Marathon in San Antonio

Sunday November the 16th I ran my marathon in San Antonio Texas.....
I've never been around a marathon so this experience was totally new for me. This was the first time Rock and Roll Marathons had hosted a race in San Antonio and it was a record setter with over 33,000 in attendance. The weather the morning of the race was perfect, by about 9 o'clock the temperature was in the 60's and everyone had shed off any extra layers they had on. I started off the race with a nice pace and was able to keep on track the majority of the time. Around mile 10 the leader passed by us going the other direction towards the finish line, he was on mile 21 approximately. It was at this time I realized my chances for winning the marathon were not looking good..... the winner ended up finishing in 2 hours and 14 minutes (ruffly 5 minutes a mile). Around mile 17 is when I really started to feel the effects, it was at this time that I began to take walk breaks. I kept a good pace between walk breaks up until mile 22, which is when I hit "the wall." I was under the impression that this was the point in the race when you feel like you don't have the energy to run any longer, but what I learned is this is when your legs feel like they're on fire! My hip flexors, knees, ankles, and arches we're all pleading with me to stop and lay down. The only conclusion I have for this is that I should have begun the walk breaks at the beginning of the race, not mile 17. I ended up walking 2 of the last 5 miles just praying that my legs wouldn't give out on me! I finished the race in around 4:30 hours. My overall goal was to finish the marathon, which I accomplished and am pleased with. Of the 33,000 runners, only 7,200 finished the full marathon and the average time ranged from 4:30 to 4:45. At the end of the day I was extremely proud to have finished the marathon and felt good about the effort I put out during the race. I wouldn't be suprised if another marathon is somewhere in my future. Good luck to ya'll in Dallas on the 14th!