The Marathon....overanalyzed

I spent about four days thinking about what went right and wrong last Sunday. For those of you keeping score I came in 37 minutes slower than I hoped.
My first two miles were incredibly slow. The next couple of miles were too fast. I didn't take walk breaks the first 6 miles like I should have. I used too much energy too quickly. I wasn't hydrated enough at the start, despite spending the two weeks prior to the race taking in 4-6 ounces of water or powerade every hour. I lost sodium more quickly than I planned, which resulted in cramping and ended up having to drink 2 6-ounce helpings of partially dissolved, frothy, chunky bouillon cubes (the grossest thing I ever hope to willingly swallow**). The list of things goes on and on. But I think the major thing that kept me from reaching the 5 hour mark is going it alone. I had too many points in the race where being by myself worn me down mentally. Too many places where I just felt, well, alone. Which at mile 18 isn't a good way to feel.
Before the race a few people told me that running alone wasn't the best idea. But I had my head and heart set on running the MCM, critics be damned. And afterward I had a whole lot of people say that if I would have had a buddy 5 hours would have been easy.
So that's the plan now. To run Austin with at least one friend. It makes the miles go by quicker and it gives you something to be distracted with. And Allison is an awesome running partner anyway. Maybe this year she'll finally tell me what happened to the bunny....

(This is fairly gross so read at your own risk)
**A short aside about the bouillon cubes: You might be asking yourself why? Sodium is important as we all know. Without enough my calves started to tense up. So I finally found a medic tent and said I needed some sort of salt. This after forgetting to find packets to keep with me along the course. They hand me this cup of brown grossness. I look at it. Then look around. Then see the bouillon cubes and think ew. So I start to slowly drink. Only the chunks of undissolved bouillon are amazingly unappetizing to say it politely. So I say to myself, don't think about it, just drink. It's amazing what you can choke down if you don't let yourself think about it. Maybe that's how people drink eggs...
The whole bouillon thing is new to me. In Nashville the medics took a pack of salt, dissolved it in Gatorade and made you chug. Also gross. But this is what I was expecting when I went to the medics, not brown liquid. I'm not sure which is really worse, salty Gatorade or bouillon. Maybe they do bouillon so that it has more of a taste than salt. Who knows. Either way it was something I had to share with y'all.