GCM a new PR and a BQ for 2012

I have a new PR in the Marathon after the Glass City Marathon In Toledo. I ran a 3:16 with the help of Connie as my pacer, one minute faster than I ran Cleveland last year. The training leading up to this marathon didn't seem as good as what I did to get ready for Cleveland but I was still going to try. I ran the same two 50k's I ran last year as extra long runs and beat both times from last year. I also ran the half at Last Chance at a better pace than I thought I was ready for. That was about most of my training for this mid April marathon til the week before the marathon when Connie says we should go run the Spring Classic 10 miler which I was not really planning to run. We (she) decided that we would do a 10 mile warm up and then run the race at around a 7:20 pace for a good 20 mile training run with 10 at a good pace. Things were going well til mile 8 when my calves started to hurt some and I slowed down and Connie continued on holding the pace. She finished in 1:10 and I at 1:11, Connie at a 7:00 minute pace and me at a 7:06 pace overall. April 17 was the big day, we had quite a few member there and it was a perfect day for a marathon EXCEPT for the 17 to 40 mph gusts of wind that seemed to make it a very hard run, We came through the half way point at 1:37 and right on track other than that didn't give hardly any cushion. We didn't talk much, not that I could have, and about mile 22 I was really wanting to slow down and was getting tire. Connie kept looking at her watch and I knew she knew we had to hold the pace or even speed up and she just kept pushing so I did too. I could hear the announcer in the stadium about a mile out and we had the wind at our back and I had a very small burst of energy left and got across the line about 1 minute faster than my best and in much tougher conditions. I gave Connie a hug and a thanks as she came across the finish line and told her my time and I was extremely pleased and happy with it and she say "we could have run a 3:12 with out the wind" and later says she failed as a pacer but she did not, I could not have done it without her. This was to be my only attempt at a fast marathon for now as I was planning to log some high miles around Cleveland and just do Cleveland for fun on tired legs but now Connie has me convinced we can get the 3:12 or so there so my plans have changed. One week after this marathon was the Hermes Cleveland 10 miler, again I wasn't planning to run this but my buddy Dan Daubner wanted to so the peer pressure was to much and I felt good which was also unusual the week after a marathon. I talked to Connie about this and she told me to run the first 5 miles at a 7:15 pace and drop it down the last 5 so that is what I did. I ran the first 5 miles with Brad H. and near Debbie at a 7:08 pace and then dropped it down to a 6:45 pace for the last 5 finishing with a 1:09:29 good for 57th place of nearly 2300 runners and just a bit faster than Connie and I ran the Spring Classic. Cleveland here we come.