The Facts:

Weather ==> Sunny and upper 50's warming into the low 60's and windy

Chip Time 1:56:57 (8:55/mile pace)
M50-54        22/93
Males       305/947
Overall   427/2174

The Training:
Training for the 13.1 miles was hit or miss.  Back on the first weekend in January, I ran 13.1 in 2:01 which was about 9:15 pace ... But after that, I averaged about 10 miles a week training ... with much of that pushing my 7 year old grandson, Alex, in the 3-wheeler.  Then with a facet joint(lower back area) injury, soleus(lower calf/achilles area) injury, flu (about 10 days before the race), and various other excuses ... I did not get the training in that I wanted to do before the race ... after all of that stuff ... I was in a total training funk the weekend before the race ... but I ran with Mira a couple of times and she pushed me faster that I would have gone by myself ... So on Tuesday of race week I ran 6 mostly flat miles at 8:35/mile pace starting at about 9minute pace and finishing at 7:45pace ... so I decided that I would start the race at that pace and just go with it as long as possible and see what happened ... reference This Blog Post 

 
Pre Race:
As usual, I got a great nights sleep.  And got up and got a couple of Hammer Gels & some Gatorade and headed down to the race.  I was excited to see the fantastic weather on race morning.  (I hate the cold!!!!)  It was warm enough that I didn't have to think about long sleeves, tights, or gloves.  I didn't even need any warmup stuff before the race ... and since the race was so "long" I didn't really do any warmup except the walk from North Little Rock across the Main Street Bridge to the River Market area.  Talked to a bunch of friends ... Emily knowing that I don't like to use the term "Good Luck" said have a good race ... got a photo with Marianne & Heather that had done the 2007 Ironman at Louisville with me ... and then headed toward the start area ... and talked to a bunch of friends about the Crosswind Classic bike race from the previous day ... and lined up with the 3:45 Marathon pace group which would be running at about an 8:35/mile pace. 

The Race:
It took a minute and 14 seconds to get to the starting line ... and then crazy stuff started ... trying to make my way around all of the CRAZY WALKERS that lined up at the front instead of seeding themselves at the back ... WHAT WERE THEY THINKING ... OH THEY WEREN'T!!!!

The first four miles felt pretty easy (including running over the Broadway Bridge into NLR) but then I kind of started to feel it coming back over the Broadway Bridge back into LR.  Then just tried to run relaxed for the next couple miles to the 10K to 7 mile point and then is when it started to feel harder ... 

During mile 8 was when I started to slip below my goal pace ... of 8:35/mile

By the 9th mile heading up hill into the wind that was funneled in between the buildings it continued to get harder ... but by the 10th mile my quad muscles started to hurt ... and then my times faltered a little more over the next few miles (I could have easily succumbed to walking ... but I kept hearing Coach Rich Strauss of Endurance Nation  saying "The Pain is temporary ... but the memory of giving up is forever".)

By mile 12 despite the feeling ... I picked the pace back up to finish ... even though I ended up at 8:56/mile instead of my goal pace of 8:35/mile ... It was okay because it had probably been about 8-10 years since I had run that far that fast ...

The Splits:

Finally at the finish