Respectable time for marathon

Question
I am planning on running in the Music City Marathon in April of next year.  I am in very good physical condition as I am in the Army.  I am 5'10 and weight 170 pounds and excercise daily with weights and various other things.  However for the past 13 months I have been deployed to Iraq and stationed on a very small and remote Patrol Base I am planning on running the full marathon no matter what in April I understand this isnt alot of time to train but I am determined to do it so my question is simply what would be a respectable time as I don't want to just finish the run I want to at least have a time that I can feel good about.  Thank you very much si for your time.

Answer
Hi Brian,

I'll be the first to say that any marathon finish, regardless of time, should be viewed as a great accomplishment given your circumstances.  To answer your question, I will give you some rough guidelines:

2:30 or under = Elite runner
2:30-3:00 = Still very fast, would win most smaller marathon
3:00-3:30 = Strong time, top 10-20% of most marathons
3:30-4:00 = Top 30-40% of field
4:00-4:30 = Middle of the pack
4:30-5:00 = Bottom third
5:00 + = Back of the pack

If you're looking for an opinion on what most people would view as at least a respectable time, nonrunners would say that any finish is respectable.....in most running circles, I would say sub-4 hrs is the target between respectable time and "running to finish".

Hope this answers your question.

Larry