This morning, I met up with a few of the Gazelles, and we ran a very easy 4 miles with Gilbert. Very easy. 10:00/mile easy. On a humid, overcast morning, the run felt pretty comfortable. Afterwards, the usual Saturday stretching. We got some race advice from Gilbert, and we're meeting before the race tomorrow morning for warmup and drills.

If the weather is like it is today, I'm going to scale back my race goals a bit. Since it's going to be warm, I'll shoot for an overall pace of 8:30-8:45. If I'm faster than that, then good for me. My plan is to go out easy for the first mile, maybe 9:00 pace, then slowly accelerate over the next 3 miles to the base of the hilly section. Get through the hilly section (about 3 miles) as comfortably as possible, while keeping up a pace under 9:00, and then hopefully push the last 4 miles and pass a bunch of people. A negative split for this race is a major goal, and I'd like my last two miles to be my fastest.