Creeping Doubt

Because of my aches and pains, I feel apprehensive about the upcoming marathon on Sunday. Never in so many years have I had the lack of confidence as I feel now. Do I keep my half marathon registration, or shall I upgrade to the full marathon at the Expo? Taking the easy and wimpy way out is attempting to finish the half marathon. Trying to prove to myself that I can still run a full marathon even with my leg problems would be nice and I would be ecstatic to finish it regardless of how long it takes. Getting slower due to injuries in the past few years, I can accept, but attempting a marathon is almost mind boggling if not for the relatively comfortable 21 miler we did a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t expect to have this dilemma because when training started at the end of May, my mind was set on just doing the half marathon. If I can run/walk the same way on Sunday as I did running 21 miles, I’d be more confident, but during marathon day, you never know what’s going to happen until you reach 15 to 24 miles, if you get that far at all. The inconsistent training I’ve had all summer is letting doubt creep into my head. However, this feeling is not limited to me. In a lot of marathoner’s minds, there will always be the question of “did I do enough long runs, speed work, or tempo runs to enable me finish this marathon?” There will always be self doubt until you settle into the run and monitor how your body feels as the miles go by. I’ll be relying a lot on Linda who has been my training partner in the last few weeks and on the support of my running club, AREC. In the meantime, waiting for 7:00 a.m. Sunday to arrive is becoming excruciatingly painful mentally, specially that I’m off from work starting Wednesday. My biggest concern is aggravating something between now and then. I may need something to distract myself. Any suggestions?