Fat Nerds should not Run

I ran my second half marathon this last weekend. I did it in 1 hour 55 minutes which is real close to what I thought I would do it in considering the course.
This race course is a tough one. It starts right at the base of a mountain to which you climb 275 feet at a 6.4% grade. It levels off for a ¼ of a mile and then you head up Monster Hill and climb another 250 feet at a 9.2% grade and all this climbing is in the first 1.5 miles. The course then slightly declines till mile 4 at which point you again climb another 200 feet at a 5.1% grade.
Now you have been climbing for 4.5 miles and the downhill quad burning part begins. For the next ¾ miles you drop almost 300 feet at a grade of 7.9% leveling off at the for a 1.5 miles decline. At mile 7 comes the last double whammy hill that you now have to climb again another 150 feet at 5.9% grade in a double climb drop and climb again type hill. Your legs are now tired and burning hams from earlier uphill’s and your quads are still complaining from the downhill. To which they yell at you even more with the final big drop of 6.6% grade off that last hill to end 8.5 miles.
Now you are tired from 8.5 miles of up and down 4 big hills at a mile high elevation and no air with 871 other people all breathing and gasping for their last breath and you realize you still have almost 5 miles to run. The rest of the run is down a trail along a river thus slight down grade and or flat.
I did run a good race though as far as reserves of strength. I started out slow climbing the hills but did not walk. I managed my output and then when the last 4.5 miles came I was able to slowly increase my speed to the end finishing at a sprint. For this part of the race I was only passed by one person and I don’t even know how many people I passed. They seemed to fall to me in waves and groups as some had taken to walking from burning themselves out by going too fast to early. Others at this point I just went by as I put my sites on the next batch of people to try and pass.
In the end I finished near 300 out of 871 thus in the top 1/3 of the people racing. All my friends I hang out with though were finished ahead of me by like 10 minutes or more. I told them afterwards that I was going to have to find a new group of friends since they are all too fast for me. They laughed and said I would not be happy unless I had them to push me further. One of the friends even started at the finish line, ran 7 miles across the town to the start line, ran the race finishing with 20 miles and beat me still by almost 15 minutes. Where do these people that can run come from sheesh.
Another friend has been very supportive and has me registered for the upcoming marathon. So I guess with his notice last night I am officially in for it. I run it the first weekend in May. I will do my best to be able to type after that and let you all know if I died or lived.