4:39.

i ran today, and i finished. i am overjoyed. i completed a 26 mile 385 yard race.

i had hoped to finish in 4:22, but i was 16 minutes shy of that. apparently john and i ran an average of 8:12 miles from mile 14 to mile 18. we had absolutely no intention of running that fast, and it haunted us both. i had to walk a little on belle isle. and then i had to walk a little more around 21 miles. and i pretty much walked almost all the way from mile 22 to mile 25. but i finished the last 1.2 miles on the run. everything hurt. it started with my quadriceps, and then it moved to my feet. my hamstrings started to tighten up, and i even got a bit of a stomach ache.

around mile 25.5, my friend, dave, from church showed up on the sidelines to cheer me on. he also greeted me in the finish area to congratulate me. he finished in an amazing 3:48. his excitement for me at the end really helped me along to the finish.

and right after i finished, my wife called my name. i was so happy to see her and so overwhelmed with the emotion of actually finishing a marathon that i ran straight to her and gave her a kiss through the fence. i think that made my day.

i feel bad, though, because john really found some pain around mile 18. he had been trailing me but within eyesight for about a mile, but i forgot to keep track of him for another mile, and he fell off from me. i didn't see him again, and i was afraid he had passed me without me noticing. but he was shortly behind me, finishing in 4:46.

we were both in pain. it took me a long time to make it to the car. we would walk and stop. i had to sit down a lot. john told me that he would walk about 20 steps and then sit down. at this point in the day, after largely laying around on the couch, i am feeling much better. i'm still quite sore, but it doesn't hurt to move, stand up, sit down, and i'm not getting any spontaneous cramps.

i'd also like to congratulate amy chu, another co-worker, who finished in 4:29, and jamie shinko, another church friend who ran the third leg in the relay. i assume she finished and feels amazing about it. she usually doesn't run much farther than 2 miles, so to run a 6 mile leg was quite an accomplishment for her. it reminds me of the first (and only) competetive 10k i ran. previous to that, i was working really hard to run 3 miles consistently.

i also ran into a former colleague, erez. he called out, "is it you?" to me as he was running past. i think i have lost a fair amount of weight since the last time i saw him. this was around the 4:10 mark. he said he was having knee pain and should have finished 90 minutes earlier. but i was glad he didn't so that we had a chance to see each other again.

so congratulations to john, dave, amy, jamie, and erez. and for whomever is reading this, thanks for following my path to this race.

robb.