About two-thirds of the way through, I was feeling good, and my pace leaders told me I was looking good, but I was feeling a little nervous.  I am kind of chatty, anyway, but when I get nervous I get REALLY chatty.  I had spent so much of the race talking with Phyllis that it was hard for me to turn it off, so now that I had lost her, I talked to the pace leaders.  I told one of the leaders, Greg, about Sarah Kate and how I had dedicated what I thought would be the hardest part of the race to her.  As we approached mile marker 19, Greg announced to the group that the next mile was for Sarah Kate and asked me to tell everyone her story.  Although our group was a little spread out at this point and not everyone was within earshot, the pace leaders and a few others listened to me as I told Sarah Kate’s story.  Before I knew it, the hill was behind me and I had hardly even noticed it was there.  I will forever be grateful to my pace group for allowing me to monopolize their time with my passion!

Around the 20 mile point, we began to see a lot of people with half marathon shirts who were walking.  It was energizing to pass people when I knew I had covered 13 miles more than they had run that morning.  My feet and knees were aching, and it was especially painful to restart after each water stop.  My pace leaders told me that I was looking strong and really encouraged me to go on ahead at mile 23, but I just didn’t want to leave my support group behind at that point.  Prior to the race, Katie had joked that I would more than likely catch up to her around mile 25 (her mile 12), as she started the half marathon almost two hours later, is typically a little slower than I am, and was expecting to finish even slower because of a cold she’d had earlier in the week.  I had dedicated the mile between marker 12-13 to her because I had caught her at mile 12 at the 2007 Disneyland Half Marathon when she started a few corrals ahead of me (it was only 15-20 minutes ahead, not the 40 that she claims!)

Just beyond the mile 23 point, I told my pace leaders that mile 24-25 was for my wonderful husband, Scott, but that I had saved the last 1.2 for myself.  With less than two miles to go, I realized that in 20 minutes I would be a marathoner!  I decided at that point that when I reached the mile 25 marker I would do the rest of the distance alone.  At the final water stop, they encouraged me, congratulated me on my first marathon, and told me that I was the only one from the original group that was still on pace for a 5:15 marathon.  I had stayed so close to the leaders and never looked behind me, and I was shocked to find that I was the only one left (I heard later that many of the group finished just a little behind the pace).  I waved goodbye and picked up speed for the final push.

I was grinning as I ran toward the finish, and each time I looked at my Garmin it showed my pace right at 10:00 per mile.  I grinned and waved at every photographer I passed, and laughed with joy when a half marathon runner approached a pack of her screaming friends who had turned out to cheer her on.  My eyes filled with happy tears when I spotted Oriole Park at the bottom of the hill.  At this point there were so many slow runners and walkers that I felt like I was flying past them.  I stopped ever so briefly to snap a quick photo of the finish line, and crossed the line with a chip time of 5:12:15 - I had made up almost three minutes on the last 1.2 miles!  I got my crab medal and a bottle of water and began to wonder exactly how I was going to find Katie.  A couple of seconds later, I saw her orange hat in the distance and began to walk toward her.  She was on her cell phone with her back to me, talking to her dad, who had seen each of us finish.  He told her that I was probably right behind her, and when she turned around to look for me, I was literally right behind her.  As it turned out, I had crossed the finish line barely a minute after she did.

We met up with Tawanda, a fellow FIRM Believer, who I have “known” for about two years but had never met before.  Although I’d seen her in photos, I was not prepared for how tall and strong she looked!  Tawanda had earned the “Maryland Double” medal for completing both the Frederick and Baltimore Half Marathons this year.  Katie, Dad Riley and I headed home after that for a much needed shower, a little rest, and then a trip to By the Docks for Maryland Crab Cakes!  Following yummy crab cakes (which, unfortunately, I could not fill up on as my stomach seemed to have shrunk in size during the marathon), we went back downtown to an art show featuring the works of Katie’s brother, Mike.

They say that within 24 hours, marathon amnesia sets in and you forget about the pain and are ready to go again (kind of like childbirth).  For me, I didn’t have to wait for the amnesia - I was ready to go again at Mile 24.