BCS Marathon

Got up early for the drive over to College Station for the inaugural BCS (Bryan/College Station) Marathon. The race started at 7 a.m. with a temperature in the 30's. It got up into the 50's during the race. For me, it was ideal. The hamstring hurt, but it was tolerable for the first 15 miles. My half-way time was 3:04, compared to 3:22 at Fort Worth a few weeks ago. So, I am getting some healing. After 15 miles, it really hurt and affected my running. The race time limit was 6:30 and I was on track to finish within that limit. Then, at about 18 miles, just before getting to the Texas A&M campus, the cones on the course had been removed. I made a wrong turn and ran nearly a mile before I ran into a guy on a bike who had been working the race. He told me that I had run the same distance as the course and told me where to meet up with the course. I went back and started running through the campus and talked to some road guards, who told me that I was at the 20-mile maker. So I got back on the course. I soon realized that I was ahead of some runners who had been ahead of me. I kept running until I got within a few feet of the finish line chute. Then, I turned around and started running the course backwards. Eventually, I ran into the guy who had been ahead of me before I left the course. I let him pass me and then I turned around and headed back to the finish line, behind him. My finish time was 6:24:55 and I think I ran the 26.2-mile distance.
I was really upset about the early removal of the course markings, but there was a lot of positives about the race. Nice course and the aid stations were loaded with super friendly volunteers and virtually every aid station had a large medical staff.