After I sprained my ankle, folks at Rehab United gave me some excellent advice about wrapping and icing and the swelling was greatly reduced by the end of week. Also, thanks to nasty cold that smacked me hard on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I had plenty of rest. It's easy to keep your ankle elevated if you can't get off the couch. By the race my ankle was as good as I could have hoped.
My plan was to walk the race to reduce the impact of running. When I got going, I figured out that running wasn't going to be a problem but swelling might. Time to replan my race strategy. I wanted to get the race wrapped up as quickly as possible; therefore, I was running a lot in the early miles.
My nutrition was off somehow, because my energy lagged in miles 8-10. I'm pretty sure I was drinking enough, but maybe I should have gotten some additional electrolytes. The problem could have been that it was a pretty boring course, with a long (boring) out and back. I really felt for the marathoners who had to run 1 section of the course 4 times - the boredom would be too much for me.
At the end of the day, I came home with two of the prettiest medals in my collection. The surfboard is a classic woodie surfboard. The California Dreamin' medal is gorgeous, huge and heavy. Man, I love that thing.
