Start 12:00 noon. Temperature at start is approximately 50 degrees and sunny, low humidity. Wind out of the east-northeast. The wind had little effect on me, especially the first few miles. The wind picked up slightly and the temperature dropped some as we got closer to Boston. As my logbook indicates I did no training for this marathon over the past 12 weeks. I just tried to rest and heel my injuries. I carried a “fanny pack” with my camera, gloves, Powerbar and hard candies in it. Plan was to go out for two miles and walk approximately a quarter of a mile at each mile water station. I expected to finish in about 5 hours and one half hours with my most optimistic projection being 5 hours. I was in coral 17, which means we were 3:15 to 3:20 qualifiers and had numbers in the 17,000’s. Another words 17,000 runners were ahead of us. Coral 17 was right in front of the white church on Main Street. Corals 10 to 16 were on the street leading into Main St. and when they all got onto Main St. we were able to run. It took us 7 minutes and 55 seconds to take our first step and I got to the start line at 8:42. I felt pretty good and had no pain to speak of for the first few miles. I walked and the water stations but only for about 15 to 30 seconds, just long enough to drink my water or Gatorade. I reached mile 1 in 9:29 (18:10), down hill but very congested with intermittent slow downs. Mile 2 in 8:58 (28:06) and a comfortable pace. Took my first water break but since I had no pain I only walked a short way. Mile 3 8:51 (35:59) and no problems. This went on for 12 miles with splits of 8:46 (44:45), 8:46 (53:30), 9:05 (1:02:35), 8:57 (1:11:34), 8:51 (1:20:24,) 9:12 (1:29:36), 8:42 (1:38:18), 9:01 (1:47:20), 9:03 (1:56:23). Just past the 12-mile mark we came to the Wesselly College area. I stopped and took a picture and I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and saw Terry Hayden and asked him what he was doing here. I expected him to be a few miles ahead of me. He hurt his left quad before the 1-mile mark and has been doing a lot of walking. At this point my groin was hurting as was the area where the hamstrings and glute come together. Terry and I decided to stay together for a while and walk a minute or two at each water station water station mile mark. This actually turned into approximately a one-minute walk for the next five miles: 10:16 (2:06:39), 9:54 (2:16:33), 9:50 (2:26:42), 10:19 (2:36:42), 10:18 (2:46:00). At the 16-mile mark I suggested we walk the entire mile and then determine how long it would take us to walk it in. We clocked a 15:17 mile (3:02:15). At this rate we would finish in under 5 and a half hours. However we knew we could still do some running. Apparently the mile walk helped us both and especially Terry. I never saw him again after we started running. The next few miles were 10:47 (3:13:05), 13:56 (3:27:01), 13:05 (3:40:06), 12:06 (3:52:11). With five to go I knew if I could keep this pace up I would be able to finish in under five hours, well below my most optimistic projection. I started to walk the up hills and jog the down hills. If there were no hills I would try to run alternate traffic light legs. The last four miles were definitely pain full and I was looking forward to stopping but it never crossed my mind to stop. The final splits were 12:15 (4:04:28 just equaled my slowest marathon up until today), 11:47 (4:16:15), 13:12 (4:29:27), 12:25 (4:41:52). I stopped a few times to take pictures during this stretch. Took pictures of the Citco sign in the distance, which is approximately 1 mile from the finish line. Also took a picture of Fenway Park and two pictures on Boylston. The last 0.2-mile split was 2:14 with a total time of 4:44:04 less the 8:41 to get to the start line equates to a 4:34:35 marathon. Considering the last 12 weeks of virtually no running I was very happy with the time and he fact I did not re-injure myself.

FINISH TIME: 4:44:04
NET FINISH TIME: 4:35:30
NET HALF MARATHON TIME: 1:59:06
OVERALL PLACE: 28172
PLACE WITHIN GENDER: 22215
PLACE WITHIN DIVISION: 3484

OVERALL PLACE %: 28172/38706 = 72.78%