Two Harbors into Duluth

Saturday I had a long progression run planned with Gregg Roberston, John Heitzman, and Dillion Johnson.  We planned to leave Duluth at 7 a.m. sharp for Two Harbors.  Along the drive up we placed water bottles strategically where we would needed them to refuel.  We lined up on the starting of Grandma's Marathon.  I looked at the others and my heart was starting to pound in anticipation of this run.  I heard all four watches beep and we were off.  The first couple miles were pretty controlled around 7:30 pace.  These miles felt super easy and one after another they passed with little or no effort and I was sitting really confident with my running.  We picked up the pace little by little coming in the 14th mile and I could tell I was starting to feel uncomfortable but still strong.  The wind was a straight head wind at about 15 miles hour.  The pace was now at around 6:30 pace.  Gregg could tell we were starting to hurt a little and he suggested that we start drafting each other to conserve energy.   We took turns leading the group for 3 min intervals to help break the wind.  I was hunkering down when I was in the back of the pack trying to focus and relax, when it was my turn to lead I took charge and jumped up into the front and lead.  It was really starting to get hard around 16 miles and I was starting to get nervous.  At round 18 miles things really started fall apart.  Keep in mind we were still running 6:30 pace into the wind so the effort was probably 6:10 pace or faster.  Dillion started to hurt and he dropped off the group and not two mins later I dropped off the group and started to really slow.  I had a 7:24 min mile around 19 miles in and I was kinda ticked about it.  I regrouped and the paced picked up I was feeling ok.  I was running alone for the last 2 miles and mentally it was difficult.  I could see the finish line and I gave it everything I had to bring the last mile in at 6:45 pace.  My average pace was 6:59 for 22 miles I was pretty happy about that.  Thanks guys for the great run lets keep rolling them out.