Quincy Bridge The Gap Half Marathon

Quincy "Bridge The Gap" Half Marathon in Quincy, IL. We drove up Friday after work, went to the expo, had the spaghetti dinner there and heard Amby Burfoot speak, which was interesting. Spaghetti was all right, hit the spot, but wasn't great. We then went and checked into the hotel, relaxed a bit, and went to bed. Got up in the morning, got dressed and headed the 3 or so blocks to the start line. It was about 42F with a stiff wind from the west, gusts over 30mph. It was a bit chilly, but I figured I'd be fine once I got running. The race started by going up a hill the over the Mississippi, then turning around and coming back. On the way out was into the wind, on the way back was with the wind. We then wound our way through a park, which had a decent sized hill, and then we ran out and back going north, turning around shortly before the 8 mile point and heading back to the start. I felt good the whole way, took 7 water and/or gu breaks along the way, but expect for the 2 Gu breaks, they were shorter than a minute. Started off with a 9:33, 9:17 and 9:25 miles as I warmed up and got past the major hills. Then I ran 8:24 (including the down hill out of the park), 9:01 (had a Gu), 8:44, 8:58 and 8:46 north somewhat into the wind. After the turn around, I figured I would pick up the pace and see how things felt, as I figured I could make 2:00 pretty easily and I might have a chance at a PR if I picked up the pace. I ran 8:19 and 8:37 (had another Gu) and hit 10 miles at about 89 minutes, so if I averaged under 8:20 a mile for the last 3.1 miles I'd get my PR. I then ran 8:15, 8:26 and 8:04, then 0:40 for the last approx .1 mile to finish in 1:54:35 officially. Felt really good, and not overly tired, probably could have pushed it a bit more, but sometimes it's hard to tell. Jackie Joyner Kersee put my medal on me at the finish line. Walked back to the hotel, changed, then came back and waited for Judy. She finished in about 2h40min, so I good time for her as well. We then went back to the hotel, showered and headed to the 'Best Buffet' Chinese buffet, which was pretty good but I definitely over ate. A good experience, will probably do it again sometime.