For Whom the Dogs Bark

48F, 100% and calm.  If it had been hot I would not have gone out today, but with temperatures rising towards the end of the week I decided to test out my legs.  They were OK, 6.2 at an easy pace, I'm guessing 9:30 to 10:00.  I could definitely feel the race in my legs until about the 3-mile mark, at which point they felt better and they feel OK tonight.  I'll be pacing Wade in a 10-mile race on Saturday in the Woodlands, so I do want to get some work in without overdoing it.

I've been sorting through a lot of variables from Saturday, although the more I think about it the more I realize how little I really know:

• Weather had to be the number one factor.  How can you beat less than 55F at the finish line with a significant tailwind until at least the bottom of Veyo, and a cross wind going up the hill?  I could actually feel it pushing on my back at some points.
• I have always believed that the altitude cancels out the downhill advantage for a sea-level runner; but with my two best marathons now being on this course, that is open for debate.  On the other hand, I have run mediocre to bad races in Provo (twice) and Ogden (not even going there) -- a bit higher altitude in those places but a lot of downhill and not as much uphill.  I still believe, however, that the hit a sea level runner takes going to altitude is greater than the advantage an altitude runner gets when coming to sea level, have seen that one time and again.
• I peaked perfectly.  I did three 20-milers in the 5 days before my taper, and the taper was only 10 days and active (a week of regular workouts without long runs, then two days' rest, then race day).  This worked because I was still peaking, I hadn't plateaued going into that last 5 days before the taper, since each 20-miler was faster than the previous one, at equal or lesser effort.  But it is risky, because you don't really know until after you have gone long if you are at the plateau or not, or at least I don't.  If I had plateaued I might have risked overtraining, which takes a longer time to recover from, probably even longer than the typical 3-week taper.
• I ate whatever I wanted the last week, but avoided red meat and tried to eat carbs as healthily as possible.  I carb-loaded but not excessively.
• Running without a watch, I may have run the first half slower than with one (not too sure about that, though, I underestimated my fitness level going in and that would have kept my pace slow), and the second half faster (this is definitely the case -- no way would I have dared to bomb down the course at 7:35 to 7:45 if I had been looking at mile splits).
• The altitude running over the summer probably helped.  3 days in Arizona in July, one of them a grueling 14-miler at 9400' and a 10K race half uphill at 7000'.  Then 3 days at Tahoe in August.
• I got a big boost from running in the heat all summer long.  8:30 per mile at SGM felt like 10:00 here in Houston.  Any morning I made it out against the odds this summer was money in the bank at race time.
• It is also possible that I got a lot of benefit from long, slow miles.  I hate them but they did not slow me down on race day, and they seemed to sustain me through the final miles.
• What is the deal with my age group?  Three guys under 3 hours, the winner from sea level?  I have seen Boston times not much better than that.  No answer for that one, I just have to get better.
• There is good and bad to take from every race (leaving Ogden out here); that's why it is so important to make sure the process itself is fulfilling, because race day is never going to be perfect, although this one was pretty close.

I promise no more comments about SGM.