12 days and counting down!

Here I am... 12 days away from my goal date! I'm wavering between the last three steps.  "Can" and "Will" are my challenges and I have 12 days to figure them out.  I figure I've been through all the other steps in the past 6 months, I can make it up the last couple!

The day after the frigid 26 miler that turned into an 18 miler for me, I went to a talk put on by Run Wild Missoula about "The Wall." Our lovely speaker was Dr. Charlie Palmer, a psychologist in the Department of Health and Human Development at the University of Montana.  I really wish I had the courage to go and talk with him personally because I really feel as though exercise and health in general is more of a psychological issue than a physical one... at least for me.
Anyway, Dr. Palmer talked a lot about the physical issues involved with hitting the wall. This is what they've really been able to study: our body's reaction when hitting "The Wall", carbohydrate depletion and dehydration causes the body to react... but I've trained for those. I know my body can do this.  I know what I'm going to eat and drink on the run and I know how I'm going to conquer my physical issues on the run.  I know that if I have any problems in this marathon it will be with my mind somehow thinking that I can not finish.  So I'm going in with a plan.
Dr. Palmer also talked about making sure you have goals.  Yes, I have a goal to finish but he talked specifically of tiered goals and more specifically PACE: Primary, Alternate, Contingency, and Emergency.
Soooooooo....
Primary: Finish the marathon in 7 hours. For the majority of you, that seems SLOW but it's about a 16 min. mile-ish.  That'll put me across the finish line before they take down the balloons!!!
Alternate: Finish continuing my Galloway run/walk/run but at a slower pace.
Contingency: Walk across the finish line.
Emergency: Drop out.  THIS will only be happening in an emergency.  I might even ask them to wheel me across the finish line.  HA!

I also have asked Kevin to meet me at certain spots on my route and have also learned that an awesome friend of mine is doing a water station at mile 10! My family and future sister-in-law will also be there and I'm hoping their smiling cheering faces will help carry me through! Maybe I can even get them to run the last couple with me to distract me from the pain! I've studied the map and I've run the majority of it.  I'm ready to get this DONE!!!