Thanks guys!
I knew pre-injury i could get under 3:12 so it was mostly a question of how much fitness I had lost and how missed training would come to play by mile 20. I had intended to run a conservative 3:22 pace but then earlier in thr week I had a slight cold, then the forecast was terrible, and I woke up last night with stomachs cramps. Put my middle finger up at life and thought I would go for 3:18 but as the starting gun went off I decided to join the 3:15 pace group just to see what happens. Given the cold and rain I figured going a little faster will be more comfortable for the first 20 miles and then I would hot the wall,or not. First 8 went great, the rain was only moderate then, breathing was easy and relaxed. By mile 10 my left knee started hurting a little, I got very annoyed that after all this it was my left leg giving issues so I did my best to ignore. Slowly the miles ticked by, the rain got heavier, the wind picked up, muscles got tired and my whole left leg was aching. But the pace team was great, excellent splits and very motivating. I really didn't want to give up mile 15 or so but I was starting to doubt my endurance and left leg pain. After that each. lie was different, some I felt very strong, others a little tired. Mile 20 came but unlike last year I had no desire to up the pace because if I could stay with the pacers I would already have a big PR and fantastic time. By mile 24 I found myself edging away from the pace group and actually my left leg didn't hurt any more, it was just general fatigue all over but with just 2 to go I thought I could try to clip some time. The pace group were aiming for 3:14:30, we were something like 10 seconds ahead of that, and I though it would be nice to get a 3:13:xx , so drop from 7:25 pace to 7:10 should do it. I managed a 7:05 and then soe,thing like 6:59 and what felt like a sprint for the last 0.2 but was likely an awkward shuffle. The last 5 miles the rain was very heavy and driving down with a strong head wind, just nasty conditions.
About 30seconds past the finish I started shivering, legs cramped and I could barely stumble to bag pickup and then a changing tent. Shivering got fairly uncontrollable. They had this amazing massage service, for free. With a fast finish there was almost no one waiting and some amazing women heated me right back up. Paramedics were in the massage tent as several people were suffering full on hypothermia and exposure. One of them quickly looked at me and then said they would come back in 5 if I hadn't recovered but the massage ladies stopped the shivering and sorted my legs right out. Then a horrible shuffle through wind and rain to the shuttle busses, shivering commencing.
Not fun conditions but for most of the course the rain didn't have a big Impact. Just really hit you mile 20 as you turned around and ran up the board walk of the Jeraey shore. Wind blowing in your face at that stage was just plain nasty. Didn't feel cold while running and I thought I would have a few minutes to get changed before the cold hit me but it was like lightning. Medical tent looked like it was overflowing due to the cold.
The race was well organized but they should have handed out space blankets at the finish, not towels. And they needed 5x the number of changing tents. 1 small tent was ridiculous. People standing outside looking white as a sheet and shaking violently waiting to get in.
