nervous excited. my first marathon.

I'm laying in my bed right now at 9:15 PM with some ice on my foot. I'm about to go to bed, but I wanted to document my feelings. I've gone 5 months with nothing but sore ankles, and now I'm overly paranoid about them. Injuries seem to be emerging, less than 48 hours before my race... This should not be happening... During this week of tapering, somehow every. single. old injury has re-surfaced (most of them I didn't even know I had). I'm thinking because it's the first time my body has actually had time to catch up with recovery, I'm just feeling them all. My body seems to be attempting to heal any/all past injuries. In addition, I've averaged about 1 mysterious pain each day. This has actually been quite hilarious. It's like every time I think of a certain part of my body, all of a sudden it starts hurting. haha Not sure yet whether these "injuries" are actual pains, or me being hypersensitive. [pretty sure it's the latter] Monday my hip hurt. Tuesday my shin hurt. Yesterday my right knee hurt, and today my left middle toe hurt. (that's the ice on my foot right now--which now has soaked through onto my sheets. dang it.)

I haven't been able to focus on much at work, but luckily I've remained fairly busy which has definitely helped.

These are the things I've been worrying about: (in no particular order...)
- crashing at mile 21(or any mile...)
- hitting "the wall"
- what about 5 hour energy? To drink or not to drink? 
- getting cramps from sips of Powerade 
- getting behind pace
- pouring rain--->chaffing of any kind, in any area
- an un-announced blister
- my watch dying 
- a rock in my shoe 
- stomach aches/neausea
-having to pee more than once (yes, I've peed in my shorts during 1/2's---sorry if you didn't want to hear that, but I guess I can be a little intense at times...)

Despite all of my worries, I know I've done all I can do. This past week I've been carb-loading like crazy (totally going against everything inside of me telling me carbs are evil), and doing my best to lay low (which has been incredibly difficult). I've felt lethargic and very sluggish not running. It's crazy how your body can start to crave the runners high you get after every run.
I've been meticulous about sleeping 8 hours/night, and not eating dairy. I've mapped out the course of the marathon, mile by mile, and based on elevation changes, to calculate my desired splits for every mile. I have two plans, in case I start lagging on my times. My main goal of this race is to qualify for Boston. That's only been a goal I've had for about the past month. At first it was only "to finish", which then quickly shifted to "under 4 hours"...which now has evolved to finishing in 3 hours and 35 minutes. Who knows when the next marathon I'll do will be, so I finally just resolved to go big. Based on my times on my half marathons, and the significant drop in elevation of this course, I should be alright...

Tomorrow I will do my best to stay calm, and ease my nerves through whatever outlet I can. I'm so excited to do this. It's been on my Life's To Do list for quite some time now. Time to deliver!!!!