3:07:30...and 1:32:14 at the half split...but it is not the five minute positive split that it appears to be. According to the clock it is, but not according to what happened.
I was executing my plan well, and felt great at the half split. I really started rolling in the second half of the race, clicking off some nice splits. I passed quite a few people, and no one passed me. I get to mile 21, and was feeling very good, excited about a negative split and what seemed like a PR. Calves were a tad sore, but overall I felt very good, much, much better than at NYC. Sometime between mile 21 and 22 there was a road crossing with a policeman there directing things. It looked like the place where I would enter back onto the roads, making a right turn, and heading off the trail. I knew that right turn would be coming up. So, I turned right, and went off the trail. It was a wrong turn. I see two women walking toward me, and I asked if I were going the wrong way. They told told me "yes" and gave me directions back to the trail.
I was devasted. I hurried back, but the PR would be gone. I do not know how much time I lost, but I gather it was about four minutes. It seemed like an eternity. So, I ran a marathon+ today. My watch got really, really wacky in the second half of the race, and so I do not have a mileage estimate of how much extra I ran. It gave what seemed the be fairly accurate mile splits (i.e. 6:40s and some 6:30s on the way back), but would tell me that my current pace was like 10:00 or even 12:00...very strange. The same thing happened to another guy. Again, it seemed to get wacky only in the second half of the race...strange. I used the mile markers and timers, and ran by feel in the second half, knowing I was doing well.
I am glad that I still has something left in those last 4+ miles. Quitting crossed my mind, but I pressed on. It was so deflating to see all those people I had passed ahead of me.
I told the race director what happened, but, of course, there was nothing she could do (after the fact). There should have been a course marshal there with the police officer, or the police officer should have said something to me. Well, it is all split milk now.
I learned a lot in that race today, and am very happy I ran it, even though I ran a crummy 3:07. I learned how to run a marathon. I was controlled in the first half, and in position for a negative split. I learned how to do it.