what was your finish time for your first marathon?

My first marathon was the London many years ago - pre ipods; sports gels etc etc

Finished in 4.12 and had trained for a year before hand by doing 3 HM's. Sitting watching the marathon the year before and decided I'd love to do it, so bought a ticket through the local travel agent (how things have changed!!).  

really enjoyed it, never 'hit the wall' and am considering applying for the ballot this year......

4:47 - London 2005.

I had thought I might get around 4:30, and that was looking likely until about 17 miles, when it all started to get much harder!  It was a warm one, too.

I didn't really have a training plan, just increased the long runs week after week.    I know better now

thanks dave b that is really helpful.

 I see what you mean 8 min miling is good running in the middle of a marathon.

I am doing fist marathon in a week and a half. Had my training went perfectly i thought 4hrs was an outside chance. Training didn;t go great due to some IT band problems so i am now looking at sub 4.30. I have spent a lot of time thinking and reading about pace. Early on i was thinking of starting out at 9.25-9.30 pace so the 4 was still a possibility if all went great (all my long runs up to 21.3miles were done around 9.45 pace). But everything i have read which concurs with your view suggests if you go to fast too early I will pay big time at the end. I have therefore got my sensible head on today and think i will try and set off at 9.50-10 min mile pace and try to stay steady across the course.