last thoughts

Alright well I thought I should post some pre-race thoughts here tonight just to sort of hone in and focus.

So the weather looks to be perfect for a PR. I mean I don't think I could ask for better.

This is the course satellite map, with the elevation shown at the bottom.
As you can see elevation can account for a lot in someone's strategy.

Here is a breakdown of my strategy. Hopefully it will line up with what actually happens:

1. The huge starting hill. While many will try to "truck" up this thing, I am going to employ the opposite strategy. First I will take it with small quick steps, and be sure not to over-exert myself wasting precious energy and hopefully keeping my heart rate and muscle fatigue low. This leads me to the face that the start itself is nice since I have a racing chip and I get to start at 8:15. Everyone else will start at 8:30. So I'm sure the guys running 15-16's will be up there killing that hill to start off. I hope to be pulled in behind them, but not forced to run up it at a crazy pace.
2. Once I reach the top of the hill I can try to get into a groove. It shouldn't be too hard after running uphill as I'll be looking forward to the downhill
3. increase pace here and use gravity as much as possible- lots of free seconds to be won here.
4. A small incline, but only about 400 meters and I should be going fast enough from the downhill to carry through.
5. A steep, but short downhill, then things are slightly uphill till 6, but now is the time to exert a little extra effort if needed to stay on pace.
6. 1.29 miles- This is a key point as it's not very much downhill, but over this section it will be easier to maintain a faster pace because of the slight gravitational advantage.
7. 1.97 miles -This is the last hill. I'm going to really try to exert effort here if I have to as it's the last major incline. This is the "afterburners" switch. After this last hill and hearing the 2 mile split I'll know how fast the last mile needs to be. I'll also know that it is completely flat and a looong stretch to really get into a rhythm since there are no more turns. I should be close to top speed as I approach 8 (in other words increase pace and hold as fast as possible over this stretch)
8.2.89 miles- At this point the race is over for me. My kick is strong. I know this because I've always had it - and I've been using it in my daily runs every tuesday and sometimes thursday, And this downhill is literally a cake-walk.

If there's anyone within 100 meters of me not sprinting at this point, they might as well get ready to be blown over.

Alright so my strategy is out there, albeit a bit later than I wanted it to be. So time to get some sleep. Hopefully I've looked over this enough to remember a few key points, but mostly #1, #3, and #7.

Good luck to all, run hard, and have fun.