You're ready--go for it, and have a fabulous time!

Definitely do the practice route. It's really nice to have some familiarity with a hard course, so you can tell yourself "go easy here, there's a steep part around the corner" or "power through, there's an easy bit coming up."

Keep eating. I am still surprised by how much caloric energy a difficult hilly course requires. More than once I have struggled on a hill, and thought my legs were just done by that point in the day, only to have later hills feel easy--after pausing for a large meal. I try to keep snacking as I ride, but sometimes in retrospect I can see that I obviously wasn't eating enough.

Try to pick a pace that pushes you a bit, but doesn't put you at your limit. And if you feel like it, on the last climb open it up and see what you can do! Don't get caught up by people whizzing past you in the beginning, unless there's a paceline that is a comfortable speed for you--if you can find your own rhythm and ride your own ride, you'll probably be passing a lot of people at the end. This has always been my experience, and I was interested to read yesterday in the NYTimes an article about women marathoners being better at pacing themselves than men. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/0...r-than-men-do/

It sounds like an awesome ride, and a great accomplishment, whichever length you end up doing. Have a great time!