It should have been a 3:50, I was on track for a 3:50 finish...all up until that last 3 miles...then BONK! First time experiencing a muscle fatigue bonk.  Legs turned to jello and concrete at the same time right around mile 23.

I knew what it was right away and just stopped.  Hardly walked...hardly could walk.  But stopped to just take it in what happened and to cool down a bit.

I had been so concentrating on staying salted and properly hydrated (not too much) because last year was a scorcher (they stopped the race because of heat), that I didn't eat at all during the second half of the race.  Just managed salts and liquids and electrolytes.  An occassional half a banana but clearly not enough.  I needed to have been taking in more sugar fuel because when it ran out of my legs, my tank was out.

After a slow walk for a mile, I decided I should at least trudge it in for the finish.  My legs just wouldn't work right.  People were cheering for me and I felt bad, because it looked like I was running with cerebral palsy the way my feet kind of dragged skew.  I felt bad because they kept cheering me on and in my head I was say, "Don't cheer for me....this is stupidity...I should have been fueling up correctly."

But in the end, I crossed with still a very reasonable time of 4:07 and had a smashingly good time with my friends Eli Bass, Danielle Morse, and Rachel Hannah.