Less than 72 hours till the NYC Marathon

Seems like only yesterday I was in a hotel room in D.C. reading my email, when I came across the message from The ING New York City Marathon saying that I'd been selected for the 40th running of the event.

Well, that was over six months ago and now the race is right around the corner. I'm feeling pretty good. I feel like my legs and lungs are in shape and should be able to handle the distance. I had my annual check up with my cardiologist today and he said that my heart was looking great and shouldn't give me any problems either. I'm injury free and my joints have felt great on my long runs. All that said, it's a bit daunting as this is my first full marathon, and that whole fear of the unknown thing is creeping into the back of my mind. 26 miles feels like a pretty long ways.

I remember standing at the start line at my first half marathon having a similar feeling. Just not knowing what to expect makes it a bit nerve racking. Although, now having done 6 halves, they no longer really hold any mystery to me and I pretty much always know what to expect, which is one of the reasons that I'm stepping up to the full. It should be quite the adventure and I'm really looking forward to it. From what I've heard about the route and the fans, it's going to be an epic, memory filled run.

Gear wise, I'm good to go as well. My shoes are broken in, I've got my favorite socks ready and I found an armband case for my phone so I can use that instead of my iPod. My new myTouch phone has all my music on it, has a running app that interrupts my music every half mile with a nice voice that tells me how far I've run and what my pace is. Plus when I'm done, I'll be able to call Becky and hopefully won't have a too hard a time finding each other after I get out of the finishing corral.

So that's it. I think I'm ready. I'll put on my 'I think I can' hat Sunday morning and just start running. I plan to sign up for a pace group so I can finish with a goal time of under 4 and a half hours. Wish me luck.