Unexpected News - The Race Is On

Sunday: As vaguely planned, my older brother joined me in today's run. The so-called pre race run, for a race I could not make. We did a warm-up walk and then covered 3.3km in 20mins 42secs, which was faster than usual for me. It was a sunny day though very windy. I liked having the company for the warm-up walk and cool-down walk, though it was a real challenge keeping conversation while we ran. We didn't talk a huge amount, but he talked about how he found it boring to run without music or conversation. So, panting and puffing, I piped up with some conversation when I could. I am sure that contributed to me feeling tired very quickly (though I am sure 3 hours sleep was also a contributary factor, lol). He's very sporty and found our pace a little slow but good. The family left later in the evening and the other half said he was able to babysit for tomorrow after all. This was a shock, I was psychologically prepared not to race tomorrow. I hurriedly made pre-race preparations in the evening, though before I went to sleep, he was changing his mind again. Maybe it's a newbie thing, I am not sure, but I find it incredibly important to be mentally prepared and have time for it; the uncertainty gives rise to panic and stress, in a bad way, I feel. I went to bed knowing I will make the Sale 5 Mile race, unnecessarily feeling underprepared and unnecessarily over-nervous. It feels unreal, almost, as if I am not racing, having always known I was racing for a particular race before. Good luck will be needed in buckets.