El Burro Blanco

4 miles in the morning over into Santa Clara. Nothing fancy. Had to deal with dinner from last night a little bit on the run but I survived :)

7.80 miles with some of the boys this afternoon. 100+ does not feel that great but we all survived. I did 2 x 1000m during the run to get the legs moving a little. I did 3:10 and 3:09. Nice to get that in. It was good to see the kids push through the lovely heat today.

6 miles with some of the team this afternoon.  It was really hot today.  We did a 1.5 mile warm up and then ended up doing 4.5 miles on the track.  We did a 400, 800, 1200, 1200, 800, and 400m run with 400m recovery in between.  I pushed my girls today and they did great.  It was one of the more tougher workouts we have done this year.  I am excited to see what the team does on Friday.

Easy 6.40 miles with some of the kids this afternoon.  Ice bath tonight just to make sure everything stays okay and is fresh for Saturday.  It looks like it will be pretty warm!

Easy 3 miles this afternoon with the kids.  Two days away now.

What a day.  I was feeling pretty good going into this race and was optimistic I could do well.  I didn't race at all in 2009 because I was injured and then in 2010 (coming back from injury) I slowly wanted to work into it.  I hit some solid workouts throughout the year but didn't race as much as I would have liked.  Still felt like it would be good today.

The horn went off and the pace was nice and relaxed.  Clyde, Dave, Pepi Petersen, Peter Vail, Aaron Metler, Daniel Moody, and me were in the lead pack.  Everything felt great for the first part of the race.  Aaron took off at Veyo but he was still within reach.  Dave and Daniel pushed the pace a little bit but I wanted to relax.  I was sitting in 4th place just before the half and then passed Daniel Moody about half a mile before the half.  I slowly started to pick it up right after the half  and was in 3rd place about 100 yards behind Dave passing mile 16.  This is when everything went south.  About a quarter of a mile before mile 17, my stomach tightened up and then hamstrings, quads, and calves tightened up worse than it has ever happened before.  I slowed the pace a little but my body was not responding.  I knew it would have been a drudge march for the last 9 miles.  I stopped at mile 17 and tried to stretch but the nurse said I should lay down on the cot.  As soon as this happened, I felt pain all up and down my legs.  I started to get a little cold and they put a blanket on me.  It was really hot with the weather so I am not sure what happened.  I was really embarrassed waiting for the shuttle to take me back down to the finish line.  Hopefully that doesn't ever happen again.  It took them over an hour and a half to come and get me. 

I sat and watched everyone go by and knew that my day was over.  I am not sure if it was the heat or if it was something else.  I don't want to make excuses and will just accept the fact that I didn't get it done today.  It really has been a frustrating last 2 years with running.  I feel like I have some good races left in the legs so I will try and learn from this and move on.  At least I can still walk.

Big congrats to Aaron for winning the race.  He totally deserved it and I couldn't be happier for him.  He has trained very good this year.