The race is in one the nicest cities in the U.S. - San Diego, CA. The race is relatively flat and I expect the weather to be running friendly (60-75 degrees, not humid). One of the cool things about this race is that there is a band every mile along the course. I ran the Rock'n'Roll Phoenix Half marathon, which also had bands along the course, and really enjoyed this aspect of the Phoenix race. I hope after hitting mile 18 or 20 that the music will help provide me additional motivation and will power to finish the race. For those of you that have been to San Diego, I'm including a picture of the course map...
Yesterday, during my final long run of 10 miles, I started thinking about the last 5 months of training, crossing the finish line, and what it will mean to finish a marathon. Although I have run 3 half marathons, I am excited and nervous about running a marathon. Before every major race that I run, I always think about crossing the finish line. It helps to motivate and keep me going during the actual race. Right now, I don't have a goal time set, however, I think it will be between 4.5 and 5 hrs. Since this is my first and I'm not looking to "kill" (eg. qualify for Boston) myself, completing the race is the major goal :). After I have completed the race, I will post and let everyone know what I learned and how to improve for the next time.
Finally, completing this race will mean a lot to me on a personal level. Three years ago, I started running with the simple goal of losing weight - not to run marathons and half marathons. As I have continued to train for and run in races, I have always entertained the idea of running a full marathon. I made excuses like not having the time to train or not needing to prove that I can run a marathon, but I realized that eventually I wanted to run one just to prove that I could and say that I had done it. Hopefully, this does not become an addiction, I'd rather just train for half marathons instead.
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