PP Marathon training - 7.8 miles sign

Coming off the 26 mile training run on Saturday I was curious to see how effective I could be at a moderate or better effort on the run from PPM start line up to the "7.8 miles to Summit" sign - which is just a bit under 6 miles.

I started at an easy pace through Manitou Springs accompanied by some light rain, rumbles of thunder and noticeable humidity.  After the Hydro Street turnoff I upped the effort and got to work.  I would call the effort and result a few notches below the desired goal on race day - which for yesterday I am okay with, cause it turned out my splits to the Top of the W's, No Name Creek and finally the 7.8 mile sign - were tracking a summit time of 3:26.

I went a few yards past the sign to round up the distance to 6 miles, then turned and came down at an 8 minute per mile average - which seemed to come fairly easily.  Total distance 12 miles, 2 hrs 10 minutes and just over 3200' of elevation gain.  Quite pleased.

A monthly summary of note (to me at least).  July was my best month of training ever.  195 miles (19 runs) and over 35,000' of elevation gain (my previous best was about 21,000').  Yesterdays run bought me up over 122,000' of gain for the year to date - in doing so gave me more vertical than the whole of last year.

What does it mean? 
1) I have trained more and more effectively than last year. 
Therefore 2) It should hopefully pay off. 
3) I'm really looking forward to see how it pays off.
4) More work to do yet though - still 2 1/2 weeks till race day.
5) I still need to run a smart race (especially at the beginning, but really for the whole thing I need to be mentally sharp).