So I've been training for a few months with most of my workouts aiming at running a marathon at 6 minute pace. Most of the workouts have been spot on, suggesting that pace would be challenging but realistic, though a lot were done in significant heat. Also, my mileage has been pretty high.
Anyway, I just recently did my last key long run and the weather was much closer to what I expect on race day. Also, I cut my mileage by about 35% this week and only did one easy workout. The plan was to run 1:05/1:00 for the two halves. As it turns out, I ran 62/57, and I can honestly say that it wasn't even in my top ten hardest workouts (perceived exertion) of this cycle. I kept getting faster the whole way, and I was never really struggling or pushing that hard. The pace just kind of came to me. I don't think another 6 miles would've been too bad.
So now I'm thinking that 6 minute pace is not aggressive enough, but I don't want to do anything crazy. Suggestions for how to approach the race?
For what it's worth, I've only done a few marathons before, never very seriously, and I don't expect I'll do another. I enjoy shorter stuff, but I wanted to give the marathon just one serious attempt.