Freaking out!

I'm travelling to Boston for the marathon in exactly 7 days. As it has been getting closer, more people have been asking me, "Are you ready?" Based on all the training and miles that I put in, I'm definitely ready, but the more I think about the race the more nervous I am.

I've done plenty of races so you would think that I wouldn't be all that nervous, but I'm more nervous for this race than any other race I have ever done....EVER. This is THE Boston Marathon! The one that so many people strive to make it to, the most prestigious marathon in the world....and I'm going to be running in it in 10 days at the nice young age of 22!

The things I'm most nervous about are:

• Not reaching my goal that I've set for myself
• Getting eaten up by the crowd of runners
• Getting run over
• Forgetting something

My first and second fears kind of go together. I'll be starting the race with people who have similar qualifying times, but I want to go much faster than the time I qualified with. For my age group (18 - 34), to qualify for the Boston Marathon, I had to run a 3:40:00. (The qualifying times will be changing for the 2012 Boston Marathon, just FYI). For my first marathon, I didn't train properly and my only goal was to qualify. I ran my marathon in 3:37:32 to qualify.

I've been training hard for Boston, and I'm pretty confident I could run a 3:18:00. That's almost 20 minutes faster! Since I'll be starting the race with people who had qualifying times similar to 3:37:00, I'm afraid I'm going to get eaten up by the crowd of runners at the start and that I won't be able to run a 3:18:00.

Another thing is that Boston is by far the largest race I will have ever taken part in. There are over 25 THOUSAND people participating in Boston this year!! The biggest race I've ever run in was maybe 1 thousand participants.

I don't like big crowds, I usually tend to stay away from them, but I'm going to be smack in the middle. There's going to be a 3 wave start for Boston this year. Wave 1 starts at 10am, Wave 2 starts at 10:20am, and Wave 3 starts at 10:40am. I am in wave 2. I will literally be in the middle of the giant crowd of runners.

The reason I stay away from crowds is because I'm small. I'm only 5 ft tall and I weigh about 100lbs. Every time I get stuck in a crowd of people, I get stepped on, pushed, bumped into, etc. I don't like it. I just hope that I won't get run over by the mob of runners at Boston.

The race is super organized, and I'm really afraid that I'm going to forget something. Whether I forget socks or something like that I doubt it, but there are a million other things to remember. There are shuttles that take the runners to the start. The shuttles have specific times, and depending on what wave your in depends on what time you can get a shuttle to the start. At the start, there are buses for baggage check so that you can have your stuff at the finish line. There are certain buses for baggage check, in different locations in the "athlete's village" depending on your wave. (The "athlete's village" is just a place for the runners to hang out until they make their way to the starting line, and only the runners are allowed in). Also, within each wave there are corrals that you're assigned to. The corrals are based on your Bib #. I'm in wave 2, corral 6. Depending on the corral your in within your wave depends on when you go to the starting line......OK. You get the point. There's a ton of stuff to remember.

I'm so nervous. I feel like I should wear a sticker saying "Be nice to me this is my 1st Boston." Similar to the ones they give out at blood drives...

In planning and training for this race, it felt so far away, but now it's actually here. It's only 10 days away, and I'm kind of freaking out a little. Has anybody done a big race before? Anybody have any advice for me or something that will help calm my nerves??