interval, Threshold and Marathon paces, with getting my peak mileage up to 132k. He asked me what time I was trying for and I said sub 3 hour. 5 minutes before the race was to start I stripped down to my shorts, singlet, hat and gloves. I then wrapped myself in the silver blanket that I kept from last year and waited for the start. We moved up to the front, with the crowd and then in a short bit the horn went off.
I had preset my garmin to track a 2:58 marathon with the running buddy. Hit the done and I thought I was done. After running for about 300m I realised it was not done. I had to press the start button again. The first k was really fast, because the timer didn't start until later, right. The second k was sub 4:00. oops. next 4:02.... many sub 4:10's. Then the garmin started telling me to slow down, and was beeping at me. It never stopped doing that until the last 3k. Early on it seemed like a couple of runners were testing me, especially up the Hogs Hollow hill. I kept to what I thought was an easy pace. Around 10k I started to second guess my pace. However, I kept going. It is downhill after all. At 15k I took my first gel. I kept checking my k times, a 4:18 appeared around 17k. I picked the pace back up after that, but I knew I wasn't as light and free flowing. I had set out a pace and plan for my wife, kids and mother in-law to cheer me on at different points in the race and was looking forward to seeing them. I got a big surprise from Kelly, who I started running with at the running room store at York Mills running room. She screamed like crazy when she saw me. Jesse and Laurie were there too, just before the half way point cheering me on. It was great to see the people you know. At the half way point the half marathoners and the full marathoners split. One guy almost went the wrong way, and I yelled out this way! I was hoping he would pull me forward, but he seemed to slow down. I could feel the legs getting tired not much later, but said to myself "this is what champions are made of" gotta keep going, so I did. I took another gel around 24k. A little later Chris yelled out that I was doing well and cheered me on. Around the 30k, I knew one of the guys from work would be there waiting for me at the time I set out. Right on the 30k mat I caught up to and passed the first female in the race. I knew this because someone yelled out your the third female around the time I passed her a while back. I passed the turn on the gravel, then all of the sudden the legs just started to get really tight. I took a gel, but it didn't seem to help. I was disappointed and I gave up. I started to walk. I really thought I couldn't keep going. This is at 34k. I thought I was done. Then all of the sudden, like in London a volunteer on her bike was helping me out. Telling me what I already knew, but was still helpful, I was ahead of a lot of people. Top 20. But the legs were just hurting on every step! A spectator, someone by looking at him you would never think he would understand, but he said something, can't remember what the hell it was but it was good. With a pat on the back it caused me to think "mind over matter" and got running again! The legs were hurting big time! I stopped again, walked by a cheering station were I saw Chris again. He said common' dig deep! I said that I was spent, and walked for another minute or so. Then for some reason, I thought I could still get a sub 3 or PB. Started running, the pain was still there, but I was able to ignore it. I have no idea how. I dropped the jaw in a realaxed sort of sick state. I didn't care how I looked, or how I ran, just did it. I caught up and passed some people and just kept going, up the damn hill to Queens park and just kept going. More passed me closer to the end. One guy with 3 others pulling him along beat me, but that's ok. I finished in 3:02, with 3 PB's in 1/2 marathon, 30k and full marathon times!
What are the lessons that I think I can pick up from this? The threshold pace training and interval training were completed at pace or faster. I never went slower for those paces. However, my marathon pace runs were a different story. I could never start slow and finish fast. One of the runs was in high humidity and heat and I still tried to go at 4:10. I need to train like I want to finish; finish at pace or faster!
I will get that sub 3:00 hour, but that may need to wait for a while.