So, the question is, How'd everyone do?   snyderdr and i ran together the whole way and things went great!  i hope everyone had a great time and enjoyed the hilly course.   

I'm slow too - my goal is merely to finish, and walking is certainly okay in my book.  If I can finish Austin then I'll set my sights on time for a future marathon...  one thing at a time, though.  Anyone from Austin racing for the cure on Sunday??

Thank man, I'm very happy with it.  Now I'm trying to think "ok, what's next??" as if I'm some sort of pro!  I better attempt a few more to make sure it wasn't some sort of fluke.  I was talking to my friend (Barrett) about finishing a marathon and he thought I should try the Goofy Challenge (part of the Walt Disney World Marathon in Orlando).  That is where you run the half on Saturday and then the Full on Sunday.  You get a medal for both races, plus a 3rd medal for the challenge.  Not yet for me!  The other thing that peeked (peaked?) my interest was a half ironman, but I don't currently bike and am only mediocre at swimming.  Those are 2 much longer term potential goals.  Is this Austin 08 Marathon going to be everyone's first?  I think for MCM there were 30000 registrations, like 20500 ran, and of the 30000, 10000 were signed up for their first marathon.  I wonder how typical it is (assuming the numbers are correct) for about 1/3 of the field not to actually participate.  I know the 20500 is close to accurate because of the results saying so, and the press covering the race always threw out 30000 as the number of registrations.   I may be thinking of a different race, but I think the Austin marathon is capped at about 6000, so it'll be interesting for me to see if there is a difference between 20000 and '6000' (possibly only 4000).  I feel like 4000 is still so many people, but maybe as the race goes on it'll thin out a lot. 

thanks man, it was indeed very successful and now i'm happy i can put a 26.2 sticker on my car... except that i don't have a car.  anyway, i still think you should go see a doc and get his opinion, at least you could find out what it is that is afflicting you.  then you could look on forums, like this one, to see who else has suffered from that pain and maybe techniques to cope.  I did the Rookie Plan from Runners World for my marathon.  It was 5 days per week, but i usually skipped the sunday recovery run after the saturday long run, so 4 days per week for me.  i'm thinking of doing the same plan to get ready for Austin, which is 16 weeks away now i think.  however, i'm enjoying my time off this week :)  i'll get into running again this weekend i think. if this is going to be your first marathon, get excited!  it's an awesome feeling to say "yea, i ran a marathon".   

Good luck TxQtPi! As long as you put in the time training, you will definitely finish in the time alloted. I am still trying to decide if I am going to run the Austin marathon. I have only been training for about 1 1/2 - 2 months but think I can be ready by the time Austin rolls around. What area are you doing all your training in?