This morning I ran my training run before this Sunday’s San Francisco Marathon. It was short, easy, and meant to keep me loose before the big day. No more long mileage. No more speed work. If I’m not ready now, too late. All that’s left is frequent foot massaging to stave off the start of plantar fasciitis; carb-loading (possibly the reason I got into this to begin with); race strategy-planning; and, of course, healthy amounts of panicking and self-doubt.

Regular readers might recall that I started training back in January with a group called SF Fit, the local branch of a national marathon training program not affiliated with any charity (I’m all for charity, but for me, the added stress of raising $3k AND running 26.2 mi was just not my bag - not now). Along the way, I ran my first 12k and Bay to Breakers, have run the Golden Gate Bridge more times than I care to remember - which has been added back to the Marathon course for the first time since national security concerns took it out - and even gained enough confidence to start looking ahead to new challenges. Especially new challenges with jewelry at the finish line.

Now on my 3d pair of shoes since January, I’ve logged over 244 miles training with the team over 26 weeks as well as, conservatively, another 225 weekday training miles. There are just 26.2 miles left to go.

And you can be a part of it. Check out the race’s Spectator Guide for “official” cheer areas - unofficial runs, I presume, can be found along the entire route - see the map above - chances are, we’ll be passing your house, wherever you live.

For those of you really dedicated to Metroblogging authors, the magic of txt msg technology enables you to track your favorite blogger - er - runner. (You could say this is just another example of “hey cool, but why?” technological advances, but where’s the fun in that?)

So come out and cheer on the runners in one of the most challenging (read: hilly) and early (read: ungodly early) marathons in the country. I’ll be running by 5:00am. See you there!

Related posts:

1. Running Fools
2. And For My Next Trick . . . .
3. Big Sur Race
4. Made It: Across the Bay ‘05
5. Running for a Reason