Forest City Marathon

This race, I was told was flat. Yesterday, before the race started I met an old friend from High School that runs a number of marathons. He has run this race before and told me there are some rolling hills. They weren't very big, but at the beginning they seemed to help me gain positions. I started back about 10 to 15 lines from the start. I did not want to get pulled in with the 1/2 marathon group that was starting at the same time. The plan was to go about 4:45 or so for the first kilometer. My garmin was set with the little running partner, so it could show me how far ahead or behind I was. I was only behind for about 2 minutes. I saw a km marker up ahead so I hit the lap button as I passed. 3:20 came up, ya right I thought there is no way, and really there wasn't! Then I saw another 1k. It took me until the second red km marker to realize, hey those are the ones I should be tracking from, not the blue.
For this race, being local and being a boston qualifier hopeful, a lot of family members came out. My brother, mother and step father, mother in-law and boyfriend, sister in-law and husband, and my wifes aunt. That was great. I made a plan for them, thanks to forest city for putting the map on pedometer.gmaps.com I was able to figure out exactly were they could be in the race. I planned it out so they didn't have to drive for the first half. It was just a 15 minute walk to see me at 8k and a 15 minute walk to see me at the half way mark. That was ausome. As I passed my kids I put my hand out to give them "five". I was going faster than my planned pace, but I was constantly telling myself to back off, save it for the end, wait and see how you feel at 30k. For the first half I was constantly passing people. A great feeling, this is another reason why I like sitting at the back at the start. It really gives me something to focus on, the trick is to focus on catching them at pace.
I passed through the half way point and passed this guy right afterwards. He yelled out, someone lost their chip. I looked down and had to really look to see if it was still there. I wonder if he just said that or what the deal was. Then I caught up to another guy who asked me something, but I was focused and didn't hear him. Then he asked me what my goal was. I said "3:10, but I am ahead of that" and pulled away from him without pushing hard. There were a number of spectator's watching and cheering from the streets for the first half, but on the way to springbank park it was a lonely run. I passed about three more runners. Then there was this little tiny loop, that was really confusing. I got a glimpse of the next group to catch. I thought, hell there is no way I'll catch them, but I kept on going. This was around the 26km mark. From about 26k to about 29k, I saw no one in front of me. That is about where I saw the Kenyans on their way back too. I was getting tired and it was getting more and more difficult to stay focused on the task. I kept trying. Around 32km I saw someone with a Saugeen running club shirt on. I thought oh my god, I am catching them. Then I saw him walking, oh ya..then I passed him. What a boost. I had the next one targeted and slowly caught her.
Now though, again there was no one else in visual range in front of me. It was getting really hard now. The wind was in my face, it seemed like I was going up hill all the way back. I knew that there was a long distance between me and the next guy when a volunteer was leading me in with his bike. This was a first for me. He was really helpful with his words of encouragement, things like this is the toughest part of the race, your lookin' strong and so on. I new I had slowed down as well, my km splits were now at 4:39 to 5:05. I kept pushin' though, thinking I am not running next week, keep it going, you just need to hang on now. Then about 2k to go I saw the next guy. I thought, there is no way I can catch him, just hang on though. Then I saw him walking. Oh that is ausome, you just keep walking, but he started up again and I never caught him. I got to about the spot were I saw him walking and my damn garmin beeps at me and says "you're workouts done"! I ignored it and kept going. It had me a little worried that I was not as far ahead as I thought. I turn the corner, family is now cheering me in and the clock shows 3:08 something. Holy crap, I gave it hell with the legs feeling like a ton of bricks. I did it! 3:08:54 clock time, 3:08:34 chip time!