Before the race, I predicted that I would run the race in 4:30, a steady and stable 10 minute pace that I was pretty used to racing in. Early in the race (about mile 4-6), I felt really great.  There were several pace groups that basically kept a steady pace throughout the race and the 3:20 pace group slowly caught up with me around this time.  After running with them for about a mile, I thought, "hell, this is easy - I can do this".  I then thought, I'll run with these guys until I feel that it's too taxing.  So, I ran with these guys and felt pretty great.  Around mile 12.5, I met up with a friend who planned to bike it along with me who met me by saying, "dude, you're early."  I was almost half an hour early.  I still felt pretty good so, I decided I would keep the pace until I got to the halfway point (13.1).  When I finally got there, I had nearly taken a half hour off my BEST half marathon time!  I was amazed, but a bit worried - I was only half done and needed to spend at least another hour and a half running :-(

 

At that point, I decided to slow my pace down and ran onward.  Picture 2.jpg was take around this point, as I ran through downtown Austin.   My friend was biking along next to me, telling me about some movies he'd seen and stuff he'd done recently.  All in all, he really helped to distract my mind from the worries that were building up in my mind.  The longest I had ever run before this race was 30K (about 18.6 miles) - quite a bit shy of the 26.2 I was in the process of running.   Knowing that I could not really allow myself to fret about the road ahead, I pressed onward.

 

I then proceeded to run miles 14 through 17.  These were just a little uphill for the whole way :-(  Slowing down, I ran on and was eventually passed by the 3:25 pace group somewhere around mile 16.  This was a great thing!  I even by slowing down, I was completely ahead of any pace I had ever predicted!  Running on, I crossed mile 17, downed a glass of Gatorade and kept running. 

 

At about 17.5, my sunscreen ran into my eyes and I had to stop, douse my eyes in water and recollect myself for a few minutes.  Looking ahead, I saw that the 3:35 pace group had long since passed while I was distracted.  Feeling a bit down, I started running again.  Just a few minutes later, I crossed mile 18 and was starting to feel some pain in my legs.  My right thigh had started cramping and I had to slow down a bit.  Running on, I got to the 30K marker and, looking at the time, realized I had taken 15 minutes off my previous 30K time!  However, such an advance had taken a toll on my body.

 

My legs started cramping pretty bad.  No sooner would I stretch out one cramp, than another muscle would cramp up.  I "ran" on.  At mile 20, I nearly couldn't move, the cramping was so bad.  After coming up to a crowd of cheerers, my legs cramped up to the point that I couldn't move AT ALL.  I nearly fell to the floor.  Brandon, my friend, and the rest of the crowd sighed a disappointed sigh.  Then, they began cheering as I started to get up and began to walk.  From that point on, I was doomed to alternate between walking a minute and running a minute and I still had nearly six miles to go. 

 

Brandon kept urging me on by saying things like, "it's only a 10K left.  How many times have you run a 10K?"  I kept pressing on.  Somewhere around mile 22, 3.jpg was taken.  You can really see the agony in my eyes as I push forward. 

 

Jillian met up with me at around mile 23, and she and Brandon cheered me on through the next few miles.  I tried to keep positive by telling jokes and laughing about my situation - muscles cramping up left and right to the point that I could hardly stand at many instances.  In what seemed like an eternity, I got to mile 26. 

 

At this point, I could literally see the finish line - just a few blocks away.  A huge crowd of people lined the race path, cheering races on.  While I new that I was so close, I literally felt that there was no way I could finish the distance.  I was in so much pain, that I was reduced to a mental crawl, even as my body had somehow started to "run" again.  I had been alternating between running and walking for the last several miles - and somehow I had run past my alarm telling me that a minute of running had passed.  Somehow, I got the idea in my mind, whether consciously or not, that I could "run" the last few hundred yards and I continued going as fast as I could possibly move.

 

I came up to the last few hundred yards and entered the finishing chute.  People were cheering like mad; Jillian was holding my hand; I felt like I was running as faster than I had ever done in my life.  Then, I heard some one say, "I think he's holding her back."  They had obviously assumed that Jillian was running the marathon and that she looked amazingly fresh.  I laughed a little in my head and, somehow, began to realize that every muscle in my legs was cramped.  My legs were locked from the hips down - I was swinging them back and forth with my torso, having not a single degree of freedom in any of the joints below my hips.  Every step I took was agony - and I decided  that I could not run any more.  I slowed to a walk and the crowd roared all around me.  Screaming - "NO!  YOU'RE ALMOST THERE!  YOU CAN DO IT!" and the like.  It was so emotional that I get teary eyed even now, as I write this. 

 

I sped up to the fastest I could go and noticed tears running down my face.  At this point, my entire body was a sponge that had soaked up liquid fire - it was limp and burning!  I had only a few yards to go, so kept on.  Step...  Step...  Step...  I pushed on.  My eyes were completely soaked - I could not even see where I was going, the eyes were so filled with tears.  I had only to trust that if I moved forward, the pain would soon end.

 

I pushed forward and realized that I was there.  I had finished the race.  I took a step onto the timing mat (the red mat shown in 1.jpg) and was done.  I smiled to show that, even as my eyes ran and my entire body burned, I was happier than ever in my life.  I nearly fell to the floor after walking through the time computer, but I looked at my time and saw that it said I had run a marathon in 4 hours, 40 minutes and 30 seconds.  Even with all the pain, walking and stopping, I was only ten minutes behind my predicted pace.  Then, I realized that if I had done the first 20 miles in under three hours, even after slowing my pace after 13 - it had taken me nearly another 2 hours to traverse the last 6.2 miles! 

 

The story of my life...  This race served as an awakening.  So often, I get very confident and take on the world.  I run myself nearly dead before I'm even done and am forced to nearly crawl my way through the rest of the task.  Next year, I'll RUN the whole way.