Crazy unexpected day for me. I felt undertrained and underrested for this affair. Had no idea how I would click off 26.2, considering I had been to 20 miles only once in training and never above 16 on any other occasion.

Let the crowd sort itself out for 2 miles, then started taking my splits seriously: They seemed too fast at 8:40 or so, for a goal of a 4 hour finish. I backed it down, but kept hitting the same 8:40-8:55 range and it felt right. More importantly, it felt sustainable. My thoughts turned to a 3:55 time.

Kept clicking off the 8:40-8:55 miles as we continued to climb to the high point of the course. As soon as we made the turn south, I could feel it underfoot, that the terrain was now my friend and all that climbing I had done over all those false flats was going to pay off. I opened it up over the last 7 miles, allowing myself to walk a few aid stations and up one troublesome hill in Mile 23. As I descended Duval and through the UT campus, I shortened my stride and let the hill do the work.

One small pain on the bottoms of my feet, but nothing else except a passing tightness at the back of my right leg in Mile 16. Everything felt good; nothing was bleeding, it was all systems go.

Toughed out the San Jacinto climb a second time and really felt the crowd energy rounding the capitol and heading into the finishing barricades, knowing this ordeal was over and I had not just survived, but thrived: PR by almost 5 minutes over a much more challenging course than Grand Rapids.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. This may have been my best race ever.

Plenty of walking