The splits looked nice on the watch, but I never really had that "this is going perfectly" mindset. The legs were moving and getting things done, but the way they felt made it clear to me that unless something changed, I was not going to be able to maintain what we were doing.
With that thought in my head early on, it was easy to convince myself to drop and not have to deal with a complete blow-up and then having to recover from it. If I backed off I still would have finished in a pretty good time and probably would not have had a miserable last 8 or so miles. At the time I just didn't want to do that though...of course I have second guessed, hell, third guessed my descision to drop, but it is what it is. So I ran hard until 17 and took the foot off the accelerator from there until where I dropped out, somewhere arounf 18.6.
On a bright note, Dave held on strong with a minimal slow-down and placed third overall in a new PR of 2:42:11! Something he has worked hard for all winter long.
I won't jump into another marathon to "redeem myself" but rather enjoy the fitness I have and jump into some other races...
Onto the next!
