Marathon Man

Ok I lived through it. Barely... it seemed at the time. And there never was a question of me not finishing. Ran the first 21k fine. Then things started to go south about the 25 k mark.
They split the runners up about the 18k mark, half marathoners to the left. Marathoners to the right, and god forbid you tried to cross over. They had these huge inflatable entrances which specified which was for what race. Race officials were quite vocal about which way to go for those who had doubts...or were blind to the signs...or just blind.
I remember thinking at that point, "Halfway! Only 21k more to go!" or maybe it was more "OHMYGAWD21MORETOGO!"
I was doing the Running Rooms 10 and 1's. For those that don't know that's running 10 minutes for every 1 minute of walking. Supposedly helps you make it to the finish line. So I was doing these as best I could, then started- I think 5 & 1's, then 3 & 1's, and then started reversing the order, 2 & 8's or whatever I damned well felt like. After the 25 mark if was very hard to run for any length of time. My feet at one point felt like they were on fire. My toes went numb.
I got to 5 k left and I was thinking "C'mon! You can do this! It's only 5k!". I think I managed a couple hundred metres then started walking again. How depressing. Then I got to 2 kilometres, then 1. At 800 metres I had to walk again and think at 700 I started up again and managed to keep going the rest of the way in.
The people at this point were lined up behind barricades and so many people along the way cheered you along, it felt great to have them there. Anyways there were a lot of people in the last few hundred metres (maybe couple thousand? Not sure), so you felt obligated to run, ha. I tried to leg it out, the old sprint to the finish...I had nothing left, no gas. So just trotted along as best I could and kept moving.
Came around the last corner and finally saw the finish line just ahead. Now that was a sight to melt the heart. Knowing I'd just finished "running" 42.2 km's (ok actually 42.195 but since it took me 8 minutes just to get to the start line, I'm sure it's over 42.2). Not sure if that was the runners high or just a high, but it was an amazing feeling..."THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!"
Oops, flashback to Highlander there. Just an incredible sight actually. The whole experience. Glad I did it. Want to do more. Haven't run since the race. Time to get moving again.
(And note to self...don't start a race at the back of the pack)