Great day for my first marathon. Had a cold the days leading up to the race and as I write this 5 days later i am still hacking up a lung. Hope it's not the swine. Felt OK race day, though, so i don't think it had too much affect.

Felt great the first 11 miles or so holding an 8:20 pace pretty solidly with Burke. Hit the halfway point feeling good at 1:51. Battled a painful blister for a couple miles and went into the med tent to take care of it with vaseline and moleskin around mile 15 and then never really got back in the groove. Started hitting the wall hard around mile 18, hurting in places i never hurt on my training runs, like my hips.
By the time I hit the bridge I was super thirsty and hurting pretty bad. Grabbed a Twizzler from a spectator and that was a big mistake...it soaked up every bit of moisture left in my mouth. By the time I passed the Grim Reaper on the highway I was ready for a tap on the shoulder. At mile 23 I stopped and had a beer with some rowdy spectators - I was walking alot at this point and figured it couldn't hurt. Death marched my way to the finish.

Not thrilled with my performance but very happy to have participated in such a great event with so many inspirational stories and heros around me.

Plenty of excuses but the bottom line is i went to fast in the first half. This distance needs to be respected more than I did. And I should have taken a little off the throttle due to being sick. Just because you feel great at mile 9 does not mean you will feel good at 19. I learned things can change fast and you can be humbled quickly. Looking forward to my next attempt!

met up with the family and the burkes. So happy they all came to support.
battled the outrageous metro lines.


Pacing.


thank you Marines.