First Marathon in 3 weeks. Training check and reality check needed.

Just found this subreddit, and wow, it's been a brutal read. 😅 Still felt like sharing my journey and welcome thoughts of those more experienced than me.

At the start of june, seven weeks ago, I thought it would be a good story to run a marathon now that I turned 42 (M). I had ten weeks till race in my home town. Two years ago I ran a half marathon with almost no preparation and some old sneakers in 2:01. Brute forced it and gave my all.

This time I was almost as clueless, but did imho three wise desicions:

- Got my first real running shoes with the help of great staff at the store (Novablast 5's)

- Got three months free Runkeeper Go and started its Marathon plan. (Someone said to just pick any plan and follow it religiously, so did that)

- Booked regular visits to naprapath/osteopath/sport massage therapeut, so I can take myself to the limit and not get injured because of stupidity.

I have three-level goal:

1. Not die / finish the race

2. Beat the average male time (4:26 according to some website)

3. Break 4 hours, witch I set to my goal for Runkeeper marathon plan.

Even if I started this project as just a fun thing I'm not half-assing it, and I have a huge respect for the distance. I understand it's a completely different beast from a half-marathon. Let me say I have learned a LOT about my bodys strengths and weaknesses in past weeks. I think my strongest assets are willpower and ability to stand discomfort (I had 'pain tolerance' here but thought it might be misunderstood) coming from vipassana meditation. My greatest weakness seems to be the knees. There taping has been a life saver.

Last week was my biggest and I ran 70km witch included 32km race pace run on sunday. During that I also tested my gel and water plan for the race. First 10km were awfull, but last 2km were my fastest (4:55-5:04/km) and I felt invincible (gotta be carefull with that😅). I took 30g gel every 6km, 2 last ones were with caffeine, and drank about 2 liters of water from my hiking bladder.

I have three weeks to the race and the plan in the app moves to the taper phase to get me race-day ready. The timing is perfect because my legs are really on the edge after last week.

So... am I completely delusional? 😄 I was feeling pretty confident until I started reading posts here.

I'd really appreciate any advice or reality checks. Should I adjust my goals? My current plan is simply to stick with the 4-hour pacer and see how it goes.

Also for the first time I'm questioning my training plan. It still has a 23 km long run scheduled for this Sunday, just two weeks before the race. I feel like recovery should be my priority at this point. What do you say?

Extra note: my Novablast 5s now have about 1,000 km on them, and the app tells me it's well beyond the 'retirement mileage'. Would you race in them since they're proven, or buy a fresh pair now and spend the next three weeks breaking them in? Any recommendations are welcome.