[Ben E Lou]

I'm very excited about the HM on Sunday in Myrtle Beach. The weather forecast has been holding steady at 55-60 degrees. Perfect! The course is on a beachfront road, so I'm expecting some wind. As a complete racing n00b, I have a few questions:

1. Do I need to do anything beyond just upping my carbs a bit this week? Basically my plan is to swap out a little fat for carbs. Typically I'm somewhere around 35% carbs, 35% fat, 30% protein. I'm thinking I'll just replace some calories from walnuts and almonds with quinoa, short-grain brown rice, and sweet potatoes to get me up around 225-250 carbs per day this week.

2. Do I run my warmup out on the course, or go in some other direction?

3. I've read some references to starting based on expected times. Should I expect to be put somewhere based on my expected finish time?

4. In my head, I've planned to do a final lower body strength training workout today, but now I'm starting to question myself. Should I do it, or forego?

5. Any general tips for noobs or "I wish I would have known that..." type stuff from your first race anyone would want to share?

I think that's it for now. I'm feeling good about the taper plan the rest of the way (except maybe the aforementioned lower body strength workout,) and think I'll feel refreshed and ready to run on Sunday.