Only managed a 6:18:40 chip time due to some back spasms, but I finished and I got the medal to prove it! My first 9and last? TBD) marathon! And to think in August I could nto even fnish the inital 30 minute training run.
Smiley faces for everyone on SDMB on me!
Congratulations! 
As someone who barely finished running the mile each year in high school, I’m very impressed.
Way to go Gangster, this is definitely something to brag about. Hope the back is doing better.
Congratulations!
Congratulations, Gangster!
I didn’t realize the marathon was today. I’ll have to email my friend in LA to see if he ran again this year…
What, may I asked, is a “chip time”?
Yay, Gangster Octopus! Good for you. I’m training for my first half-marathon myself. Ain’t the running community great 
Thanks everybody!
You attach a plastic thingee to your shoe that is basically a computer chip about the size of a quarter. There are mats at various points of the race including the start and it registers when yuor chip strikes the mat, so to speak (the chip doesn’t actually touch the mat, just your shoe). It’s main benefit is that it allows you to register your time not from the gun but from when you actually cross the start line. With 25,000+ people it took me almost ten minutes to get to the start line after the gun sounded. It also gives instantaneous splits that my family and freinds were able to get in updates throughout the day via email.
Right now your all hurty, but in about 2-3 weeks time you’ll want to do another one.
I believe the chip thingy is a radio transmitter. I think that when you run over the mats, which generate a magnetic field, a current is induced in the chip. That powers a radio transmitter, which sends a code to a nearby receiver.
That’s what people told me.
I pretty much quit running after I did a marathon. Probably never did more than 6+ miles in one run after New York '97.
I was fast, too.
Congratulations! I remember how awesome I felt (mentally, not physically - HA!) after I finished my first marathon. It’s quite an accomplishment.
Someday I’m going to do the LA marathon. If I can ever get my running mojo back, that is.
Congratulations!!!
My body quit on me during training, but I want to finish one - one day.
WooHoo! Congratulations. Enjoy your victory.