I officially joined the marathon finishers club today... X-post

I'm gonna give a full, detailed race report as well as the pics of the day up tomorrow on my blog but I wanted to let everyone know that I absolutely did finish.   Right now I feel like I've been hit by a truck then had a 2 ton ball dropped on my head.   I'm past exhausted. 

I think my overall time was 5:30.   I hit 'the wall' at around 18 and it just got plain ugly from there.   When I got to the halfway point (13.1 mi) I actually had a pretty good pace of around 9 minutes per mile and clocked in at just over 2 hours.   I hit 'the wall' at around mile 18 and it got UGLY from there. 

Here's a link to the article they did about me from from the Times Picayune that was published in this mornings paper.

http://www.nola.com/timespic/stories/index.ssf?/base/sports- 36/120383418613170.xml&coll=1

Mike Montelbano, the reporter that did the story, did a wonderful job on the article and having people on the route shout, "Hey...  464 guy!  Are you the guy from the paper?" helped out so much.   3 minutes after I crossed the finish line, which unfortunately I was so exhausted I only remember bits and pieces, Mike had a tape recorder in my face so he could do a follow-up piece tomorrow.  Oh... blubbering crybaby at start and especially for the last quarter mile and the finish of the race?  CHECK!   :)

And a couple pics of right before I bonked.   The rest of the pics that my girlfriend took at the start / finish and at the halfway point I'll post tomorrow.

http://www.team464.com/images/mardigrasmarathon/marathon-cit ypark1.jpg
http://www.team464.com/images/mardigrasmarathon/marathon-cit ypark2.jpg

Oh, my gosh!!! You are such an inspiration!  Congratulations on the race and what a great article the Picayune did . . there are so many things in that article that they quoted you as saying that are sooooooooooo true.   I also viewed the pictures of you running --- great pics --- and that was really awesome that they gave you the number 464 --- I had surgery 3 months ago and I'm not a runner, but I do like to walk and you have inspired me to increase my walking --- even if I don't feel like it--- I should "get up and go" --- congratulations again and good luck on future marathons that you are planning to enter . . FAYE   

 I'll happy dance for you since you are wiped out and recuperating. AWESOME job!!!!!  Woooo hooo for you!!!

Congrats!! You should be very proud of yourself. keep it going. j

Hey--I read that article but didn't realize they were talking about you!!! Great Job! I was there too, but I only walked the 5K. It was a lot of fun though and I plan to do the Crescent City Classic next month. See you there, right? Jen

Heya Jen.  Absolutely!  "Team 464" is definately gonna be running the Classic.  It's my favorite race of the year!  I'm shooting for 45 minutes but I'll be happy to break 50 minutes.

See ya at the finish line!

Chad

I'll be looking for you Chad, but you'll have to hang around for awhile till I get there. I'm walking about 4 mph so I'm hoping to finish in about 1-1/2 hours. I hope I don't miss all the festivities! Jen