Three Days to Bellingham Bay Marathon ... Racing Thoughs in my Head

It's been a while since I blogged.  It's three days only to my first marathon.  In my head I am going over strategy, what may go wrong, where I think I lack and how I will deal with it during the race.  My though right now?  What's the best massage strategy?  Should I do it today?  For the Heroe's Half in May I did it three or four days before the race.  After a Google search I find really that there are different strategies for massage as well.   I haven't had a massage since May, that's an error on my part.  My legs feel real tight the first few miles of any run.  Considering I haven't had a massage in several months I am really looking for re-conditioning my legs rather than a general maintenance massage so the massage after the race makes almost sense to me right now.  I saw mentioned that deep tissue massage have different recovery times in individuals so if taken too close to the race such massage may not be the best.  A post race massage I could also direct the massage therapist to sore point highlighted by the race.  A lighter massage may be of order with plans for a deep tissue on Tuesday ...   

I found a 2007 post by Uta Pippig with excellent last minutes tips broken up by equipment, nutrition and last minute tip.  They recommend eating oatmeal 4 hours before the race.  Interesting ...    I don't eat like regular oatmeal and have no idea how my body would react ... So I made a mental note of it, but since the biggest tip of them all is not to try anything new before a race I'll stick to bread, eggs, yogurts trail mix, OJ ... fruits ... Oh I just realized !   I did experiment with an oatmeal cookie about an hour before starting my 24 miles training run on BBM course !  So I'll a couple oatmeal cookies too LOL 

http://www.takethemagicstep.com/coaching/beginners/training-exercise/two-days-before-the-marathon/

My other worry is that my Brooks won't cushion me enough.  I completed the Seattle RnR half witht and have been wearing exclusively my Brooks since.  The window to try new running shoes out on a couple of runs has closed and passed.  It's not a good idea to try a brand new pair of shoes now.  My mistake here I knew better and didn't act.  That said I wouldn't say that the shoes are cushionless.  I will transition to a new pair after the race I think, alternating the rooks and my new pair.  I was thinking about getting a new pair of light weight Aesics, that I would use primarily on my long runs, and keep using the Brooks for the shorter runs.  I would define a "long run" as 10+ miles.  I am also thinking why not trying some Nike or Adidas however these are design for Neutral, near perfect stride so the shoes wouldn't necessarily work best for me since I pronate a lot :(  Well I'll be thinking about it more on the run I am sure ! 

Right now I am just rejoicing in the moment, reflecting on the journey, a though training program to get here.  I have flashbacks of the instances I almost gave up as I broke through my training milestones ... I relax my mind even knowing the monumental meaning of Sunday's run to me.  Complete a marathon.  Run 26.2 miles ...