ANNAPOLIS STRIDERS METRIC MARATHON (race report):

This was my first time running this 26.2k or 16.3 mile course in Harwood, MD, whose terrain is similar to the Capital Ale House 10-miler in (coincidentally) Hartwood, VA, which I did last year. The race is three weeks before the Marine Corps Marathon, so many and perhaps most people running it were, like me, tuning up for the MCM. The course has beautiful, rural scenery and rolling hills throughout, which become a bit steeper from around 11 miles and include a moderately long but not especially steep uphill from the end of mile 13 into mile 14. The weather wasn't too bad: low 50's and no wind to speak of, though it did start raining lightly when I was around halfway and picked up from there but never rained hard. The race went well for me: my goal was to run marathon pace and I succeeded. My finishing time of 1:49:15 corresponds to a 6:43/mi. pace, but my Garmin put my average pace at 6:46/mi. So either the course was a bit short, or the clouds messed up my Garmin a little. Either way, that's about what I had been thinking my marathon pace should be before my discouraging half-marathon a few weeks ago, after which I scaled back my hopes to the high-6:40's or 6:50. It's encouraging that I felt comfortable running at that pace today on terrain that's more difficult than the MCM course. I started feeling tired around mile 12 when the course got hillier, but I didn't slow down and I think that it was the hills (and the rain) rather than the distance that started wearing on me. I recovered well enough to run the mostly flat mile 16 in 6:29, so clearly I wasn't spent at the finish. Somehow my back, which had been tight for a couple days, didn't bother me during the race at all. So I'm feeling confident going into my taper now and will probably keep the rest of this week easy with whatever mileage feels comfortable.