Pre-Race Jitters

Well, it's finally here. The half-marathon is tomorrow morning - and I mean morning. Starting at a bring and early 7am I run 13.1 miles. I don't even wake up at 7am on a work day - much less wake up at 5am, eat breakfast, get dressed and shower to leave by 6am and get to the starting line by 7am!
Not that I'll be at the starting line anyway - in marathons and half-marathons you sort of line up by the time you expect to finish. Since there are so many people (thousands) they don't want the 5 hour marathoners up front slowing the 2:30 hour marathoners down. So I'll be towards the back of the pack because I run slow. They actually have pace teams with signs up so you can run together with a group that expects to finish around the same time. This year they're even starting the walkers after the runners as opposed to last year when the walkers started an hour earlier and we were dodgeing then for the first half of the race - walkers like to walk 6 across and won't move for anyone -so this year they start after the runners to avoid frustration.
So at 7 am I start running 13.1 - I shouldn't even call it a "race" because I'm not racing anyone - I'm just trying to beat last year's time. It's more of just a run then a race. Last year I ran it in around 2 hours 15 minutes. This year's goal is to shave 5 minutes or more off that time. Since last year's goal was only 2.5 hours, I was doing pretty okay by my standards. This year will be much harder though - I'll thank the weather for that.
Last year the entire run was partly sunny with some clouds and in the 60s - I wore a sweatshirt to the race but left it with Cody before the run so I actually only had to run in shorts and a tank top. Perfect weather to run. Tomorrow at 7am the temperature is forecast to be 32 - at 9am around the time I expect to finish the temperature is forecast to be 34. That sucks. That really sucks. All year I haven't run in temperatures that cold. My general rule is not to run outside if it's below 50 degrees - for my long runs if it's cold all weekend I would just leave work early and run on a weekday when it was warmer. Not only do I not like to run in the cold but I really don't know how to well - over dress and you get overheated and sweat and then get really cold - under dress and you're cold and uncomfortable the entire time. I really believe there is no way to be comfortable running in those sorts of temperatures. But I paid for the race, so I'm going to run it - maybe not as well as I'd like but I'll at least try.
Thinking about the run tomorrow has me excited about the marathon this fall. I'm determined I'm going to finally get the training done to run the Chicago Marathon in October. It's one of those "things to do before I die" type of goals so might as well strike while the iron's hot.
Well, off to sleep so I can wake up at FIVE AM and run in the freezing cold. Speaking of, did the weather guy not get the memo that it's APRIL and winter is over. Oh, one more thing, all week the weather has been perfect - low to mid 70s and sunny - all next week we are forecast for the same - it's only today and tomorrow that are forecast to be cold. Go figure.