Ok, and now as I've been thinking about this race coming up, I'm trying to plan for it as it's my first one ever.
1) Yes or no to music? I run with it most of the time but I've gone a few times without it (music stopped streaming or headphones weren't charged). On the race site it says it's strongly discouraged but it is allowed. I think I'll be fine either way but wondering what you guys think of it. I do not wear headphones or listen to music during races. I will wear them during training runs, but not races. During races, I like to hear the other runners (breathing, cadence, etc), some runners will talk during races, and I like to hear the crowd.
2) Do I want to run any kind of warm up before? If so, do you just do this at the site? And how much/how fast? Unless you are young, its probably best to warmup to prevent pulling any muscles, especially on a cool morning. Given what I know about you, I would recommend no more than a mile and start slowly and try to ramp up to your race pace. If you can, I like to do a couple quick bursts of 5-10 seconds each where its picking up the pace quite a bit faster than race pace. This will hopefully get the blood moving. Obviously, you need to be gradual with this and don't want to pull any muscles, so listen to your body!
3) Should I look at my pace throughout? I'm thinking I want to see it early on to make sure I don't come out too fast and wear myself out, especially being the first time. But after that, I'm thinking I just want to run. But, with my goal of 8:03, if I'm close, do I want to know if I need to push any more? I probably look at my pace every 0.1 miles for the first half mile until I settle in. But regularly looking at your watch is completely normal.
But that was no mist: It was a light sweat shower spraying off of 
x time". So I knew if I kept it under my goal pace, I would be ok. But I am certainly no expert on pacing, but it has worked well for the 2 that I have run.
