The place is beautiful, 5 hours driving north from San Francisco is Humboldt county, there the combination of beautiful views of the pacifc coast on one side of the highway and the green scenery of tall redwoods on the other side makes you feel peaceful. I have driven the Avenue of the Giants road once and I still remember how beautiful it is.  Now I coming back to run the road between the tallest trees in the region.  People that run the marathon before say the organization is poor, few people cheering along the way, few water stations, a crapy t-shirt and no goody bag.  That is exactly why I picked up this race. It is my return to a long distance race in fifteen months, after many tries and fails and a car accident that kept my spirit under the table. This race is what I need to return to my form, a low key, no money to spend race.  I have been training for long time for this return, long enough that I now I feel good to come a run again.  I did most if not all the runs in the training log and even more. In the rain, cold, hot, long, short, hills and speed work. But I still don’t know how I am going to race the race. Should I race based on my training, should I hold back and do the race, should I leave the watch in my car and run, should I do what ? I want to break PR because I have trained so hard for this but I don’t want to force my body and break my back and legs. I have to go back to work and can’t take time off for injuries, I need to send my daughter to college and pay mortgage, but what if I am okay? I hate the days before race day, I get grumpy and doubtful.
Good luck Pancho, you will know what to do in race day, have fun and go bring a PR don't be a wimp (this is my triathlon body telling me what to do)