jersey shore half marathon

Today was the Jersey Shore half marathon. Past few days I have been loaded with work and ended up hardly sleeping, so yesterday I slept by 10:30 pm, and had a nice sleep.
Morning was extremely chilly, I wore a sweat shirt. We carpooled so I didnt have to drive today. Went in Sundar's car along with Vaishnavi and Vivek.
Race started at 9 am and coach Tom along with myself, Bala, Anish and Ram had planned to run together at around 9 mins per mile speed so that we finish it under 2 hrs.
After around half the distance we realized that we were going under 8 1/2 mins per mile speed! So the plan was just to cruise along at this speed till the 12 mile mark and then sprint, which is just what we did. The last mile, Bala and Tom were really fast, they finished in 1:49, my finish time was 1:51 which is 8.47 minutes per mile speed.
These statistics really don't matter much, but what was amazing was the tremendous team spirit today. The run itself was very enjoyable as we have done much longer runs before this, and my iPod playlist was prodding me on, and it was fun running with coach Tom, he shared quite a few anecdotes with us. Apart from the run, the team spirit was totally fabulous. Team Asha was totally prominent in the race today. At the water stops, people looked at my Asha t-shirt and were cheering for me and Asha, that was just a totally amazing feeling. And at the finish mark, the entire Asha runners and volunteers were cheering for every person finishing, it was fabulous spirit.
Next sunday is a 20 mile run, looking forward to it!