It's race weekend!!!
Your experiment with blind pacing for an entire training plan is almost over. Just race day left. My final race day advice:
There isn't an official elevation profile that I could find, but this is a rough estimate based on gmap-pedometer:
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*This is off a tiny bit because I couldn't get it to start at the Legacy Village, so it's missing the first and last 0.25 miles. But regardless, you can see the first half is almost all downhill and most of the second half is uphill. If this is a real elevation profile, then I would be conservative in the beginning of the race to save your energy for the uphill 2nd half. I would even suggest driving the course either tomorrow or race day morning if you've never done it to see whether this elevation profile is accurate.
-Race day weather is Temperature + Dew of 116-123 (beginning of race to end of race). And the race is advertised as shaded, so use that to your advantage out there on the course to avoid Mr. Sun. Thus, you've got great conditions!
-There doesn't appear to be any mention of pacers on the website. Your goal time appears to put you around the 50-75% of the finishers, so I'd suggest if there is no pace suggestions at the start for lining up purposes then place yourself somewhere near the middle. Line up towards the left of the start line because that will be your first turn direction.
-At the start of the race, run at effort level 1. A good judge as to if you have the correct pace is that people around you should be passing you. If you're keeping up with the crowd, you're likely running too fast. Remember that if this elevation profile is correct, this is a major descent so be conservative. Save your energy for the end of the race. Let everyone use their energy as they fly down the downhill. You'll find them later.
-Around mile 2, you should start to notice that no one is passing you anymore and that you're holding pace with the crowd. Keep staying conservative. Save that energy. Take a visual picture of what you're running down and remind yourself you'll have to run up this to finish. Best to save that effort for then.
-At around mile 3, once it begins to flatten out begin to run at effort level 2.
-At around mile 4-5, you should begin to notice that you are running slightly faster than the crowd and are passing people.
-At around mile 6-7, you are now passing people right and left.
-At around mile 8, just after cresting the last major climb begin to run at effort level 3. Keep reminding yourself how well you're doing. I mean "You're crushing it right now!". "This is so much fun and running is great!" Do your best to block out any negative thoughts. Just keep flooding your mind with positive thinking. It's up hill from here so keep those eyes up, shoulders back, remember your breathing, keep reminding yourself how strong you are.
-At around mile 9, it's go time! Finish the race out on a high note and give everything you have to the finish line. Smile, clap, give others encouragement, pump up the jams, whatever you want to do to extend yourself into those final few moments!
-Cross the finish line and CELEBRATE! You just gave your best effort for today. No matter the finishing time, if you feel like you've got almost nothing left, then you did the best you could today! And no matter what, I'll be proud of you (for what it's worth).
Do your best to remain blind to the pace and just judge the run by effort. If you happen to catch a glimpse of the pace and it's not what you wanted don't worry. Remember to stay positive. Maybe you crushed it on the previous mile split and the pace you just snuck a peak at isn't representative of the whole run. Just keep doing your best.
One last advice, remember to turn off the 20 minute alerts on your watch. If you'd like to keep the alerts for reminders about when to drink/eat, then give the watch to Mr. A and give him a time window (say 15-25 minutes) that he can randomly put the alert at so you can be kept unaware of how you're doing via pace.
That's all I've got. Best of luck!
So good!
), but they were out of the D60 poster wallets by Saturday, sadface. But I did make an admirable haul, including a $30 D&B Nightmare Before Christmas cross-body! I was pretty stoked about that and even my husband was talking about that score for days. I also got a $30 Vera Bradley tote, because I thought it would be a great overnight bag instead of the gym duffel I am currently using. So happy your friends got the wallets, but I am also a bit jealous! 
