Tempo in the Cold Cold Rain

Goal:
8 miles at MP with the option to run the last 3 miles at the same pace or at 5:50-6:00

Actual:
3.62 miles warmup
8 miles in 49:15 (6:09 pace) with splits of 604, 606, 610, 609, 608, 608, 617, 613
2.3 miles cool down for ~14 miles total

I would have liked to have finished a bit stronger on this workout, but the terrain and the rain didn't make this easy.  In fact, I felt pretty terrible overall throughout the whole workout.  I had been in the car for 6 hours the night before, but that is no excuse.  In Greenville for Thanksgiving, I went towards ECU campus and then headed down the greenway that goes about 5 miles.  I did an out and back 4-mile course, so the last 2 miles were somewhat uphill and on very slippery wooden planks.  I felt the worst on those two final miles, and contemplated stopping about every 800 meter.  However, Garrett was there biking with me in this miserable, cold rainy day, so I felt like I had to at least make his effort worthwhile.

In the end, I don't normally feel fantastic in the last big workout leading up to the marathon, so I'm not really putting any extra thought around it.  In the end, I did hit around goal marathon pace, so that's always a plus. I will note that once I got home from the workout, my left hamstring was ridiculously tight so I rolled it and had Garrettt do some work on it.  I'm hoping it's just from the slippery boards and nothing a deep massage can't fix.