Cupcake Marathon- DONE- Race Recap

I finished up the Cupcake Marathon yesterday with a 12 mile run at Kensington with Cristina. She was also doing the "virtual race" too. It was a beautiful sunny day. Finally, we were able to run without coats, snow, ice, rain, or other weather problems. The loop at Kensington is officially 8.5 miles long, and we were able to run down an extra drive to a parking lot at the top of the "big hill" as well as run out on the peninsula of turtle cove to make it almost exactly 12 miles. We didn't have to do any extra out and back once we got to the parking lot like we anticipated.

We have been so coordinated the last few times we have worked out together, and today was no exception since we had matching Live Like Andi race shirts, although mine was black from the first race and hers was last year's blue (we did not plan this or any other matchy matchy days, aside from both wanting to wear the TIA shirt for the picture with the bib, and I said it was a great shirt already!). I guess that is what happens when we both own the same race kits from Team Stayput and Team Marathon, are both members of TIA, and have run an assortment of the same races. The odds are stacked in favor of matching.
Me:

Cristina:

For today's run, we ran 12 miles in 1:40:07.

This was very good considering we took a couple walking breaks for fueling. I used a Gu Rocktane sample that I picked up this morning at a tri clinic. I was a little afraid of the cherry lime flavor they were giving away, but hey, it is a practice run, and all the rocktane flavors are a bit out there. It was great, and now I think I need to buy some for the race. The final total for me for the Cupcake Marathon is:
3:40:43

Too bad this isn't a real Boston Qualifier, as that would actually count since I am allowed 59 seconds over the qualifying time. I am pretty sure this time would not get me entered, though, based on how fast registration filled up before. This would only get me good enough to sign up on the 7th day. I feel really happy about this total though, because there were very few instances this past week when I felt that I was going at 100%. My speedwork on Tuesday had me going that fast (actually, faster than I intend to run a full marathon, more like 5K/10K race pace), but I was also walking, and those walking times were included with my total to bring the pace down. We also had a bit of walking yesterday. Miles without walking were right around 8min/mile, a few above and a few below. I am feeling very confident about the Martian, especially because I plan to leave it all out there and don't need or want to have anything left once I finish.