Condensed version: Started with 4:30 pace group, felt good, left pace group behind at about the 3-mile aid station. Big mistake. Temperature warmed quickly; felt thirsty at about 10 miles even with taking fluids. Trouble. Had to start walking even before reaching 13.1 at the Capitol. Kavanaugh Hill also a bunch of walking. Hoped to make up time on Lookout downhill. Nope. Hamstring cramped very quickly. Tried to resume running at bottom of the hill. More cramps. Run quickly settled into pattern of run a little-cramp-walk a lot-repeat. Pace group finally caught and passed me at about 20 miles. Next pace group caught and passed me. No chance of running on ANYTHING resembling a hill, but I was going to finish no matter what. Saw Tyler on course about .75 mile from finish; how did he get up here, he doesn't walk that far ever. Finally, at Statehouse Center about quarter mile from finish, Julie, who has been waiting for me for 2.5 hours after finishing her half, jumps the wall and runs with me. I'm hurting seriously, but I'm going to finish. Pam is there too and I never even saw her. As I turn off LaHarpe to the finish, cramps hit again, but I run/limp to the finish. Exhaustion, disappointment, pain, but tears of joy too. This old guy has finished a marathon. Zero to marathon in 34 weeks. Dick Beardsley said in "Spirit of the Marathon" that once you've finished 26.2, you'll never be the same again. I suspect I'm going to find he's exactly right. | 