It’s true. I’m feeling pretty nervous, anxious, scared, excited… where ever you want to throw a dart on the emotional spectrum chances are you’ll be close.

The Oakland Running Festival is this Sunday and I haven’t run a full marathon since NYCM 2010. If you have a calculator or Rain Man skills, that’s 1 year, 4 months and 18 days since I last crossed the finish line of a 26.2. Truthfully, I didn’t run or train for long distances in 2011 due to the pregnancy of my wife and birth of my baby girl. “Life is what happens to you
while you’re busy making other plans .” — if it’s good enough for Lennon, it’s good enough for me.

So why am I feeling the pre-race jitters? Well, I think I’m actually ready for this race. I’ve trained properly, tapered well and am familiar with the course. Those are good things, right? Yes, but it also leaves no room for excuse making, or gulp, failure.

I have high expectations in trying to aim for 4:20. That would be shaving 9 minutes off my 26.2 PR and 11 minutes off the time I ran the course in 2010. The target is 4:20, but I’d be happy with up to 4:25. That’s my window, but the end result is still a PR. Anything else would be coming up short.

Having that mindset, might set me up for disappointment, but I’ve been trying to get faster and this is the next step.

Feel free to leave a comment on how you’ve dealt with race day nerves… success?