Here I am, oblivious to the camera. I’m probably thinking, “am I going out too fast?” This is about 2 miles in, and the answer is always “yes”. You might be thinking, “wow, that’s a look of determination” but really it’s me feeling sort of shitty and wondering if I made a mistake by racing a marathon today.

Then here I am about 10 miles later, about to complete the first loop. I had just started feeling really good, I hope that smile sums it up…

Here I am again, same spot as where the first pic was taken. I am clearly in good spirits and this would last me until the end of the race. I was able to charge the second loop really hard and started picking off runners along the French Trail section to where I didn’t see anyone for the last 8 miles of the race. This is when I (correctly) assumed I was somewhere in the top 10…

Notice the headphones; I was rocking out pretty fiercely on the 2nd loop, there was a lot of air guitaring and fist pumping and little stutter steps. I must say that I had a lot of fun and kept the suffering to a minimum.