Well, I had a great time running my first marathon!
My SF running buddies saw me hanging out right behind the elite section and pulled me into the back half of the elite section which was great because it kept the first mile from being overly crowded.
I wore a 3:00 marathon bracelet as guide of splits that would be too fast, since my races predicted me around 3:04. I wanted to run by feel and ideally wanted to break 3 hours, but I also knew that my training was not quite there to get me there.
My legs pretty much went from frozen for the first 10 miles to sore from miles 13 on. I took one shot block every water station from 5 - 23, and took mostly water but sometimes gatorade and never really felt sloshy or stomach problems.
Splits (garmin mostly behaved itself but some splits are my pace as I hit the lap button a couple of times when it got off):
1 - 7:07
2 - 7:03
3 - 6:39
4 - 6:37
5 - 6:44
6 - 6:34
my legs never really got loose or felt great, but I realized I was running even below my 3 hour bracelet, but figured I would race it that way since I was already on track.
7 - 6:30
8 - 7:48 Veyo baby met up with a running buddy from BYU I haven't seen in 5 years, and we ran together until my potty break
9 - 7:06
10 - 7:08
11 - 7:26
12 - 7:12 amazingly enough, my potty break was in this mile
13 - 6:52
13.1 split 1:31:20
14 - 6:50
15 - 6:34 took 2 ibuprofen, legs sore, I wish I had more to take
16 - 6:32
17 - 6:35
18 - 6:50
19 - 7:11 this hill was hard to take, but I passed some people and crested strong
20 - 6:41 feeling sore but still strong, knew I would break 3:00 if could keep 6:50 or so
21 - 6:33
22 - 7:02
23 - 6:53 starting to hurt, my husband and kiddies were there to cheer me on
24 - 7:01 starting to really hurt but know I can do it if am about 7:05 or so, have to go to the bathroom but knew there was no way my legs would bounce back if I stopped
25 - 7:09, at 25.2 had 7:12 to finish last mile and still break 3 hours, my husband and kiddies were there to cheer me on again.
25.2 - 26.2 last mile: 8:09 - Tried my hardest, talking to myself, pathetic and ineffective efforts, but was just so done, my legs just would not cooperate. I did manage to pick it up at the end so that I was under 3:01 per the official clock
1st split (taking out chip to timer difference) 1:31:04
2nd split 1:28:37 (1:27 difference)
My husband said that I looked much different between mile 23 (he said I looked great) and 25 (he said I looked terrible).
In retrospect, I feel like my first half was probably too fast for my legs, but my 1/2 marathon split gave me the confidence to go for the 3 hour mark, so I am not sure that my fast first half did me harm. Sometimes your mental state is as important as your legs. If I had gone out slower, I could have gotten the more typical 4-5 minute negative split, but I am not sure that I would have gotten a faster time overall. I feel like I could not have done better and laid it all down. I would think that if you have to hit the wall, it's better to do it around mile 25 instead of mile 20.
I think that I learned alot and I had a great time, except perhaps for the last three miles.
I will not bore you with all the bad things I ate today, but I will go back to being good tomorrow :)
I will say that my legs hurt so, so bad. I can pretend I am not a marathoner if I concentrate on my walk but going up and down the stairs is a feat and trying to grab something off the floor is almost more than I can bear.
It was great to meet so many bloggers and appreciate you all coaching me through my first marathon. I could have not done so well this season without you. | 
