Hey!!

dromalina - it’s good to be nervous and, after missing you in the belly, I’m nervous for you too. However, coming off a cold and having a sore hammy means this one needs special consideration. Like I had to do in my current worst PB (also with a sore hamstring needing very abbreviated strides of around four feet instead of my usual six feet), probably best to start out even slower than you have been planning, get way back at the very, very tail end of the starting pack if possible so you have company in slow running and can stifle any of the otherwise natural starting gun adrenalin, and just aim at finishing under circumstances that do not permit comparing with a past marathon or even recent training. Since the LA course has runners all the way back to eight hour finishes and even slower paces, there'll be people all around all the time so the running part won’t seem much different for either a five hour or seven hour finish. In fact, having had plenty of both, the slower ones can represent overcoming a lot more than running as planned (though it’s hard to believe until it happens). Yukkuri Ganbare! ps - please do not go slower than my now nearly two year old boomer PB (7:09:54 - 4/1/06)