Ethan Finishing the Marathon!

Thanks for all the support in regards to the marathon.  It was quite the
experience.  I basically ran a great 23 miles, and then ran/walked the
worst 3 miles of my life.  :)  Oh well.  Next time.

To qualify to run Boston you have to run a marathon in under 3:10 (for my
age group).  I was a special case because my dad's cousin works for the
BAA.  But one of my goals (other than finishing, which I did achieve) was
to run sub-3:10 and get a spot next year.

I was on pace to easily do that for 23 miles.  Had room to spare!  And
then I ran out of everything inside of me.  It was seriously rough.  I had
one of my teammates go with me for the last 6 miles, and thank goodness he
was there.  If nothing else, to just point me in the right direction.  It
was one of the worst feelings, wanting to just jog so bad and being so
depleted that even shuffling is tough.

But of course, I'd do it again in a second.  :)

Here's what splits I managed to get on my watch.  It took me 8:20 seconds
to get to the line (17,924 people in front of me!) and the first mile is
pretty slow 'cause even once I crossed and started my watch, we were still
walking/jogging.  I missed a couple mile markers, but still managed to get
a bunch:

1.      9:12
2.      7:36
3.      7:10
4.      7:11
5.      7:17
6.      6:58
7.      6:51
8&9.    14:01   (7:00 pace)
10.     6:40
11.     6:33
12.     6:36
13.     6:45    (1:33 half -> projected 3:06 marathon)
14.     6:39
15.     6:52
16.     6:31
17.     7:00
18.     7:08
19.     6:56
20&21.  14:57   (7:29 pace - Up Heartbreak Hill)
22.     7:11
23.     7:36    (Hamstings starting to tighen-up.  Feeling slow)
24.     7:56    (2:51:46, had to run 18:14 for 2.2 miles to break 3:10
25.     11:37           - 8:17 pace)
26.     17:14
.2      2:16    (ended up running/walking 31:07... Ouch!  14:08 pace)
----    -------
26.2    3:22:55 (overall: 7:44 pace)

I finished overall in 5,980th place.  For males, I was 5,262 (beat by 718
women), and in my age group (18 to 34 I think) I was 2,882.  I don't
really know, but I'd say a couple thousand people passed me in the last
two miles...  hmmmm.

Thanks again guys.  It was cool knowing I had such a large support group.