Alright, it's over and time to blog about the Knoxville Marathon.

It was a great race and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was tough keeping a slow pace the first 13 miles due to the significant number of half-marathoners and relay racers, but kept the discipline, crossing the half mark at 2:02. I prayed from mile 13-20, that I wouldn't "Hit the Wall" and that definitely worked. The other contributing factor was the rolling hills. I felt sorry for the people that were "dropping like flies" on the uphill, but I was extremely thankful for running up Signal Mountain. Not only did this give me confidence I needed, but it also gave me the strength.

Everyone that knows me knows, I am very enamoured with the idea of running a negative split, so I was very happy at the end when I did it. I was in complete control after mile 20. Actually, from mile 19-end, NO ONE passed me! I think a lot of my friends have trouble visualizing this, but with hundreds of great runners out there, I was feeling great.

Knoxville was a very cool city to run through. Mile 17 takes the cake though, with the neighborhood grilling out and giving out free hot dogs and Bloody Mary's, and anything else you wanted to drink!

No, I didn't have one, but I was definately laughing. At 9:00 on a Sunday morning, these people might not have been drunk, but they were definately "feeling good."

The last half-mile was completely downhill into Neyland Stadium. I was flying! Two race volunteers actually stepped in front of me to slow me down because they thought I was going too fast on the rainy streets. Then an old man, busted HARD, right before entering the field. So I step onto the field, and the sign reads: 3:59:53. I immediately started sprinting! And according to the sign on the field I finished at 4:00:05. I was like sweet, a sub-4:00 marathon (note I was about 30 yards behind the
start line, with the gun sounded at the start. Then on marathonguide.com, they have me finishing at 4:01:02 and a 4:00:48 chip time. Something technology wise got majorely jacked up!

Maybe wife is right, and I need to start running with a watch (what a novel idea). O well, it was very fun, and the ice cold wind, and pouring down rain gives me additional bragging rights.