Race weekend is here!

I just woke up from what experts call the most important night of sleep before the marathon- two nights out. Now today I'm being very careful of what I put into my stomach and what time I do so, to make everything go as smoothly as possible tomorrow.
Bill and I wrapped up our race-day strategy this week, here we go:
No watch! This might bother me a bit since my training involved timed intervals and maintaining a specific pace. But as we talked about, over these months I've developed a "toolbox" of different effort levels that I can call upon at any time.

Miles 0-5 - At the top of this toolbox is my relaxed long run pace, about 9 minutes/mile. This is what I'll do for the first five miles of Grandma's. Minimal focus will be needed to maintain this pace, I'm sure I'll have to focus more on slowing down than speeding up. At the 5 mile mark, I'm sure I'll feel good, have a decent sweat going, and have plenty left in the tank.

Miles 5-20 - For this 15 mile stretch, the pace will be 8:15/8:45 per mile. This is a bit slower than what I did for an hour last weekend. This will require consistent focus, but not completely locked in 100% of the time (it'll take about 2.5 hours!). I'll walk through all water stops and take walking breaks as needed.
I've developed a pretty good gauge of when my body needs a break and also when it's ready to get rolling again. So during this stretch, I'll be more focused on how I'm doing and if I need any adjustments (breaks, water, etc).

Miles 20-26.2 - Anyone who reads this who has done a marathon will appreciate that I included the last 0.2 miles! For this last stretch, we don't have a specific target pace. I will take an inventory at mile 20 and see what I have left. I'm sure I'll need some walking breaks and my upper quads will be screaming at me. Hopefully some ibuprofin will help out with that.
Ideally, I'll hit mile 20 before the 3 hour mark and have an hour to do the last 10K. I hope to have enough gas in the tank to cruise to the finish at a 9:30 pace (including walking) over the last 6.2 miles and cross the line in under four hours.

There are a few things we talked about doing along the entire 26.2. One is continually sucking on a cinnamon candy. So I bought a bag at Target and will bring a handful to the start and keep the rest in my backpack - which, by the way, will be carried by my support-gal-extraordinaire girlfriend :)
I need to make sure to take a couple Electrolyte tablets about half an hour before the start, and one at least every hour throughout the race. In 2008, I was an absolute salty mess at the finish, head to toe. My sister still talks about this. During this year's training, the tablets really helped.
I have a TON of gels in the backpack. I'll probably use 5-6 max for the race, so Anne can give out extras to anyone in need. I don't imagine I'll be doing a long run for a while after this :)
I only trained with water as an in-run drink, so I'll be good there. On the drive up today, I'll take a look at the map to get familiar when water stops will come up on the course.
I'm a little torn on music during the race. There's no better sound than hearing 7000 sets of feet running around you on race day. Plus you can take in the energy of all the other runners, and maybe strike up a conversation with someone running a similar pace.
On the other hand, I did all my long training runs alone with my iPod. I have a familiar set of about 100 songs that carry me through the tough miles.
I think I'll start the race without the iPod and have it available in the backpack in case I want it later. I'll give it back to Anne at our last in-race meeting so I cross the finish line with just me. the headphones are big and goofy, and I want a beautiful picture of me crossing the line :) I can be such a girl sometimes....
OK, time to start the day. I need to finish packing, do some stretching, and refill my glass of water. We'll leave the Twin Cities at about 11am, and have lunch on the way up. The plan is to eat dinner early (around 5pm), watch Anne and others do the 5K, and get to bed by 10.
Please keep me in your thoughts at 7:30am tomorrow! If anyone reads this before then, feel free to follow my progress via text messages. Check out the Grandma's website for details.
Here we go!!!!