Race Week 8/25/14

This will be my 3rd Iron Mtn 30 miler.  My two previous showings were;
9/1/12 - 4:34:39 - 3rd Place Overall
8/31/13 - 4:49:36 - 5th Place Overall - I was over trained at this point and kind of felt like my time would be slower than 12'.
8/30/14 - I feel like I can push for a time similar to 12' but won't know until race day.  Part of me knows it's been a big year of running and I need a bit of a break and another part of me feels like I can break the 4:30 barrier.  I feel pretty good.  Have a couple of nuisance issues but nothing serious. 
Race Day Gear -
Salomon Trail Shorts - these have a back middle zipper pocket for my iPod, and two elastic pockets that I put in 1 serving of Heed into.
Camelbak Podium Chill bottle (20oz) with Heed in a Nathan handheld pocket (pocket had edurolytes and protrypsin pills and my timing spreadsheet).
     The race starts out with a 4.7 mile section of the Creeper Trail.  I started out at a reasonable pace that ended up being the slowest of the 3 years running this and hit the first water stop in first place.  Once on the trail a couple guys passed me as I tried to keep my heart rate (HR) under control (I normally trail at 142 but was going to bump that up 10 12-14 beats for this race and hoping for around a 148 average).  Many times over the miles to the turnaround I would catch up to or close in on the lead runner and each time he'd see me he would speed up.

My time at the turnaround was 10 slower than I had hoped for a sub 4:30 finish but I felt good and was running within my means.

     At the turnaround I was maybe 10 seconds behind the lead guy and was pretty confident I'd catch him as I hiked the climb out of this 3rd water stop.  At mile 16.5 or so we ran together and at 18 miles I decided to take the lead and we didn't see each other again. I was cruising along, trying to keep from blowing up and wondering if I could pull off a win.  That lasted for around 5 miles, when at mile 23 I was passed by the eventual winner.  He passed me going at a pretty good clip and I knew it wasn't worth trying to run with him.
     I continued to run conservatively knowing that the last section had a pretty good climb and then a nasty rocky steep descent into town and a .75 mile asphalt/Creeper trail run into the finish.  This section went pretty well but each year I am surprised by just how nasty this last trail is.  It's always a relief to get to the bottom and see the sun pouring into the woods from the road at the trails end.  Minus an anterior tibialis cramp on this road section, I was able to finish strong and came in 2nd at 4:45:56, around 4 minutes better than 2013 but still 11 minutes off the pace in 2012.
Drank 5 20oz bottles during the race; 3 Heed and 2 water.

Sunday we mtn biked up the creeper trail and then rode back down for a 34 mile ride to shake out the kinks.  Legs feel good with minimal soreness.