Notes
Garmin was off by 0.1 miles relatively early, and 0.5 miles by 16-17. Splits are obviously approximate, but look at "mile 23".
Ran most of miles 2-22 with fellow Swamper stringsn88keys. He seemed cool with my plan of doing roughly a 5min run / 1min walk rotation, which we started around mile 4-ish. We pulled each other out of the walk breaks much better than I think either of us would have done on our own, and passed the early miles with good conversation. By about 17-18, most of the limited conversation was about how long until the wheels came off the bus or about our questionable decision-making abilities.
We got a little beer at the mile 19 aid station, and ran the Luke Lea spur (I don't think I've done that in three years). At mile 22-ish, strings got a nasty cramp. A nice lady offered him some salt and we walked for a few seconds before he told me to go on. So I did.
I started running, slowly at first, but then a little quicker. This seemed to relieve some of the ache in my knees by changing my gait a bit. That was nice. Until it wasn't so much anymore. I ran straight for about a mile and a half, and I know I had a bit of a crazed look on my face. Though really who doesn't at mile 24 of a marathon?
The aches and fatigue came back, and I spent most of the last mile and a half running for 2-4 minutes and walking for 30 seconds. Nobody passed me those last four miles, that was unexpected compared to my last two Monkeys.
Came off the asphalt path for the last quarter mile for my traditional "everyone can see me so let's sprint the finish" gig, and my left calf cramped very suddenly. That was... fun. So I backed off just enough to keep my calf inside my leg (felt like it was a hair away from popping right off my body), and reeled in the three people I could see in front of me.
I got excited the last 100 yards (I WAS ALMOST DONE!) and started to kick. Oops, my calf came back into play. Karen got a picture of me where she said I was hopping to the finish line. My wife thought I was so happy to be done that I was skipping across the finish line. No, I just couldn't get my heel down to the ground for fear of a debilitating cramp. I forgot to stop my watch at the end (who really cares anyway at that point?) and hobbled back to the car to change.
Official results have me at 4:35:49. I'll take it. I feel like I say this every year after the Monkey, but I've got big things rolling around in my head for the next 12 months. Now I just have to go get it.