Pretty normal Saturday. A little yard work, a few errands and a short nap. I even went to a party for a friend a couple hours before the race. One big difference over last year, no beers pre race.

we got there about an hour or more before start. Pretty much sat around and drank my nuun cola for hydration and caffiene. Did a little yoga stretching.

Once again, El Scorcho was a blast! This time we went out 10 minutes after the 50K folks so the start wasn't quite as congested...but since the field had doubled, it was still pretty tight and very dusty for the first mile or so. After that things thinned and people settled in to their paces/rythyms.
Only real remarkable thing was in lap 4, just after the water station, I sucked in some airborne protein. That wasn't so bad, except the little bugger lodged in deep and wouldn't come up or go down. I hacked and gagged for several minutes before things cleared up. I'm sure the guy next to me thought I was dying out there. I did manage to refocus and prepare for the 4 mile finish. This was my plan to step it up a notch before hitting the final lap. I think I executed it pretty well and was moving quite well at the finish.
I took exactly 22 seconds off my time from last year and moved up from 35th to 34th overall (but in a bigger field). Talk about consistency. Once again, my goal was to be sub 2:30 and I was very pleased with my time/pace. I was also quite pleased with my IT band holding up for the duration and beyond. My PT was at the party I attended prior to the run and she just shook her head (as did alot of the partygoers) and wished me luck. Then she said she'd hold an appointment open should I need it. So far, so good.

I'm not sure, but here are a couple things I did differently this year - 1. no beer before the race, 2. rested a bit more and even caught a quick nap, 3. hydrated with nuun w/caffiene = ran essentially the same race.

caught my breath, slammed my chocolate milk and had some orange and more nuun and water.

Probably just my own running tempo. Not sure I wanted to go any faster.

I love El Scorcho and will be back next year. 50K????

Race Reports Modeled with Permission from
Endurancecoach's Triathlon Post Race Analysis Sheet.