Ah, see, that's where I cheat. I'm not a morning person AT ALL, but I know that the sooner I get going in the morning, the sooner I get done. So I prep everything the night before (good practice for race day) and preposition my morning food on my bedside. When I inevitably wake up around 4-5 a.m. (because it happens almost every night), I eat "breakfast" - and then go back to sleep for 2-3 hours. So by the time the alarm goes off, it's all settled.
And I don't see it as remarkable because that's what I'm going to have to do on race day. Nothing new on race day, including the distance.
While I know intellectually that the other method works, there is a huge leap of faith in it as well because you don't know what the total time and distance is going to feel like since you've never done it. And last year, this compounded with me being in a very bad headspace led to poor race day decisions. This year I am a lot more relaxed because by race day, I will know what 20-23-26 miles feel like - and I will know what it feels like to run those miles on tired legs. Obviously, there are factors that I can't plan for (primarily weather and pacing), but the distance isn't going to be what takes me down this time.
Obviously, everyone views this differently and it is great that there are different methods that work for different people to get them to the same goal. I'm a person that, when faced with something scary that I don't want to do, just dives and does it and then realizes after the fact that it wasn't that bad. Other people like getting comfortable by nibbling around edges. Different strokes for different folks!
Oh, I know all about this. I had an epic meltdown over my last long run (17 miles). I had worked myself up so bad that I was terrified as I started it. But it needed to be done so I pushed myself out the door to do it. It was a turning point for me and I realized that I can do these distances (great lesson for race day) and that some of my long held fears were completely unfounded. Now, whenever I get nervous, I just remind myself of that experience.