San Francisco, Here I Come!

I'll make this quick, since I need to get on the road soon! Tomorrow I will be running the San Francisco Marathon. This will be marathon number 5 for me, and number 2 in my 3 marathons in 3 months challenge. But despite having run the distance several times before, I'm still a little nervous. The first half is rumored to be super hilly, but mellows out in the second half. I've been incorporating hill repeats into my training but I'm not sure if it'll be enough. But on the flip side, I'm running this for fun, to take a tour of beautiful San Francisco on foot. I would like to finish around 5:15, but if I don't make that no big deal. I'll be carrying my camera once again so I can document my trek through the city. I think I'm most excited to run across the Golden Gate Bridge!

Golden Gate Bridge, miles 6-9!
 

As for feeling prepared, I'm a little half and half. I know that I've put in the training, and I did just run 26.2 last month, so I know I physically can do it. I think my problem is mentally psyching myself out and convincing myself that I can do it. It's sort of weird but right now it doesn't feel like I'm running a marathon tomorrow! I think it's because everything leading up to it has been so different than previous races. Since Sunday's tapered long run I only got one more run in - a 6 miler Tuesday morning. It ended up being more frustrating than anything else though. There was some construction going on on one of the bridges crossing the American River, so part of the trail was shut down, forcing me to reroute my run and adding on an extra mile (which I walked as a cool down). I opted to skip out on my other runs for the week since I started my new job (more on that in another post!) and was on my feet (walking constantly) for three 7 hour days in a row. I also did some trigger point work on my legs and they feel a lot better after. Hopefully this rest week has left my legs fresh and ready to go tomorrow!

The race starts bright and early (first wave at 5:30am!) and I'll be commuting in from Berkeley, so hopefully I can get some good sleep tonight. Typical summer temps in San Francisco are usually around the 60s F so we should have perfect, cool running weather, especially in the beginning! Other than hitting up the expo this afternoon I have plans to meet up with a couple friends and my aunt who's here form Italy! Hopefully I'm not on my feet too much though and can relax a bit. My parents aren't coming with me this time, but my mom and a friend are going to drive up tomorrow morning to catch the end and finish, so that's something to look forward too while I'm running. San Francisco, here I come!