Some 43,000-odd people ran the course this year—the 40th anniversary—and I was one of them. The weather was perfect (cool and dry) and the support from the crowd and the logistics were marvelous.

I managed it in 3:36:47, which was a full 58 seconds faster than last year, but about six minutes slower than I'd hoped, and therefore something of a disappointment. The old excuses—that it's a hilly, difficult course, that there were so many people in such a confined space that it was hard to run my run—don't mean much. I simply ran out of energy at mile 18 and went from an 8-minute mile to a 9-minute mile from miles 18 to 24 before speeding up again. And that kind of slowdown is due to training, or rather the lack thereof.

Nevertheless, I did manage to raise about $4000 for Friends of Mysore, which is the most important thing. And I'm going to be back next year—with any luck in better shape for the long run.