"They were crazy," said senior Colin Goar (3:12:45) of Mather House. "It was like rush-hour traffic going to the airport on Friday afternoon."

That's crazy.

And the infamous Heartbreak Hill? For Goar, it was no heartbreak. No problem.

Goar trained for the Hill by doing "towers." That is, running up and down 16 flights of stairs in the Mather tower two or three times at night. What hill?

Then there was the guy from West Point. Goar had to pass him. Fans kept yelling, "Go, West Point." Admitting that it was "really rude", Goar ran past the Army man, turned to the crowd and yelled, "Go, Harvard."

After running eight more miles than she has ever run in her life, Gretchen Peters of Currier House had to make sure the marathon was over.

"All I remember was my roommates pouring champagne down my throat," Peters said.

Peters wasn't sure she would ever make it to the finish line. Then she ran through her hometown of Wellesley, heard the cheers from her relatives and friends.

"The crowd totally got my mind off the fact that I was in intense pain," Peters said.

No pain. No champagne.

Senior Brendan Barnicle of Lowell House felt his legs start to cramp up. He blamed it on dehydration.

But around mile 17, Barnicle knew that "there was too little left to stop."

So he kept running and his legs kept cramping up. After crossing the line around the 3:15 mark, Barnicle was taken to a medical tent and treated.

"Something I would not repeat tomorrow," Barnicle said.

Sophomore Dehan Chan started the race quickly. Perhaps too quickly. The hamstring in his left leg cramped up. He had to start walking. "Bad news," he said.