It's a great day for a marathon

Or a half marathon. This morning was the Lewis and Clark 1/2 Marathon in St. Charles. It was a good race. The weather was fairly nice, although it was a little humid when we started out. The course is a circular loop which the 1/2 marathoners do one lap of and the full marathoners due two laps of. I don't like these "loop" courses, so I've never run the full marathon at this race, but it's a good half marathon course.
Most of the race covers flat terrain, although there's a big 230+ foot hill in the middle of mile twelve. Part of the course covers a route that I usually run on my long runs anyway though, so some of the course is really familiar to me.
This year's race was the first time that the race has reached capacity. I think this is due in large part to the Endurance 50 Challenge and Dean Karnazes. Just a little FYI for those of you who may be planning to run with the Ultramarathon Man in the near future: that 10:00/mile pace he's supposedly running? Yeah, it's actually closer to an 8:30/mile pace. He finished the first half of the race today in just under 1:50.
As far as my personal finishing time today went, I didn't quite meet my time goal of 1:50. I came damn close though. I snuck under the wire at 1:58 and that includes at least two minutes in a port-a-potty about 1/4 of a mile into the race. I know, poor planning on my part.
Anyway, my time rounds out to just under a 9:00/mile pace, which will be enough to put me under the four hour mark at Chicago in (gasp) five short weeks. Which was my original goal before I got cocky and decided to go for a qualifying time. Since I've only been competing for two and a half years, and this is the first year I've really been seriously hardcore about my running, I'm okay with just getting faster with each progressive marathon. Besides, I've got the rest of my life to qualify for Boston.
I've still got two more half marathons in the next three weeks to fine tune my race strategies. I did learn several things about my race habits today. The most important thing I learned was that the GU2 fluid replacement is not something that my body agrees with. So, in the future if this is the sport drink of choice at a race, I'll be carrying my own Powerade or Gatorade.
I've also learned to make sure I get a full night's rest the night before the race. Last night we were out a little later than we normally are, as we were at our cousin's house, celebrating the upcoming birth of one of my college girlfriend's baby. Next time I'll plan a smidge better.
Overall though, the race was good and I'm happy with my finishing time. Next up is the Hills and Hollows 1/2 on Saturday, to which I'll add another 4.9 miles for a total of 18.