Pssst.... the eagle lands at midnight

The horn goes off and away we go, heading for Ucluelet which is 26.2 miles away. Edge to Edge 2011: yay!
Again, I wasn't nervous. It was a nice day for a run and I had some great music and the scenery was nice and everyone was in a good mood and I had no expectations.
After about ten minutes I noticed that I hadn't come across any mile or kilometre markers. Normally the first mile is marked and then subsequent miles or kilometres. Nada. Nothing after fifteen minutes. Nothing after thirty minutes. Yeah.
So I had no idea what my pace was and I thought I was running pretty hard. I have a tendency to go out hard and then fade and I was wondering if that's what I was doing, but there was no way to tell.
Eventually I came across an aid station and it indicated it was at about 9.3 kilometres, but my watch said 55 minutes which meant I really ought to have been around 11 kilometres. I figured that perhaps the course was hillier than I had been aware of and it was taking a bigger toll on my body than anticipated. But being five minutes too slow on the first 10k? Seemed strange to me.
Then I shrugged my shoulders and felt I was doing the best I could do and resolved it would be a slow marathon. Whatever.
Ran on. Did some back and forths with some people. Enjoyed my music. Liked running on the bike path. Realized that I was competing with people that were running relay portions which was dangerous because you run 10k a hell of a lot faster than you run 42.2k and so I tried not to keep pace with the relayers, though it was hard to tell who was who.
The aid stations were fun because they were, sometimes, also relay stations and so all these people would be there, waiting to get tagged and there would also be spectators and volunteers and they would all cheer loudly and it was kind of overwhelming since it was a very sparse and interspersed marathon.
An official looking guy gave me some kind words of encouragement at one of the first aid stations. People shuttling the relay people around were driving by in cars and buses and screaming out the window and I was smiling and waving at everyone.
Picked off a couple of women in front of me. A woman in the age category above me fairly blew by me and I pegged her for the first or second female overall. The gap between she and I was widening and I knew I couldn't catch her but thought I might still have a chance to place in my own age/sex category.
Came into an other aid station and that same official looking guy said that I was going well and was picking up time. I thought it odd that he would know that, but then I had noticed a couple of volunteers noting my number as I ran by them.
More smiles and waves for everyone.
Passed a guy with a Transformers tattoo on his calf. He didn't like that and passed me back going up a hill. I didn't like that and so I passed him back and didn't see him again.
At one of the aid stations a woman said "You're doing really well, T-" and I thought "how does she know my name?" and I assumed my name must be on my bib. I was running hard, but I was feeling surprisingly strong. I actually didn't mind the undulating hills.
There were still no kilometre markers so I just resolved to run hard but not overdo it. After 2.5 hours I expected to hit the wall and then I started thinking I was hitting it and then I did a quick self check and asked "am I really hitting it, or am I just expecting to hit it?". And I was feeling fine and so I said to myself I says "you're feeling fine: the wall is in your head. Suck it up" and so I did.
I knew, also, the Leon was behind me somewhere because I could hear him asking for Gatorade in his British accent behind me from time to time and I thought he was doing really well for his first marathon which was totally challenging.
Started plowing through the dreaded final 8k of the race. I was tired and my body was tired and the hills were just endless onslaughts and I even walked one of them because I just couldn't get up it.
Went through another aid station and another volunteer said to me "you should be really proud of your time" and I took the water from her and said thanks and thought man, people sure are really encouraging on this course. Downed the water (and more Gatorade) and started struggling up another hill and noted that my feet were starting to cramp and prayed to the gods that I would get to the finish line before I had another repeat of my death in the desert that was the Las Vegas marathon.