The Adirondack Marathon 9/07

Hey all, I ran the Adirondack Marathon this morning. I'm pretty happy cause I set PR for myself 3:54 on a pretty hard course. the results arent posted yet, but I think I placed 61st overall and 8th in my age group out of almost 300 racers.(Bib # 247) The whole first half is pretty nice sized hills, but you get rewarded with some down hills also. The second half felt alot tougher for me, cause it seemed like about 10 of the 13 miles was just one never ending up hill stretch. Every time you thought you made it over the top of a hill, there lies another huge stretch of hill, not really too steep, but just really long.Part of me felt like the different elevations helps a bit cause you use different muscles and you are not always pounding at the same flat pace. When the race started, the announcer said it was 36 degrees, it felt a little warmer though. It probably warmed up to high 50's by the half way point, I ate around 4 gel packs and carried my water bottle till around mile 21. When I was at mile 26 I was right behind a guy that looked like he might of been in my age group, so out of nowhere I got this sudden burst and started sprinting to the finish and passed him. As I was sitting on a bench having my chip taken off the guy I passed sat down next to me and said where did that come from? I said I have no idea but I must say Vickie Adams was in my head a bit with the whole age group thing and my wife and kids were there cheering me on.I think I'm ready for a 50k now.