And the winner is...
You can check out the full results here.
If you're unable to tell by the picture, that's a Mohawk. So, now I can say that I have 26.2 under my belt. I walked away feeling [generally] good about marathons - about the experience of being in one, the instant camaraderie you have with other runners, and cool gifts and food people lavish on you as you run and finish the race.
There were 2,457 half marathoners. 126 relay teams for the marathon, and 703 marathoners [although, I do not believe all finished who started]. My chip time was 5:08:28. I'll be honest, I wanted to run faster - I was pacing myself close to an 8:35 pace for the first 10 miles or so. Then, injury set in. From about mile 14 to the end, I felt as if someone was taking a hammer to my left knee. A more experienced marathoner told me that it was due to the fact that I was overpronating and that I may need to purchase orthopedics for it. Additionally, I had to use the restroom twice during the run. The first time was because I had to pull a number one. The second was rolling a deuce [thank you to the lady-relayers who let me cut - much appreciated].
In any case, I accomplished my [public] goal of finishing - I received a great shirt, a cool medal, and some props from other runners at the after party. I think I'd definitely do it again - and the cool part about it is that I'm pretty sure that I could shave an hour off my time [and tell folks, "I just beat my PR by an hour!].
If you can't tell, the Mohawk won out - but only by a small margin [3 stars total] over the Martin Luther Monk cut.
So...Happy day. Be sure, however, that there will be more in the future. I'm looking at running back to back half's in the fall - there's one in Virginia Beach, VA and Philadelphia, PA - they are two weeks apart from each other and you receive a special medal for running both.
