Captain Clueless takes on a challenge

I am signed up for next weekend's California 70.3 in Oceanside and I am terrified. I am so nervous, in fact, that a couple of nights ago I was tossing and turning and only managed 3 measly hours of sleep. I feel like a jittery amateur triathlete again, with both excitement and fear of the unknown challenges that race day might present.

"Silly Sarah (/Sbiggy/ Saucy)", you are probably saying with a roll of the eyes. "Triathlon consists of swimming, biking and running. You know how to do that! It's your job, after all". True, true. Rational, logical Sarah agrees with you. Captain Clueless (aka 70.3 racing SG), however, fixates on the following:
1) I can barely focus for the duration of a non-drafting, Olympic distance bike (40k vs next weekend's 90k)
2) I have spent the past few days trying out the TT position and have to fight my deeply ingrained instinct to ride on the hoods
3) I am racing with girls WAAAAY more experienced in this distance and probably don't struggle about problems 1 & 2
4) Nutrition. I race Olympic distance with one bottle of very dilute drink and a gel. Somehow I don't think that'll cut it for a 4.5 hr race.
5) Ice cream headache-inducing cold water and sharks. 'Nuf said.
6) Pacing. I know that I shouldn't go as hard as I would if I were racing short course, but what pace am I supposed to go?!

Phew. What a relief to come clean about my 70.3 racing fears. Many professional athletes have a hard time publicly acknowledging that they are actually human, with human flaws, and not the stoic superheroes that they pretend to be. I evidently do not have that problem.

I realize that I am doing Oceanside as a training race, not as the start of a new career in long course (I love the fast pace of World Cups too much!) and that I need to just have fun with the race. I also know, however, that I just gave WTC a whopping $280 for race entry and that I need to finish in the top-8 to come out ahead (not including the moola that I've pumped into my Ceepo of late). While I doubt that it will be as terrible of an experience as my 2AM tossing and turning self might fear, I recognize that I will experience some highs and lows over the course of the 70.3 miles. Let's just hope that the highs outnumber the lows!