So my time was 4 hours and 20 minutes, and I missed my goal of under 4 hours.  Not as fun a race as I was hoping for.  Below is a chart on my mile-by-mile splits. Here's how the race went, mile by mile...

Brian and I stayed with his friend Greg in Crystal City on Saturday night.  We left Stafford around 4pm and hit miserable DC traffic all the way up 95.  It was raining, which made people drive slower and worse.  The directions for the DC Convention Center were bogus, and we had to do all kinds of turning around and back tracking to get to the place.  Once there we made our way to pick up our race packets.  After getting our numbers we found out that they had run out of swag bags already (5:30pm) and all they had left were XL shirts and larger.  At least the folks at the Injured Marines Semper Fi Fund booth were nice, and gave us a bag and hats.  We linked up with Greg and made our way back to his place.  We dropped our stuff off and immediately went out to try and find some dinner.  Every place in Crystal City was packed with runners.  Luckily Greg had reservations for a place as backup and we were able to get a seat with very little waiting.  I had a beer and some spaghetti & meatballs.  After dinner we set out to find a grocery store to get some bagels and bananas for the morning (and Gatorade).  We hit Shoppers and returned to Gregs to settle in for the night.

I was on an air mattress, and I didn't sleep a wink that night.  My body tried to sleep and my mind wouldn't let sleep take hold.  I finally gave up around 4:30 and shaved and brushed my teeth.  Brian was already up, too.  We ate and drank some Gatorade, then left the apartment around 5:45 and walked 1 block to the shuttle to marathon village.  It was pretty cold (50s) and windy but not too bad.  The bus had us there by 6:00 and we had 2 hours to kill.  The marathon village was surrounded by port-o-johns, and I think I tried to inspect every single one of them.  This didn't prevent me from hitting the tree line just before the starting line, and also stopping to hit it again around mile 3.

It was a beautiful day, perfect for racing.  My back wasn't bothering me at all, and despite not getting any sleep I felt good and ready to go.  My strategy was to stay with the 3:50 pace ground for as long as possible, and hopefully break away from them a little at the end.  I figured that I had no problems at all during my training and would be strong on a flat course with plenty of support on the sides of the road, and great weather conditions.  I was wrong!

The gun went off and I made my way along.  First two miles had more hills than I remembered, but I was doing great.  No sign of the 3:50 pace group, but I checked my watch and was ahead of that kind of pace.  Around mile 4 I saw the pacer and she flew by me.  I thought she was going fast, and my splits were showing me way ahead of 3:50 pace.  From my chart below it's apparent that we were flying.  I wanted to slow down, but I didn't want to lose that pace group so I kept up.  I actually tried to pass them at one point when she slowed way down, and for my effort I stepped in huge mud hole and nearly lost my shoe.  This would eventually lead to a nice blister on my left foot...

As we came down out of Georgetown around mile 10 I was starting to worry about the pace.  I kept going, though, and figured that I'd start running my own race and not worry about that pace group.  I was still ahead of the 3:50 overall pace, and way ahead of a 4 hour pace.  I hit a water stop just after the 1/2 marathon point and saw some friendly faces there.  I checked my split: 1 hour and 53 minutes - on pace for a 3:46 marathon.  Soon after the stop I saw Greg around mile 14.  He ran with me for about 1/2 mile.  At mile 15 I slowed down considerably.  At this point I felt like someone had punched me in the chest.  I had a big knot/cramp in my chest.  I had taken on a GU at each of the hour marks, just like in training, and had drank water and PowerAde at each water point.  I was covered in salt, though, and unknown to me at the time losing electrolytes that I wasn't replacing.  Bad combination!  At mile 16 I was feeling a little better as we started down Constitution towards the National Mall.  It was here that in 2003 I hit the wall and experienced terrible cramps in my legs.  And sure enough, just like last time I'd run this race, my hamstrings and quads began to cramp.  Soon the pain was too much and I was stretching against a tree, trying to keep my muscles from cramping.  I looked at the sky and laughed - how could this be happening?  I tried running again, and pounded water at the 18 mile water point, but it didn't do me any good.  For the next 8+ miles I would have to shuffle, stop to stretch, shuffle my way along painfully.  It sort of ruined the rest of the marathon for me, even though the sun was shining and there were thousands and thousands of people out to watch and cheer.

So, here I am 10 days later, and I think I'm over it.  Time to start running again.  And I think I'm going to do the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach in March.  I will get under 4 hours one of these days!