Fourteen hours to go...

I'm now in Barcelona, and the marathon is a mere fourteen hours away. This morning I headed straight for the expo and bib pick-up. Thankfully I found someone selling my usual energy gels at the expo - when I left Ireland last month I didn't think to bring any, as I didn't realise at the time that I would be travelling until the race. Luckily I did bring my marathon top with my name sewn into it by my mum, so I am counting on a lot of personal support in the morning from the spectators. But despite my apparent total lack of preparation, from last-minute running shoe purchase to ending my training program in unknown territory to stocking up on energy gels and Lucozade the day before the race, I do feel ready for this. It's been a long program, and it feels like such a long time since my training began in mid-November. But I've trained well and I've had some super support from my running partner (who ran most of my long runs with me with no marathon in mind and lent me his GPS watch - thanks, friend!), that I'm looking forward to the start line.