inside out sports turkey trot 8k

When I left the house this morning it was cold, but the forecast called for temps in the 40's at the start. I was a bit tentative about this race, as my tuesday run felt really tough and I had rolled my ankle on Saturday at mile 1 of an 11 mile run so it wasn't feeling all that great. This race for me is all about just getting out and exercising so I can eat more so there is little to no pressure.
Showed up at the race, got my chip and stuff then headed across the street to wait for warmup time. The 1 mile fun run started so I waited a couple mins after that, then followed the course for my warmup, then did a couple strides after. I had a fleece sweat shirt, long warmup pants, and gloves. After the warmup, I was starting to sweat, so I shed the warmups and fleece and just had shorts, long sleeve top, gloves, and my new running bee hat. Did a little stretching and it was time for the start.
mile 1:
Started near the front and the first mile went by fairly quick at 8:34 pace. I was shooting for a 8:45 pace so I felt good about my start. Average hr was 156 and just about all in Zone 4
mile 2:
This is the 2nd hardest mile on the course, so I wanted to try to maintain a 9 min mile pace. I did a 8:50 with an average hr of 165, mostly zone four with 1/3 in zone 5, so the effort was picking up.
mile 3:
This mile was the really the only mile to cruise in. It is rolling with no big climbs, so I wanted to do an 8:45. I managed an 8:41 with an ave hr of 168. times in zone 4 and 5 flip flopped on this one, with 1/3 in 4, and 2/3 in 5.
mile 4:
This mile is the easiest and really wanted to do a fast mile here to take advantage of the long downhill and put some time in the bank for the last and hardest mile. Did an 8:21 with ave hr of 168, so picked up the pace but kept same effort as mile 3 with about half zone 4 and half zone 5. At this point I was on target to break my goal time of 44 fairly easy, so it gave me some inspiration to really keep pushing up the long hill at the start of mile 5.
mile 5:
The hardest mile on the course, and even though it's listed as an 8k, my watch had it as 5:02 miles. Picked up the effort and tried to keep my pace under 9 for the first half of this mile. It was all uphill with a couple steep sections. People were dying out and walking alot here. I was passing a bunch of people that had started too fast and were paying for it on this hill. I really started hurting at the top of the hill and hit my max hr for the race of 176. I just kept hearing my coach's voice in my head saying it's ok to hurt and that kept me going. I recovered on the short downhill before the next climb then was able to push up the last hill before the short downhill finish. 8:51 - ave hr 171 - all but 1 min in zone 5.

totals
5:02 miles / 43:18 / 8:37 ave pace / ave hr 166 / max hr 176
Felt really good about this race, and beat my nephew's time from last year by 1 second. woo hoo!

National Marathon

I've signed up for the National Marathon in DC
http://www.nationalmarathon.com/home.asp
last year there were about 1400 marathon finishers and 2600 1/2 marathon finishers, so much smaller than the marine corps but you still get to see all the sites of DC.
here is a link to the marathonguide page where you can read comments from past runners.
http://www.marathonguide.com/races/racedetails.cfm?MIDD=2453090321

and this is my long run schedule which started last weekend
Saturday, November 1, 2008 9
Saturday, November 8, 2008 7
Saturday, November 15, 2008 10
Saturday, November 22, 2008 11
Saturday, November 29, 2008 12
Saturday, December 6, 2008 9 Run at the Rock
Saturday, December 13, 2008 13
Saturday, December 20, 2008 15
Saturday, December 27, 2008 10
Saturday, January 3, 2009 15
Saturday, January 10, 2009 16
Saturday, January 17, 2009 12
Saturday, January 24, 2009 18
Saturday, January 31, 2009 20
Saturday, February 7, 2009 13
Saturday, February 14, 2009 20
Saturday, February 21, 2009 14 Coach Bubba's 20K
Saturday, February 28, 2009 22
Saturday, March 7, 2009 13
Saturday, March 14, 2009 8
Saturday, March 21, 2009 26.2 DC National Marathon