I woke up at 2AM and spent an hour and half drove to Monterey; got on and bus and another one hour trip to be taken to start line. Morning was cold today. In fact the whole day is cold like below 60F. And had 15mph wind all day. The race started at 6:45AM and I started running too fast and zig zag through people(I paid a price later at race). Any way, when the combination of head wind and up hill hits me, I had to struggle to move forward. After hurrican peak, I was exhausted. I ran the first half like few minutes more than 2 hours. Yet after 16miles, I really slowed down to walk. Walked for at least 5 miles, my feet and ankles herted. However, at 23 miles, after a big woman offered a free hug. I decided I must run to complete the race. The last 3 miles were mostly flat, but there was a more than hlaf mile up hill. I struggled to get pass there and ran all the way to finish line. I did the whole thing in 4 hrs 49minutes. 1922 out of whole 5000+ marathon runners and 174 out of my age group. Not too bad.
