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!
It'd be a full one, did a half marathon last October, then got sick almost immediately afterwards and spent two weeks without exercise having difficulty breathing and eating (And learned that I'm allergic to amoxillin!). Hoping to run a marathon in Oakland, assuming I can find time to push myself a bit more and get used to longer distances. Right now I'm mostly being set back by sickness and work. Neat video, lots of good content in there that I definitely agree with!