Grandma's Marathon: Warm up to halfway there

This is post two in my Grandma's obsessive specific recap series; my main summary post can be found here, and contains links to all of my other posts about the race.

I stepped off the starting line bus into the powerful morning sunshine, and began my walk towards the starting area among seas of happy runners.  I stopped to change my shoes and stash my gels in my pockets before dropping my bag, then as I approached the bag check area I spotted Jessi and Chandler.  I was thrilled to connect with them at that point, because I hadn't expected to find them until I went to the starting line area, if even then.  We were able to drop our bags off and navigate through the crowds to the front of the starting corral together.

As we were coordinating our individual warm up and bathroom plans, I also spotted my coach Nichole!  I was able to jog part of my warm up with her.  It was pretty easy to find people among those who were warming up on the first half mile of the course, since the majority of the people racing were not warming up before 26.2 -- this may mean some of us are even crazier than others running marathons, but I can't comfortably go into 6:20 pace with no warm up!  I did a light jog of a little over a mile, drills, and two final pee stops before getting on the starting line with Jessi, Chandler, and Nichole.  The start was delayed for 8 minutes, although I never found out why (maybe someone reading this knows?).  At 7:53 a.m., we were off!

The four of us worked to maintain contact and settled into our pace.  The beginning of a marathon on race day is pretty much the only time marathon pace ever feels easy for me!  I always say that if you don't feel like you're barely moving at the beginning of the marathon, you're probably going too fast.  We started at closer to 6:30 pace for the first bit, and gradually worked down to come through the mile in 6:20.  Nichole was planning to start with us for only the first half mile or so in pursuit of 2:49, and we gradually pulled ahead of her.  Mile 2 came effortlessly in 6:19.  I remember fast finishing runs with 2 miles at goal marathon pace and wondering how I could ever run that pace a) easily, and b) for more than 2 miles, but it turns out I can after all!

After we passed mile 3 in 6:17, Jessi announced that she'd just beat her high school 5K PR, which everyone giggled about.  It put things in perspective, though; we were planning to run sub-20:00 5Ks for a marathon, and that used to be a good 5K time for all of us!  We engaged in friendly banter with some of the other women around us, and quite a few words were exchanged about going for the 2:45, because it seemed that everyone in this race had that plan in mind.

The miles continued to roll by comfortably between 6:15-6:20.  Many say that the course is beautiful, but the main thing I remember about running it both years is that you run straight for over 20 miles, with the huge lake that is Lake Superior on your left.  I'm not much for checking out scenery when I'm focused on marathoning!

We came through the 10K in 39:05, a little faster than I'd planned, but mainly because our first two miles were 6:20 instead of 6:25.  I felt comfortable with this, and also felt that the benefits of running with a group outweighed hitting my pacing plan exactly (note: I wouldn't have gone any faster than 6:15-6:20 though).  I like to err on the side of being conservative with pacing, so I mentioned that I thought we should stay closer to 6:20 through the half, then drop to 6:15ish, instead of dropping sooner, and Jessi and Chandler agreed.  I started on my first gel around the 10K mark.

We exchanged occasional encouraging words and chit chat with each other and with other women we'd join along the way.  Each mile we'd all check our watches and see our consistency.  I'd often think, "we are really doing this!"  I kept hoping we could tuck in with another pack of women and let them lead us and do the work, but we seemed to be running more consistent pacing than others.  I think sometimes people really watch their watches and get freaked out if each mile isn't exact and then over-compensate, or look at moment-to-moment pacing and adjust unnecessarily (moment-to-moment pace readings aren't very accurate, plus the course has rolling hills most of the way so pace should vary when maintaining even effort).  Running side by side with Chandler and Jessi helped me immensely; it felt more like I was out for a brisk training effort with friends versus trying to do something big I'd never done before in a marathon.

Each aid station I grabbed water, and pretty early on I also started grabbing a cup of ice at each one, which I dumped down both my crop and shorts.  The temperature was in the 50s for the entire race, but with the extreme sun it felt much warmer.  It was odd, because last year the temperature was also in the 50's, but it was cloudy and foggy.  Last year I thought it was the coolest 50 degrees I'd ever felt, and credited the lake.  This year I thought it was the hottest 50 degrees I'd ever felt, and credited the sun.  I even came away from the race with compression sock tan lines!  A lot of people were sunburned.

I knew that mile 10 would be fast based on my 2018 splits and grade-adjusted paces, and it was, at 6:08.  I expected mile 11 to be slow with coming back up incline, but it was still 6:20.  I started my second gel between miles 12-13 - I take them gradually, usually taking about a mile to get one completely down.  Coming into the half, I felt fantastic.  Running another 13.1 at about the pace I'd run the first 13.1 felt do-able.  We passed the half clock in 1:22:37, and I got really excited thinking about my parents and husband getting notifications on the race app that I was on track for my goal!

I was so thankful to be working with Chandler and Jessi, in addition to the other women on the course.  I knew it would get harder soon, but I was enjoying the journey and prepared to buckle down when I needed to. 

This picture is from later on in the race
(17-18ish?), but I don't have any photos
from the first half!

The story continues here...