How did the race go? That's an interesting question to me the last couple days. I'm not really sure how to answer it. I guess there are several answers. The first part of the race went well. Stroh of Arabia and I settled into a 7:35-7:40 pace up through about the halfway point. I felt alright, good enough to continue the 7:35s until about mile 18. Here I felt my lack of training. I knew it would be tough backstretch. But I was still running OK, well enough that I was about a half mile or so ahead of Stroh. My pace slowed some after mile 20. It got up to 8:04 at mile 23, when I began to feel awful. Here's the hard part: Running long distances is about ignoring those moments when you feel awful. That's kinda part of the deal. The problem is when you ignore real warning signs of physical problem. Those set in, conveniently enough, around mile 25. I basically don't have much recollection beyond then, remembering doing my mental calculations that it was just a mile to go. But I was weaving and feeling disoriented. The end came about 20 yards before the finish, when I went down in a heap. Dehydration was the culprit. Four bags of fluid later, I was fine.
The questions:
1) What did I do wrong? My training wasn't adequate, at least for the pace I ran. I should have run much more conservatively. Obviously, drinking more would have helped, though I have a bone to pick with the Delaware Marathon about how the fluid stations were set up.
2) Did I finish? Um, sorta. I crossed the finish line, dragged by some helpful, strong and obviously not grossed out by a sweaty limp guy paramedics. But I don't know where my chip went while they treated me. According to the official results, I didn't even run it.
3) Do I need a new hobby? Here, I think the answer is clearly no. I pushed too hard on Sunday and felt the consequences. I'm not going to start to do Gallowalking or anything, but I'll train harder and pay more attention to my hydration.
Distance running is hard. It's even humbling sometimes. Getting whisked to a hospital for evaluation was certainly not how I expected my race to end, but it did. I'm already eager for the next time.
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5 comments:
talk about facing the internal pigdog...amidst all that chaos, I find it disturbing that your timing chip/placing is gone. You should get a time bonus or something for fighting through the last 20m.
I'll deal next w whether the pigdog won. I'm willing to give him this one, although the ultimate crack would be abandoning the race, pulling a Paula Radcliffe during the Olympics and sitting on the curb crying. I don't think I did that. Tough to say, I was pretty delerious, though not as delerious as the guy who I was told ran into a tree.
Well, don't I feel like a lousy "in-law". I was thinking on your last pass by that you were not looking too great, but at that point you weren't weaving and bobbing, yet. And, I thought maybe you were just not a "vocal" participant. Sadly, I had to be some where and did not make it to the finish line to celebrate with my friends or in this case..claim you. I suppose Joe will give me crap for this one.
No worries. The race photo I hope they got at the finish of my limp body dragged across the finish line will grace my Christmas cards. One Q: I was looking fine the other loops, right?
Or you could have said you decided to keep your chip in your pocket and it went flying out when you reached in to get something. In the middle of a pack, you just couldn't stop to retrieve it. Then you could have shared a few beers with the Pigdog at a local tavern before meeting up with your friends and telling them you finished the race.
Heard this one before.
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