Road2Hope Marathon 2013 - 3:51:00

I was right on pace for the first half of the marathon and expected to pick up a few minutes going down the Red Hill Creek Parkway -- but a headwind made it a tough downhill run (and Brian Watson confirmed the same). So I just coasted until Bob Ripley came up behind me and I had a new reason to run -- to get him across the finish in a BQ time of 3:55 or better. We did it!

Here are my splits:

4:46
4:49
4:50
4:51
4:52
4:51
5:00
4:57
4:51
4:55
5:03
5:03
5:01
5:06
5:07
5:04
5:01
5:07
5:06
5:01
5:08 = 21 km at 1:44:29 -- so right on a 3:30 finish time pace, which was the plan.
5:04
4:51 but couldn't pick up the pace going downhill because of the headwind.
5:02
5:03
5:22 After this kilometre, I knew I wouldn't hit my BQ time so I coasted.
5:32
6:20
5:55
7:00 Stopped and got a hug from Jenny.
6:53
5:47
6:16
6:01
5:41 Bob Ripley and I started running together.
6:21
5:51
6:06
6:18
6:19
6:32
6:20
6:11 (pace for 330 m.)

So, it was my fastest post-hamstring injury marathon, beating my run a month earlier in Corning by 11 minutes. But still not close to what I need to do to re-qualify for Boston. We'll see what the Spring holds!