Race report:
Woke up to a nice thunderstorm about 2 hours before race start. Luckily it cleared out before the start of the race, but did leave some nice puddles on the roads to try and avoid for the 1st half of the race. It also was not nice running into the sunrise with the wet roads, made for some brutal glare.
Originally, I had planned on a 1:42 race, then was planning on running with a running club member to help her PR a sub 1:45. She had plenty of help today from me and others in the club (she ended up with a 1:44:40). I ran with them through Mile 6. At that point, my legs felt good, and was told to take off and run my race. 1st 6 miles we were averaging right at a 7:56 mile pace. The last 7 miles, I had a 7:33 pace and finished at 1:41:53. Pretty decent negative split. I did run miles 8 and 9 with another running club buddy who was hoping for a 1:30 race. He had a bad stitch in his side and was struggling, so I tried to help him through the rough stretch.