Famous Idaho Potato Marathon RR

Short Version:
3:41:19
Last 5 miles: Wow. Ouch.
1st Place AG. Yeah, it was small. There were 6 people in my age group.

Long Version:
Well, I got my first done. I missed my goal time by about 11 minutes but I'm still on cloud nine. I've really developed a new respect for marathoners. Those last 5 miles were amazingly painful. My goal quickly went from 3:30 to "just finish".

I was expecting to have a very difficult time sleeping the night before. Surprisingly, I slept like a baby from 9:30 to 4:45. I was up at 5 am and slammed 32 oz of water, 1.5 cups of coffee, and about 1 serving of plain oatmeal. This is pretty standard practice for all my weekend long runs. The coffee had its desired effect and helped me "clear out the system".

I packed my bag, woke up my wife, and we headed to the start line, picking up my buddy on the way. We arrived at the start around 7:15am and milled around a bit. Around 7:30 I ate 1/2 a power bar and at 7:50 I drank half a bottle of water.

Ok, game time. We lined up with the half marathon crowd which had many more participants than the marathon. I would say approximately 120 marathoners and 500 half marathoners. I was able to line up only a few feet back from the start. I really wanted to avoid the 1st mile of weaving in and out of people.

Here are the splits:

Mile 1: 8:00 Perfect.
Mile 2: 7:24 Woops, got a little excited. I need to work on holding myself back.
Mile 3: 7:54 Ok, now I'm feeling the grove. Its beautiful outside. Tiny tail wind. This is fun. A really nice guy who is pacing out a 1:45 half comes up and starts talking to me. We run together until he fades hard at mile 9. Later around mile 21 he pulled his minivan over and started cheering for me. Seriously awesome.
Mile 4: 8:05 First drink stop. I tried to hit them every two miles from here on out. The 8 minute miles following were total cake. I felt really confident here because I had been doing my 20 milers at around 7:50 and that was in the middle of 40-55 mile weeks.
Mile 5: 7:47
Mile 6: 8:07
Mile 7: 7:56
Mile 8: 7:55
Mile 9: 8:02
Mile 10: 7:52
Mile 11: 7:44
Mile 12: 8:09
Mile 13: 9:15 Ok, something was up with the next two miles. They had to divert the course because of some flooding. I KNOW I was on 8 min pace but I clocked some big times here. I assume they made up for them on some other miles.
Mile 14: 9:18 Seriously, wtf? Oh well, I know my pace. I'm just going to roll with it.
Mile 15: 7:48 Crap, I'm noticing my legs are starting to get tired. Its started to get really hot now. At least 75 degrees. I start taking 2 waters at each stop.
Mile 16: 7:52
Mile 17: 8:28 Started to feel it here. Had a long water stop where I poured powerade on my head. I was nervous at this point. My legs were tired and I still had 9 miles to go.
Miles 18&19: 15:59 Forgot to hit split. I need a garmin. It was starting to get seriously hot. No real shade until mile 22. I would say it was 78 degrees at this point.
Mile 20: 8:36 Now I'm in survival mode. Its hot. My quads are SUPER tight. I've got some blisters on my toes. My times look MUCH better than I felt here. Another long water stop.
Mile 21: 7:52 My last decent mile. The shit is about to hit the fan.
Mile 22: 9:45 Wheels = fallen off. It hurts BAD. I see my buddy up ahead. Its all about mind games from here on. Lots of "run until XX then you can walk for 1 minute."
Miles 23: 9:31 There is my wife and friend!! They came to watch. I tell them "This really hurts!"
Mile 24: 9:23 I run into another marathoner in my same position. Super nice guy. We gutted it out together until the last 0.5 and he muscled a strong finish.
Mile 25: 12:05 Ok, this is a repeat of one of the long miles. But yes, there was a LOT of walking here. I catch my buddy. He is completely out of energy and I continue on.
Mile 26 & 0.2: 10:34 I think I ran this entire stretch. (8:49 avg) I was in too much pain to get super emotional at the finish, I was just relieved to be done.

It was probably around 83 degrees when I finished. I found my wife and friends and proceeded to be really pathetic while I tried to get some fluids and a bagel down.

About 45 minutes later they announced the AG awards. Man, I was VERY surprised to hear I got 1st for 25-29. Overall, I was probably somewhere in the top 20.

In summary; Wow, it hurt, but I'm SO stoked right now about finishing. And for my first marathon, I'm pretty damn happy with my 3:41. I'm already thinking about what I can improve for Portland.

EDIT: After talking to some other folks who ran the race it turns out the marathon had THREE long miles in it due to flooding along the greenbelt. The course was closer to 27 miles.