Grandma's Marathon: Halfway through 20

This is post three of my Grandma's exhaustive detailed recap series; my main summary post can be found here, along with contains links to all of my other posts about the race.

My pace group post-race

In general, from mile 13.1 to mile 20 is the portion of the race during which I feel most confident in marathons, and Grandma's was no different.  There's something about being halfway done, plus the endorphin kick that comes with running for over 80 minutes, along with still feeling strong.  Our pack encouraged each other:  "We just need to do that again a tiny bit faster, we've got this!"  At that point I thought I had a great chance at getting the 2:45:00 standard.

We dropped our pace a little according to our plan (6:15ish).  My watch told me we were averaging 6:18 pace at the half, which was consistent with the course clock that read 1:22:37 for our half.  Most people's Garmins were beeping sightly before mile markers, but mine was right on or a little after each marker.  Fun facts: my Garmin read 26.20 for the race as a whole, and my Strava gave me 26.19 and didn't count it as a marathon!  I like having a "conservative" Garmin, but I do want credit for my distances (other runners my Strava linked with had readings around 26.3).  Anyway, I knew I needed to average around 6:16 pace for the second half to meet my goal.  My conservative Garmin meant I wouldn't need to do math, but rather aim for a cumulative average pace of 6:17 or better.

After the half, Jessi, Chandler, and I really started passing women.  We passed many women who I didn't expect to be passing, in that race or ever.  I wondered if the sun was doing people in, or if they'd started too fast.  We teamed up with other women here and there to press on, and passing people helped our momentum.  I really believed in my ability through these miles, I kept saying, "You're qualifying today" to myself.

Around mile 17-18

Around mile 18, I felt a dip in my energy level for the first time.  I began taking my third gel, and quickly regained pep in my step from the sugar and caffeine.  I breathed a sigh of relief; I just needed some fuel.

Also around mile 18, Jessi was pushing the pace and I could tell she felt really good.  I told her and Chandler I wanted to stick around 6:15, and Jessi began pulling away from us.  Chandler and I stayed together, and at mile 20 we were in an ideal position - 2:05:35, or in need of about a 39:20 final 10K (6:20 pace).  Chandler asked if we were on track and I optimistically answered, "We are right where we need to be!  We can do this!"

The story continues here...