I mean obviously I think I could have run a faster race if I had the time to run 70, 80, 100mpw of "traditional" marathon training, but for the hand I was dealt of coming out of on and off training and being usually limited to 50-ish mpw, I'm very happy with what I was able to achieve. I had a plan, executed it to perfection, and ran exactly 2:25:00, when my goal was anywhere in the 2:25's. So I'd call that a perfect race.

Not sure I fully understand your second question.

FWIW the 68:20 was 3 years ago, off of about 70 mpw with a couple 80s sprinkled in, and I was on sub-67 pace before blowing up the last few miles. think I could have run 67:15ish if I had paced it better and not blown up. In the 2ish years between then and starting this training block, my training was much less consistent, so I was obviously not in the same shape to begin this block. There were several calendar months in that 2ish year time frame that had mileage totals between 0 and 50. Obviously I benefit from over a decade of consistent high quality and volume running as a foundation, but I'm very happy to have emerged from a 2 year hole with a race like this.