Union Hospital Half Marathon 6 days before Nashville

I haven't wrote here in over 2 weeks, probably the longest gap since we started this thing, just got busy and forgot I guess. I ran the Union Hospital half again this year mostly because it was my very first half 1 year ago and I wanted to run it again. I had my second thoughts about it being only 6 days before Nashville but figured I just run it easy as I was pacing Marsha at the marathon so I thought I'd go ahead and do it. It was a great morning, maybe a little warm by the end but very nice starting in the low 60's. I decided to pace my running buddy Bill Henry for the first few miles and then take off and try to break 1:40. We did a mile or so warm up just before the start of the race and took off a little to fast for Bill hitting the 1st mile in 7:20 then easing up a bit just under 8 the next few miles, later Bill told me I was killing him but I was trying to let him set our pace but I guess I was making him go to fast. I stayed with Bill til we hit the split mats at mile 6 at about 47:25 and said goodbye. Marsha found me a couple times out on the course and ran with me which was very nice and told me at one point Beth Woodward was right in front of me, which I thought was very odd since I ran so easy the first half and she is such a great runner. I pulled up next to Beth about mile 11 and really expected to have to pick it up to go in with her but later found out she was sick. She said she tried to stay with me but just couldn't. I ended up placing 33rd out of 277 runners with a finishing time of 1:40:09.
I did make one mistake here and it could have been bad, I decided to wear my asics trainers that I had only worn for a few 5k's mostly because my chip was already laced on these shoes and we got to the race and they are using the D TAG and I didn't need my chip, so somewhere around mile 10 or 11 I feel a hot spot under my big toe on my left foot and low and behold I have the biggest blister I have ever had with 6 days til a Marathon. I let it go til Tuesday but felt it while out for my last run before Nashville so I cut off the loose skin about the size of a quarter and got it some air and it healed pretty good by Saturday because it didn't bother me a bit. Lucky for me.