Looks like a beautiful trail. It's always nice when the hills are at the beginning imo. Sometimes when you know you have a hill at the end it can "get in your head" a bit. Are you running in a full marathon or a half? I've never run further than 13.2 miles. A full marathon is the ultimate goal for me, I just need to pick a race and put together a training schedule. I have this thought that "Marathons" would be a cool thing to plan a trip around, but then I could be wrong about that. It's nice to be able to eat and drink whatever you'd like when you are traveling. Also, it's important to get good sleep. What marathon are you considering? Also, did you see the running video steve put together? I thought he did a nice job and actually find it to be pretty motivating. Here it is Happy trails!