Well done Steve! I'm very proud of you. It has been a real treat for me to follow your progress and watch you work away at your goal.
The fact that you enjoyed the race is the most important thing. and that little walk near the end is just about perfect. That mean you pt all your effort into it. You went hard, and got a good result.
Your time and placings are useful to measure progress (not so much to massage your ego). They let you see how you are improving against other runners. for example - I did an ultra last year and was two and a half hours behind a woman I met at registration. My last ultra I was 26 minutes behind her. So no matter what my time and place was I know I'm improving - especially since i felt really good during and after the last ultra.
So, you have done a good thing yesterday. You completed your challenge to yourself and you did it well. Yes you will be sore for a few days, but that will pass. A light, sort run finishing with an even shorter full on sprint (100 metres) will help with that.
And then you can do the other races that you wanted to do knowing that you have the distance sorted - this is a short race for you.
I'm glad things went well for you, and I'm looking forward to badgering you about stepping up to the next level ;-) (but not today. Today is about celebrating what you have achieved)
Well done. That man deserves a beer ;-)
Cheers. You have been one of my inspirations. I did have a beer last night.