Wakeup Call

Holy sh**!! Man, okay, maybe I have to rethink this marathon thing. That was painful...I reluctantly did the 25k today and that should have been my first sign that maybe I should have sat this one out. But I had already paid the entry fee yesterday, so I peeled myself out of bed this morning, not sure what to expect. So I have most likely ran more than 15.5miles before in an adventure race, but there were always breaks in between extreme efforts, allowing my heart rate to go down for a little bit, for a little while. This was another ballgame...no respite unless I decided to slack off. I did run about 13 miles a weekend before, but I had to stop several times because I had gastric issues...and I ran out of hydration. That was another thing--I didn't think in advance about how I would hydrate. I just figured I would bring my fuel belt (which was missing one bottle, summing up to a whopping 24oz) and then use all the water stations along the way. Man, I was pretty unprepared in retrospect. Of course I had about 2hrs to think about it.

Another reason I should have bailed was that the temps were unseasonably hot AGAIN and humidity was close to 100%! WTF. I starting to hate Texas for that reason...thanks, global warming. But I ignored it thinking, "hey, this is just a training run and I wasn't really going for time", right? Who was I kidding? Apparently me for the first loop of the race...that's yet another thing--three loops of the same course! When I saw ~1000 people at the start, I tried to comfort myself, "how can all these people be wrong." Pretty easily...mob mentality is all I can figure.

So at the line I felt relatively confident, thinking I've done a lot of training, getting me to the point where I should be fit enough to do alright in this run...see, its never a training race for me...I would be running for time. Gun goes off and right away I start trying to pace myself...I figure 8min/mile is a good training pace. Hmmm, a little hotter than I would like. That pace didn't last very long and I compromised and said, okay, 8:30 is a good training pace. But I didn't let go of 8min pace until maybe halfway through when I knew it wasn't going to happen, based on how I was feeling. I really felt fresh for the way out, a little over 4k. At the turnaround I saw Dora and she was a little puzzled. I don't think she really recognize me until a few seconds later--I think I heard her call my name. But the next couple laps she said nothing...not sure what happened there. Anyway, after the turnaround I saw Randy and that energized me again. After the first lap, I told myself "a third there!" Next lap I latched on a girl who seemed to be going the same pace. I wasn't really latched as she would pull away occasionally, but I was keeping my eye on her and my pace. I unfortunately lost her at the next water stop where she started walking and never caught back up to me, despite me losing steam at this point. I was now hovering at 8:30+, which was starting to get into my head.

Finally, third lap started. Each time I turned for the next lap I saw Carlos' son and wife and they cheered, which gave me a temporary burst sending me sub 8. At the start of the 3rd lap, I felt good, so I thought I would shoot for 8min pace again. Good for the first mile or so, but I really started to lose energy. The half a gel pack I consumed on the last lap wasn't helping. Neither was the music. The Beattles blaring at full, yelling "Help!"--that's what I wanted to scream. But I was too dehydrated to say much. Yes, I fluids didn't quite last and the aid stops were just too far apart. I felt the dryness of my lips and it immediately reminded me of Lance Armstrong during his time trial a year+ ago. My lips felt as crusty as his looked. Then my legs were lead weights. I started to worry about cramping. Hold on, I told myself...less than 4 more miles to go. Normally that's a cakewalk, but at the end of a 15.5 mile run, not so much. Saw Eric along the way too and Rob, cruising along. When I saw the overpasses just before the Wortham center, I knew it was the final stretch and I started to ramp up the speed around sub 8...but I was in total pain at this point. I had nothing left. On the last lap I had taken off my jersey to where it was just hanging around my waist, so I had to put it back on about 500meters out. When I had first taken it off, I thought, "this is why guys run shirtless!!"

So I finished in 2hrs 10mins, about 8:22 pace...downloading the data right now. The only real upside of this run was the cool long sleeved wicking shirt we got for finishing. I saw Tognarelli at the end and he was of course already in his post-race clothes, as dry as can be. I think he ran in 1:45 or something insane like that. Obviously he had a bad day a year before when he ran something like 2 flat. Yep, I ran about 8:20 pace. Okay I guess for now, but I was hurting really bad. How can I do 26.2 miles?!? I really have to see how I feel in a few weeks. If the long runs feel as miserable as that did, I don't think I really want to do it. So much punishment for my body. And you want to do Primal Quest?!

Okay, now that had probably bored you and you have already moved on to some other page, I'm gonna talk about the night before, which now that I think of it, may have contributed to my painful run this morning. So I was just at the computer, minding my own business while watching ND whup on the Naval Academy and Jaunda and Cynthia start IM-ing me and tell about their plans for Sushi. They invited me and who am I to pass on sushi?! So I went. It wasn't so much the sushi that hurt me but possibly the two vodka tonics. It was fun nonetheless--Tracie, Cynthia, Jaunda, and me the guy chillin with 3 beautiful women. They actually had opera plans right after dinner so they had to rush out of there. So I decided to pay for their drinks so they didn't have to wait for change. It was so funny--it was packed and busy one minute and when it was showtime, the bar was practically empty. I talked to the bartender about that for a couple of minutes and then walked around downtown for a few minutes. Nothing was really going on yet--it was just too early. So I called it a night at about 9.

Okay, that's it. I'm here at Borders and I'm still hungry despite having a sandwich, so I'm going to get some kolaches or something then hopefully I can crash and take a nap for a few hours. I'm beat. I burned over 2000 calories! Crazy!