I guess i'm as ready as going to be

To say the least it's been an interesting week, Chiro on Monday, Chiro on Wednesday, Chiro on Thursday (and he doesn't work at the local clinic that day so it was off to Robina, a good thing as finally i was able to get what appeared to be the only remaining pair of size 13 Nike Lunarlite Racing Shoes
http://stuff.tv/review/Nike-LunaRacer/ in Australia, just hope they were worth the wait since April). Certainly there had been no running in this last week, but after the shocking Monday, i'd got up early (seeing no daylight saving means the suns up at 4:30 so it's not hard) and done a two hour walk both Tuesday and Wednesday so at least i was stretching the legs.
So this morning with new shoes waiting to be tested and a chiro appointment this arvo it was time for a run, pretty much my standard flat, relatively easy run but at a good tempo as i really needed to see if i was going to wear the new shoes in Sundays Marathon (and with a 7KG luggage limit on Tiger Air there's not a huge deal of margin for multiple clothing changes). Pretty simple, they felt good from the get go, was also wearing the unused Drymax Hot Weather Running lite-mesh socks http://www.drymaxsports.com/hotrunning.php as i thought they'd be a good option for what looked like a warm Melbourne Marathon. The back held up pretty much to 15th AVE on the return, but unfortunately was beginning to feel the neck, which i hadn't all week, possibly the lower back had given so much pain previously i hadn't been able to feel it ???. Anyway home and sore, good massage beforehand and then the chiro worked some magic on me, went for a walk down to Tugun and back along the beach to settle it and a little early to make rash predictions.
So tomorrow it's off to Melbourne where my running career began, actually 12th of October was my first ever marathon there back in 1986, pretty sure i never thought that 22 years later to the day i'd be lining up for my 23rd Melbourne and 136th Marathon (and i certainly was never thinking about running longer distances).
Not flying back till Monday night (not amused by Tiger changing their schedule starting that day, the old 5:50PM flight now becoming a 7:30PM flight), so i may well get the chance to enjoy a few alcoholic beverages post race, particularly as i've been trying to avoid them this week as my diet has consisted of Nurofen and Voltaren !!.
Really hate to make any predictions for Sunday, if adrenalin works as a painkiller and the back lasts i've got a 2:57 in me, but i doubt it's realistic considering all the recent niggles and i guess anything better than my PW (way back in my first one) will satisfy me but really sub 3:30 should be more like it.