Dublin Marathon Training - Last high mileage week!!

I can't believe I'm on the last week of my training before the taper starts. I'm rationing episodes of catch-up tv so I have something to do for the next three weeks when the amount of time on my feet drops. Eating large amounts of food won't be an option either or I'll be hauling lots of extra ass around the streets of Dublin. No thanks!
Luckily the next few weeks should be busy from a work and family point of view so that should keep me distracted to a degree.

Training itself is going fine. I'm hitting all my paces and exceeding most. The only problem is marathon pace. I'm not sure if my pace is so variable because I'm just not physically tuned into that effort level yet or if I need to tie myself down to a more specific goal pace......instead of "vaguely somewhere between 8:25-8-40 (but definitely not your actual supposed pace of 8:47!) depending on how you feel....and sure throw in the odd 8:00 for the craic just to mess with the average." I need to pick a pace and then get used to sticking to it during this next few weeks and stop myself running it like a tempo.

I don't have that many harder sessions left now. One bigger interval session tomorrow, two medium distance marathon pace sessions later in the week and the final 20 miler on Sunday. If I remember from last year though, mentally this is where the hard work starts and the temptation to second guess yourself takes over!

I've decided I'll most likely start with the second wave on race day.
For some reason when I put in that I would like to finish under 3:50 I got put in wave 1. Which is fine....except the 3:50 pacers start with wave 2 according to the website. So not fine!

Going out at a nice manageable pace is really important to my state of mind so I need to start with those 3:50 guys. Anyway I'm sure it'll be grand (famous last Irish person words)
Seriously though it will....going down a wave is not usually a problem. It's only if you want to move up one they think you are a chancer. And they would usually be correct so more power to them.

I feel like I need two things right now (i) a good painful sports massage (ii) a good talking to by someone who has run a lot of marathons to put me in my place (or pace)