Well, I did it. Not real sure of my official time--somewhere in the 2:50 range--but that didn't really matter. I covered 13.1 miles on my feet, and finished standing up. (UPDATE: My o-fish-ul time was 2:52.) And, as you can see, I have photographic evidence. (As a side note: does it look to you like I'm screwing on a prosthetic arm in this photo? It does to me.)

Then I went home, crawled into a fetal position, and fell into a coma for an hour. (Okay, more of a nap, but it felt like a coma.)

After that, buoyed by the smell of cooking ribs, I rose to a wonderful barbecue attended by more than 40 friends and family. I'm a little verklempt as I sit here writing this.

The verklemptitude started about two miles into the race, when I passed a hand-lettered sign posted there by my lovely wife and lovely daughter: "Go, TL Hines! Run! Run! Kick it!"

I appreciated that because they branded my author name of TL Hines to some 1000 runners and potential book buyers.

Okay, I'm just kidding. I appreciated that because--well, how could you not appreciate that? Along the way, they placed five other signs--all bright green--encouraging me along the way. It became something that helped me get through the race, looking for those signs. And then, when I got to the end of the race, my whole extended family (wife, daughter, parents, in-laws, nephews) stood there holding signs.

Good thing it was raining, because the rain helped me protect my real-man-who-doesn't-cry credibility.

Some great folks from the "Billings Gazette" came out and did a story on me; I'll post it when it goes live online. (UPDATE: Here it is--story AND video of me in a wet tee shirt: http://is.gd/3xf4M.)