OH my gosh, I can't believe I almost forgot the biggest positive of all:

7) MY IT BAND HELD UP! I've been in PT every week since January. I've foam rolled so much that I've worn a major dent into the roller. Lots of stretching. And it's paid off. The IT band is not 100% (it's still a little tweaked today from the weekend's effort) but it gave me ZERO trouble during the race. I forgot all about it, in fact. Yay!