First to answer the questions:
- My calves felt terrific. I didn't take any painkillers before or after, and I didn't even wrap my right calf. I just wore a band under my right knee. In retrospect I should've worn my brace on my right knee and the band under my left knee. That's the plan for the marathon.
- 2:08:56 (my official time) is a good for me, at least right now. It's not world record pace or anything. In comparison, the world record for a men's marathon is 2:04:55. It took me (slightly) longer than that to run a half :) At this point I'm happy to be doing anything near 10:00 miles. My average speed was about 9:51. Importantly, I was incredibly consistent. Every mile was between 9:30 and 10:00. My halfway split was 1:04:34. I didn't walk, except through water stops. So is 2:08:56 a good time? Yep.

Ok, so I spent over 2 hours running, and we all know I'm not capable of turning off my brain. I wasn't running with anyone else, and while I listened in on a few conversations, I didn't really talk to anyone else. So what did I think about? Well, running, mostly. Sad, I know.

What I'm sure most non-runners don't realize is that races are the reward. The reward for waking up at 5am, for spending your entire clothes budget on a new pair of running shoes, for not drinking on weekends so you're not too hungover to run the next day. It's all worth it when your running down Lake Shore Drive (which they closed down for your run) with spectators cheering, bands playing for you, the NU cross country women handing you water. And when you finish someone hands you a medal. And you can forever proudly wear your white cotton race shirt and exchange knowing smiles with the 6,000 other people wearing the same shirt. I'll never win a race, and in this case I didn't even set a personal record, but I love the cameraderie with total strangers, even if we didn't say a word to each other.

Best fan: guy wearing a t-shirt that said "my girlfriend can outrun me" and holding a boombox over his head that was blaring "Eye of the Tiger." Now that's a boyfriend!